-
Use Cases
-
Resources
-
Pricing
Kappa Origins
Kappa Origins
January 4, 1587 - April 17, 1615
% complete
Micael Gomez Silva Rodrigo was the fourth of seven children born to Tanina Silva Rodrigo and her husband Affonso Nuno Gomez Rodrigo.
April 29, 1590
% complete
November 20, 1592
% complete
January 4, 1605
% complete
Micael, more than his siblings, shared his mother’s love of the bible and enthusiasm for the church. Micael could often be seen alongside his mother delivering food and clothing to the less fortunate in their village and helping her care for the sick or elderly. His mother helped Micael find his passion in life and on the day of his eighteenth birthday Micael left his childhood home to become a monk and began his life under the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Both his mother and father were very proud of their son.
December 1610
% complete
Micael found a great sense of fulfillment as a monk in Portugal. He enjoyed teaching the children in the village about his beliefs and the bible. Micael also continued to do charitable work in his community. He found that he did not miss his material objects nor did he long for the freedoms that other young men enjoy in their twenties. When an opportunity came to travel abroad to an uncivilized land and help spread the word of his God, Micael jumped at the chance to branch out. Micael found himself in a very distant land, Japan.
December 1610 - December 1610
% complete
One morning, just before his morning meal, the monk was summoned to the chambers of the Abbot. On This day the monk was chosen to go to Japan
December 8, 1610 - May 1611
% complete
The voyage from Portugal to Japan took five months and seventeen days to complete. Though it was not the monk’s first time being on a ship, it certainly was his first time being at sea for such a long length of time. At the outset of the voyage the crew and passengers were a flitter with the excitement of setting out to sea. The monk stood on the ship’s deck nervously gripping the rail until the last glimpse of land vanished over the horizon and all he could see was the vast ocean. Then he wondered below deck to find his sleeping quarters.
May 1611
% complete
Clutching his belongings close to his chest the monk made his way off the ship with his four brother monks and walked down a long and narrow dock in the harbor. He took a deep breath and thought to himself, “So this is Japan”. As his feet touched the unfamiliar sand the monk looked around as if he was seeing the world for the first time. Everything felt so new to him, new and strange. The air smelled fresh and sweet as the breeze blew in softly off the water. He heard the strange croaking sounds of great Egrets and the small peeps of their young. The great white birds floated gracefully across the water in the harbor. They let their long feet make ripples in the water before swooping up into the trees with their great wings.
May 21, 1611 - June 1611
% complete
Before the month was up the monks had a small but proper church ready to welcome its new members. In that month the monks had also made frequent trips to the businesses and eateries throughout the village to become acquainted with the new land they called home. The monk found that, contrary to what the Abbot had led him to believe, the people of the village were quite amiable. They were, for the most part, kind hearted, peaceful and soft spoken people. They cared for one another and their families in a way very similar to the people of Amarante. Other things of course were vastly different, such as the cuisine and the language but the monk felt he could (with time) become accustom to the way the Japanese lived. The monk was also pleased to find that after spending so much time with the people of Japan he was becoming accustomed to speaking their language.
May 1, 1614
% complete
Every morning for the next three years the monk would optimistically open the doors of the church in the hopes of welcoming lost souls looking for enlightenment and redemption. Unfortunately, every morning the monk was met with great disappointment when he saw that there was no one at their doors. Those years wore on the monks of the small church. The monks could not understand why they had no visitors after all the time they spent with the villagers encouraging them to come see the church. Did they welcome damnation? Did they not understand that their souls were in peril? Each night the monk would lay his head down on his lumpy pillow in his windowless room and freight the night away. He would lay awake dreading the thought of receiving word from the Abbot and not having any good news to report back. He would have to tell the Abbot that they had been reading scripture to an empty room. The mere thought of it devastated the monk’s resolve. One morning, after a particularly motivating reading about feeling God’s love in the face of adversity, the monks decided that they must move their work from the church and into the village.
May 2, 1614
% complete
The monk was a man broken and beaten down by life. His sunny disposition was replaced with an indifferent scowl. He wanted nothing more than to drink, drink and forget. The monk slunk into the village Izakaya, he found a table far off in the corner and sat down for a night of drinking. He watched the people in the tavern from his corner only taking a break to have one more drink of sake. He looked at them all as they ate, chatted and made merry without a care in the world about their immortal souls.
The monk stood up swaying back and forth on his feet, “Well, iff you good people uff Japan have no concern for your souls, then neither does I. Damn you all I say!” With that the monk found himself out of the tavern and on his ass in the muddy street.
...the man picked up a discarded piece of a shipping crate that had been stuck in the mud, swung it back and cracked the drunken monk right in the knee cap. Then he stomped down hard where he had stuck the monk. A sharp stinging pain in his ribs made the monk double over in pain only to be set upright once more by a blow from under the chin.
May 3, 1614
% complete
It was a glorious day and such a sight to behold. This land was beautiful! The farm house sat on a small incline, just steep enough to feel like one has a vantage point. Looking down the hill there was fertile farm land and the fishing village he had come from off in the distance. To either side of him there were lush green trees growing tall with bushy pink cherry trees popping up here and there throughout the green landscape. The young woman led him inside and to a bed.
The young woman’s name was Kibo. She was a petite girl but had grace and strength about her. Her silky raven hair was pulled up tightly and she wore a simple yet elegant traditional silk kimono. Her eyes were a brown so deep and rich they almost looked black and in those eyes the monk could see a wisdom that was far beyond Kibo’s years.
July 1, 1614
% complete
“My love, the day is drawing to its’ end and I must be on my way back to the church. I fear that over these last few months my brother monks have begun to suspect something is amiss.” The monk said turning to the beautiful Kibo.
Kibo looked back to her love and met his eyes. “Let them be suspicious, we are doing nothing wrong, we are only loving one another the way man was intended to love woman. I think you should not go, stay with me here forever my love.”
The monk smiled at Kibo and lay down in the lush green grass. He listened to the sounds of the river babbling behind him as he ran his fingers across the grass looking up at the blossoming cherry tree they were laying under.
“You are right Kibo, there is no fighting the way I feel for you. The love between a man and a woman is what god intended and the purest thing a human can commit their live to”.
July 2, 1614
% complete
With that the monk sat up and caressed Kibo’s soft white cheek with the back of his hand. He moved a stray piece of hair off of her face. Kibo smiled at the monk, untied the waist of her silk kimono and let it slip off of one of her shoulders. The monk leaned in and kissed his love, then they lay together as man and woman for the first time in their relationship. In that moment the monk felt deep down in his soul that nothing else in the world mattered to him but Kibo and her happiness. The monk loved her and she loved him.
August 1, 1614
% complete
“Ahoy there bunkmate!” boomed a deep voice as a heavy hand landed on the monk’s shoulder. “Wild flowers ah? So you took my advice and scouted out the women of Japan. Ha, can’t say that I blame you, even a monk is a man.”
The monk cringed and turned around to see the face of his boisterous bunkmate from the ship that took him from Portugal to Japan almost four years ago.
“Well I hear you and your monk crew are going home this week! Good news, I have decided that I am also going to take that ship home, maybe we will luck out and be bunkmates once more. Ha ha!”
August 2, 1614
% complete
The monk was left standing in the middle of the road with his cart unable to move. He was simply dumbfounded. Home! He could be going home! In that instant the monk made a grave realization. All this while he had been telling himself that he had found his new reason to live and that it was Kibo. He had renounced his faith and position in his church to live this new life and to be happy. But why then did he feel so sick deep in the pit of his stomach? Is staying with Kibo not what is heart truly desired? No, perhaps this gallivanting with Kibo only served as a distraction for the monk so that he would not have to face his failure.
February 1, 1615
% complete
As Kibo slept the monk would lay awake and privately pray for the forgiveness of his sins. Forgiveness for what he had done and for what he knew he would have to do. He was not being a selfish man. It was not himself he was thinking of, for he had a higher purpose in life. He was always faited to be a monk, he could see that now more clearly than ever before. His life was not his own, he was created by God to be a servant of God and carry out the will of God. The monk was concerned for the betterment of all mankind. Soon there would be another ship back home, his god would sent one. Then he could be rid of this nightmare for the rest of his days.
March 18, 1592 - July 1664
% complete
It was the beginning of spring time in Japan when the Matsushima family welcomed their first and only child into the world, she was their own miracle. The year was 1592 when Kibo was born. Her mother and father had resigned themselves to the fact that they would never be blessed with a child. The couple had tried for many years to have a child but it was very difficult for them to conceive. After many failed attempts and heartbreak, the couple had decided to give up on the dream of having a child; they simply could not bear the thought of another failed pregnancy. But, as fortune would have it, soon after they had given up the couple discovered that they were with child once more. This pregnancy was unlike the others, it was not hard on the mother’s mind or body. Her mother decided even before she met her child face to face that she would name her child Kibo. Kibo means hope in Japanese and Kibo was hope for her parents. Even so, on the day of Kibo’s birth they were cautiously optimistic and prepared for the worst. However, Kibo surprised them and was born a happy, healthy, and strong little girl.
August 1604
% complete
When Kibo was only twelve years old her mother passed away. Her mother had not been a healthy woman and succumbed to an illness of the lungs.
November 1604 - July 1664
% complete
Losing her mother was a very hard thing for the young Kibo to come to terms with. She became dedicated to healing others in the hopes that could spare others from having to feel a loss like her own.
January 1614
% complete
It was a glorious day and such a sight to behold. This land was beautiful! The farm house sat on a small incline, just steep enough to feel like one has a vantage point. Looking down the hill there was fertile farm land and the fishing village he had come from off in the distance. To either side of him there were lush green trees growing tall with bushy pink cherry trees popping up here and there throughout the green landscape. The young woman led him inside and to a bed.
The young woman’s name was Kibo. She was a petite girl but had grace and strength about her. Her silky raven hair was pulled up tightly and she wore a simple yet elegant traditional silk kimono. Her eyes were a brown so deep and rich they almost looked black and in those eyes the monk could see a wisdom that was far beyond Kibo’s years.
August 3, 1614
% complete
When the monk arrived back at the farm he had ready the wild flowers for Kibo. A small symbol of affection might ease the shock of what he was about to tell her. He walked up to the farm house with the flowers at the ready. Kibo opened the door and rushed into his arms. Her body felt small in his arms and her hair smelled of cherry blossoms. She stayed in his arms for a long while and then pulled back and looked up at him.
“I have the most wonderful thing to tell you my love” she said to the monk. She was simply glowing with anticipation.
The monk tried to interrupt her,” I have news as well and I am afraid that it is rather important”.
“Your news can wait”, Kibo smiled, “My love, I am with child! We are going to have a child!”
May 17, 1615
% complete
On the day that Kibo gave birth to their child the monk carried out his dreadful plan. As the child came into the world the monk held tight it’s nose and mouth so that it could not make a single cry. The monk told his love Kibo that their beautiful baby was stillborn. Kibo began to weep. In order to spare Kibo the sorrow of seeing the child that she had grown and nurtured in her womb all these months as a lifeless body, the monk quickly swept the infant away. The monk ran out of the house and down to the river cradling the small body in his arms. Once he got to the river, the monk fell to his knees holding his child. He pulled back the blanked he had wrapped the baby in. The child looked deep into the eyes of its father and let out its first cries. The monk had never in all his life heard a more wonderful sound. It filled his heart with a joy so great that it was not comparable to any feeling he had felt before. Then he plunged his child into the river and wept as he felt the life leave its small body.
May 17, 1615
% complete
After the Suijin spoke her words the monk felt an excruciating pain all over his body. His skin began to burn, each of his finger nails and toe nails felt as though bamboo shoots were being shoved underneath and deep into his flesh. Every bone in the monk’s body felt like it was begin twisted until it snapped. His eyes began to protrude from his head and a great pressure on the top of his head made him think his skull was being crushed in. Then his crippled and mangled body slid off the river bank and into the water. The monk was no more, he was now the Kappa.
May 17, 1615
% complete
As the monk knelt by the river holding the child under the water a great blue light rose over the river bank. The monk looked up hoping to see his god, hoping to see a sign that he was doing the right thing; that his devotion to his god was the path he was supposed to choose. Instead, the monk was confronted by a great Suijin. The water goddess was illuminated in a bright blue light, her skin was iridescent as if she was carved from mother of pearl and her hair shone like gold.
June 7, 1563 - Feb 1628
% complete
Matushima Hakaru was born to a peasant family in 1563 in Japan. Hakaru was the oldest of three boys.
August 18, 1565
% complete
February 9, 1567
% complete
March 1583
% complete
Life was not easy for Hakaru while he was growing up. His father was a stony man who found it difficult to show his children love and compassion. His mother did her best to make up for her husband’s lack of affection, however, she herself suffered from depression. Living under the thumb of the wealthy for so many years had simply taken its toll on them. Hakaru had to work long hard days in the hot sun to help his family earn enough money to buy their land out of the share cropping deal. By the time Hakaru was twenty his father found the pressure to be too much to bear and took his own life.
February 1585 - February 1628
% complete
With his father gone and his older brothers moved out of their family home the full burden of the farm and taking care of his mentally ill mother fell solely on the shoulders of Hakaru.
Hakaru did not mind the long days or the hard work. He found solace in growing food from small seeds. He was him self a small seed who soon grew into a talented farmer and bought his family’s farm out of their share cropping deal. Times were still hard but the little money coming in was all their own and that was plenty for the modest Hakaru to live on and support his mother until she passed away.
April 1588
% complete
When Hakaru was not tending to his fields he would often be found at the river near his land fishing. He fished even more so after the passing of his mother, he found the calming babbling of the river comforting and tranquil.
May 1590
% complete
One day while he was fishing at the river he saw a young woman trying to catch a small frog in the grass along the riverbank. She unwittingly chased the frog all the way to where Hakaru was fishing. He scooped up the frog for the young woman and when he stood up to hand it to her Hakaru found himself taken aback by her beauty. Hakaru spent many afternoons after that fishing at the river just hoping to get the chance to see this beauty again.
June 1591 - August 1604
% complete
The two spent many afternoons together along the banks of the river and with her parents’ blessing they were married soon after.
March 18, 1592
% complete
Hakaru and his wife lived a simple life together and had one child, a daughter named Kibo. Hakaru did not make the same mistakes as his own father and was a devoted and loving husband and father. He lived each day of his life for his family and never missed the chance to show them how much they were loved.
April 1596 - August 1604
% complete
Her mother and father schooled Kibo at home so that she could help out on the family farm. Kibo learned how to do just about everything that a young person should learn how to do. She was an expert in the kitchen, helped her mother do the wash and could do the plowing and harvesting for the farm. She even learned how to set broken bones and make powerful healing salves.
August 1604
% complete
Hakaru's wife Hana had not been a healthy woman and succumbed to an illness of the lungs.
May 17, 1615
% complete
When the newly formed Kappa finally managed to emerge from the water he was a creature that he himself could not recognize. His skin was now greenish, sickly looking, hard, and covered in scales. The Kappa’s fingers and toes had been fused together and were now webbed. The crushing of his bones had caused him to shrink to a height of only four feet tall and left a large mass of bone on his back. The kappa now sees the world through jaundice yellow eyes that the fresh air stings. The most detrimental new affliction for this creature is his concaved skull which must always hold water in order for the creature to function. If by chance the Kappa should spill or lose the liquid in his concaved skull he will lose all of his ability to function, become very weak and need to hurry back to the water to rest.