Shuihu

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title: "Shuihu" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["chinese-legendary-creatures", "kappa-(folklore)", "water-spirits"] topic_path: "geography/china" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuihu" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::callout[type=note] a legendary creature ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Wakan-sansai-zue-bk040-v021-f17b-suiko.jpg" caption="寺島良安}}."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/SekienSuiko.jpg" caption="senzankō}}, the modern-day common term for pangolin in Japan.}}"] ::

A (; ; ), is a legendary creature said to have inhabited river systems in what is now Hubei Province, China.

Overview

The name shuihu (or suiko) derives from the creature possessing physical characteristics reminiscent of a tiger (虎, Chinese pronunciation: ; Japanese: ).

The water tiger is described as similar (in size) to a 3 or 4-year old human child, with tiger-like head and lower limb, and covered with tough scales resisting arrows. It basks on sandbars, while keeping their claws submerged in water. If a human tries to tamper with he may be killed.

Japanese books during the Tokugawa Period read the Chinese text rather differently. Wakan Sansai Zue, an influential encyclopedia of the early 18th-century, gave a considerably divergent reading and stated that the suiko possessed kneecaps like tiger-claws. This odd feature was replicated in its woodcut illustration, and propagated in Toriyama Sekien's drawing of the suiko in his yōkai anthology.

Though the Wakan Sansai Zue considered the shuihu / suiko to be a creature similar to, but distinguished from the kawatarō (more commonly known as kappa, other works during the Edo period commonly used the sinitic term suiko as a synonym of kappa.

Past Japanese writers also sometimes used suiko as a stilted Sinitic term for the kappa (also kawatarō) in native folklore, even though Wakan Sansai Zue had distinguished these as two separate beings.

General description

The shuihu or shui hu (, ) is described as being "about the size of a three- or four-year old (human) child", with a head like a tiger's, and a shell like that of the pangolin. Their knees, which are also tiger-like, may be visible above water, but their claws always remain submerged, despite their habit of lying on sandy riverbanks and basking in the sun in autumn.

Information about the Suiko became widely known through its inclusion in the Ming Dynasty pharmacopoeia, the Bencao gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica; specifically volume 42 of the Siku Quanshu edition). The description quotes the original source (襄沔記, ; 8th century). A similar description can be found in the 6th-century Commentary on the Water Classic as quoted in the 17th century Ming Period dictionary, , where it is stated that the shuihu is also known as (水唐) or (水盧); however, the form may be unique to the Tongya.

Alternative reading

The description of the suiko in the Bencao Gangmu has been interpreted quite differently in Japan. In the past, a dissident reading was given for the passage in the Chinese source Bencao Gangmu, particularly among Japanese sources. The Osaka physician , in his Wakan Sansai Zue (1712), interpreted the text to read "its knee-cap resembles that of a tiger's forepaw claws", and this reading has persisted in Japanese literature on the suiko into the present-day.

The accompanying woodcut in the Wakan Sansai Zue (figure top right) illustrated this (the tiger-claw kneecap) as well. The artist Toriyama Sekien, who consulted Terashima's encyclopedia, also drew the creature with the claws on the knees, with the caption: "..its kneecaps are sharp like tiger claws".

Geography

According to the quote from the , the shuihu inhabits the confluence where the river Shu (涑水) meets the river Mian (沔水) (now known as the Han River) in , in today's Xiangzhou District, Hubei Province.

Pharmacological use

The original text found in the Bencao Gangmu states that, if the shuihu is caught alive, then the harvested nose can be "used for some trifles". The part of the anatomy in question is not referred to as the nose (鼻, ) but as the () in the Tongya text, further explained to be the (陰) or the "force" (, ) of the beast. In reference to the shuihu, the harvest of this body part has been glossed as "castration", namely, the removal of its genitals, as one newspaper has more bluntly put it. It is also stated that the part can be applied as an aphrodisiac (媚藥, ).

Trifle use

The term (小使), which has been literally rendered as "used for some trifles" in translation, actually refers to some aspect of sexuality or reproduction (bodily fluid), according to sources. More specifically, this term () is glossed as a synonym of (小通, ) in the Zhengzitong (正字通, ) dictionary, among other sources, and one instance of the usage of "small avenue" occurs in a poem in the Han shi waizhuan, where it is sung that the male's "small avenue" reaches sexual maturity at age 16, and the female's at age 14.

Taming

There are alternative interpretations, where instead of pharmacological use, the live specimen becomes a tamed or trained beast with the removal or manipulation of the body part.

One interpretation of the statement is that, when the genitals are removed from the beast, it becomes tame or docile, much like the spaying or neutering of dogs and cats. The Wakan Sansai Zue interpreted this passage of Chinese text to mean that if a person pinches the nose, the beast turns into a servant.

Suiko in Japan

The Japanese interpretation of the suiko according to their reading of the Chinese pharmacopeia was already discussed above ().

Distinguished from ''kappa''

in his 18th century Wakan Sansai Zue stated that the suiko was similar to the kawatarō (western name for kappa), but differing from it. Thus thus Ryōan demarcated the suiko and kawatarō entries as separate (though adjacent).

The artist Sekien, who followed after this encyclopedia, also illustrated the two creatures separately.

Earlier, Kaibara Ekken in his (pub. 1709) had distinguished the kappa/kawatarō and the suiko as "mutually similar but not the same", and the Wakan Sansai Zue followed that path.

An awareness of the differences is also demonstrated by Ono Ranzan in his Honzō Kōmoku Keimō (本草綱目啓蒙, Enlightenment on the Compendium of Materia Medica). Ranzan primarily describes the Japanese kappa (love of sumo is obviously Japanese) in the main text, while relegating quoted information about the Chinese Suiko to footnotes.

As synonym for ''kappa''

Main article: Kappa (folklore)#As ''suiko''

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Kanei_Suiko.jpg" caption="Hita]], [[Bungo Province]] during the [[Kan'ei]] era (1624–1644)."] ::

But in Japan, the word suiko (shuihu) was frequently also used as synonym for kappa. even though it is far from clear if the shuihu of China and the kappa of Japan can be regarded as sharing a common origin.

Examples of synonymous treatment can be found in the physician 's or Yamazaki Yoshinari's .

A number of literature on the kappa bearing suiko in the title also appeared that included paintings of allegedly captured kappa such as:

  • .
  • .

Similarly, the sections "Ōmi Suiko-go / Hizen Suiko-go" (Tales of the Suiko of Ōmi / Hizen) in 's Kansō Jigo (閑窓自語) simply use the kanji "水虎" (Suiko) to refer to the Kappa of Lake Biwa and Kyushu.

This usage can even be found in the folklore collected in the modern day from various regions, including Tōhoku and Kyushu. The Suijin worship known as ) found in Aomori Prefecture is another example of the term's repurposed usage.

In parts of Aomori Prefecture, the kappa have been deified and enshrined by the name of suiko-sama.

Notes

References

;Citations

;Bibliography

References

  1. {{harvp. Li Shizhen. 1782. ''Bencao Gangmu'' ([[Siku Quanshu]] library edition): 本草綱目 (四庫全書本)「巻42 蟲之四 溪鬼蟲〈拾遺〉水虎」:"時珍曰襄沔記云中廬縣有涑水注沔中有物如三四嵗小兒甲如鱗鯉射不能入秋曝沙上膝頭似虎掌爪常没水出膝示人小兒弄之便咬人人生得者摘其鼻可小小使之名曰水虎". The (misprinted) word for pangolin, {{lang. zh. 鱗鯉, in this edition occurs as {{lang. zh. 鯪鯉 in the 1596 edition, and the latter is the form given by Unschuld.
  2. {{interlanguage link. Asakawa Zen'an. ja. 朝川善庵 ''Zen'an zuihitsu'' 善庵随筆, via [[#kojiruien. Kojiruien (1930)]] ''Dobutsu-bu/kemono 7'' ([https://ys.nichibun.ac.jp/kojiruien/index.php?%E5%8B%95%E7%89%A9%E9%83%A8/%E7%8D%B8%E4%B8%83 e-text])
  3. {{harvp. Ozawa. 2011
  4. [[Ono Ranzan]], {{lang. ja. 『本草綱目啓蒙』(Honzō Kōmoku Keimō), vol. 3, [[Heibonsha]] ([[Tōyō Bunko]]), 1991, pp. 183-184.
  5. ''Nihon Zuihitsu Taisei'' {{lang. ja. 日本随筆大成, 1st series, vol. 10, [[:ja:吉川弘文館. Yoshikawa Kōbunkan]], 1975, p. 117.
  6. ''Nihon Zuihitsu Taisei'' {{lang. ja. 日本随筆大成, 2nd series, vol. 6, [[:ja:吉川弘文館. oshikawa Kōbunkan]], 1974, pp. 122–123.
  7. Takagi Shunzan. (1988). "Edo Hakubutsu Zukan 2: Honzō Zusetsu Suisan". [[:ja:リブロポート.
  8. (1987). "Bessatsu Taiyō: Nihon no yōkai". [[Heibonsha]].
  9. Yanagihara Norimitsu. (1974). "Kansō jigo". [[:ja:吉川弘文館.
  10. (2004). "The Book of the Yellow Court: A Lost Song Commentary of the 12th Century". Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie.
  11. {{harvp. Li Shizhen. 1596 "Bugs (Worms, Insects, Amphibians) 4"; {{harvp. Li Shizhen. 1782 Book 42, "Bugs 4". The Chinese text is also printed side by side in the Unschuld translation.
  12. Han Ying. (1952). "Han Shih Wai Chuan: Han Ying's Illustrations of the Didactic Application of the Classic of Songs". Harvard University Press.
  13. Higashi Mutei . (1920). "So'utei zuihitsu". Bunkai-dō Shoten.
  14. (1950). "The ''Kappa'' Legend: A Comparative Ethnological Study on the Japanese Water-Spirit "Kappa" and Its Habit of Trying to Lure Horses into the Water". Folklore Studies.
  15. Ishikawa Jun'ichirō. (1985). "Shinpan Kappa no Sekai (New Edition: The World of the Kappa)". Jiji Tsūshin Shuppankyoku.
  16. (April 2000). "Mizu no yōkai". [[Kawade Shobō Shinsha]].
  17. (1982). "Gosa seongeo sajeon ({{lang". Hakwonsa.
  18. Kaibara Ekken. (1709). "Yamato honzō". Nagata Chōbei.
  19. (2005). ["Egakareta dōbutsu shokubutsu: Edo jidai no hakubutsushi. Chapter 3. Chinkin kijū igyo: egakareta dōbutsu shokubutsu"](https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/gallery/nature/31). National Diet Library.
  20. . (2016-04-02). ["Kappa densetsu: shinkakuka no rūtsu wo tadoru Aomori"](https://mainichi.jp/articles/20160402/k00/00e/040/245000c). *Mainichi Shimbun*.
  21. Marcon, Federico. (2015). "The Knowledge of Nature and the Nature of Knowledge in Early Modern Japan". University of Chicago Press.
  22. Miyamoto, Mataji. (1970). "Fūzokushi no kenkyū & Kōnoike-ke no kenkyū". Seibundō shuppan.
  23. Murakami, Kenji. (2000). "Yōkai jiten". [[Mainichi Shimbun]]sha.
  24. Nakamura, Teiri. (January 1995). "Kappa denshō ni okeru jinteki yōso". 国立歴史民俗博物館研究報告.
  25. Nakamura, Teiri. (1996). "Kappa no nihonshi". [[:ja:日本エディタースクール.
  26. Nappi, Carla. (2010). "The Monkey and the Inkpot: natural history and its transformations in early modern China". Harvard University Press.
  27. Ono, Ranzan. (1844). "Jūshū honzō kōmoku keimō (in 35 vols.)". Hishiya Kichibē.
  28. Strassberg, Richard E.. (1994). "Inscribed Landscapes: Travel Writing from Imperial China". [[University of California Press]].
  29. (). "Suiko jūnihin no zu". 林奎文房.
  30. {{harvp. Suzuki tr.. 1930. [https://archive.org/details/kokuyakuhonzkmok10lishuoft/page/410/mode/2up p. 361]
  31. (2020-11-25). "Jiuzhou yaoguai lu:shuihu". Tencent Newspaper.
  32. Terashima, Ryōan. (n.d.). "Wakan Sansai zue ".
  33. Thoms, P. P.. (1819). "A dictionary of the Chinese language, in three parts".
  34. Fang Yizhi. "Tongya".
  35. Fang Yizhi. (1805). "Tongya".
  36. Fang Yizhi. 1805 [https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2580450/38 '''18''', pp. 13b–14a].
  37. Toriyama, Sekien. (1779). "Konjaku gazu zoku hyakki".
  38. Toriyama, Sekien. (2017). "Japandemonium Illustrated: The Yokai Encyclopedias of Toriyama Sekien". Courier Dover Publications.
  39. Totton, Mary-Louise. (2002). "Weaving Flesh and Blood Into Sacred Architecture: Ornamental Stories of Candi Loro Jonggrang". University of Michigan.
  40. {{harvp. Suzuki tr.. 1930. Yano Munemoto. ja. 矢野宗幹, since this is the "Bugs" section of the work.
  41. (2021). "Chinese Traditional Healing (3 vols): The Berlin Collections of Manuscript Volumes from the 16th through the Early 20th Century". BRILL.
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