Gangi-kozō

Overview

Gangi-kozō is drawn as a shaggy creature sitting at the edge of a stream or river. Its face has conspicuous projecting teeth, and both hands and feet end in long claws. It grips a dark fish close to its open mouth. Flowing parallel lines cross beneath its feet, while reeds, rocks and a small fence define the bank behind it.

The printed label 岸涯小僧 links the creature to this waterside composition. The fish, mouth and clawed limbs provide a direct visual basis for describing feeding and aquatic surroundings. They do not establish a biological species or a fixed relationship to every regional kappa narrative. The inspected plate is a historical representation of a named being; additional claims about seasonal transformation or sharp-toothed attacks remain outside this selected visual witness.

Origins & earliest records

Toriyama Sekien, Konjaku Hyakki Shūi (first published 1781), volume 2; the named plate was directly inspected in the digitized institutional copy. This dates a selected representation, not an earliest oral belief.

Records & interpretation

Printed label 岸涯小僧 and creature composition directly checked in the enlarged primary scan. The cursive explanatory commentary has not been fully transcribed; detailed popular narratives are excluded unless supported separately.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Konjaku Hyakki Shūi

   Toriyama Sekien · 1781

   Volume 2; IIIF canvas index 10 (zero-based); HyakkishuYiV2Tori_0011.jp2. Named illustration directly inspected.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Institutional primary-book recordKonjaku Hyakki Shūi — Smithsonian Libraries digitized volume 2Research access: 2026-10-05
2. Primary illustrated plate / institutional digitizationGangi-kozō (岸涯小僧) — exact inspected primary plateResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

Gangi-kozō, named plate by Toriyama Sekien

Printed label 岸涯小僧 and the pictured composition directly inspected at enlarged resolution. A hairy creature with projecting teeth holds a fish at the water’s edge in Sekien’s Gangi-kozō plate. The exact image URL comes from the returned IIIF manifest, not a guessed page ID.