One summer, just at the time that was most inportant for the rice to grow, all the water suddenly stopped going into the headman's rice fields. All the people of the village joined forces to repair and rebuild the ditches leading to his fields, but whatever they did, no water got where it was needed. This was really strange. Since nothing else would work, the headman went to make a request to the god of the village shrine.
"I beg you to help me get water into my rice fields!"
On the night of the completion of his cycle of prayers, the god appeared to him in a dream and delivered this message.
"Well now, headman, you seem to have a beautiful daughter who is just old enough to marry. There is a kappa living in the Arima river who wants your daughter. If you marry your daughter to the kappa, then the water will get into your rice fields. How about it-- do you feel like giving your daughter to the kappa?"
The headman woke up and thought about it. The message was somewhat hard to understand. The very thought of making his daughter the bride of something like a kappa was distressing. And so he didn't tell anyone, even his family, what had happened, but went out to look at his fields as usual. He could see that there was water for everyone but his own family. Because there had been none for a number of days,the earth was hardening and cracking, and the stalks were turning yellow and withering. When he looked around at the other rice fields, the water was rippling through them, and the stalks of rice were all green and growing. This really upset him, but there was nothing he could do. He could afford to forget about the fields that he farmed by himself, but he also owned fields that were farmed by renters, and it was sad to think what would happen to them. He thought about this and considered that as he went to the point where the water was supposed to enter the ditches to his fields. As he looked, he suddenly saw that the kappa he had heard about in the dream had blocked the flow by turning its body into a dam and was sleeping there.
"Kappa, Kappa! What are you doing there?" the headman asked.
The kappa replied as the god had said the night before. "I want your daughter for my bride."
The headman felt completely helpless, and dragged himself back home with a worried face. As he was wondering what he could possibly do, his daughter said, "Father, father! Why do you look so worried?"
With no other recourse, the headman told her about his dream the previous night, and about seeing the kappa that morning.
"There's no excuse for asking, but would you be willing to marry a kappa?" he asked his daughter.
"You don't need to worry about that. Please leave it to me. I will definitely get water into the fields."
The girl took a gourd and went out to the Arima river. There she spoke to the kappa, which was still at the entrance to the ditches.
"Kappa-san! I have heard that you wish me to be your wife, so I have come as your bride. But first, would you please fill our rice fields with water? The gourd I have brought with me is my soul, but I am going to throw it in the river now. Please submerge it under the water. When the gourd is submerged, I will come to you as your wife whenever you wish. This is my request."
Then she threw the gourd into the river and returned home. Before long the sound of water running into the headman's rice fields could be heard, and soon they were full of water and the rice was turning green again.
And what about the gourd? After that, a gourd could be seen in the Arima river, sinking down and bobbing up, sinking down and bobbing up in a continuing cycle. Being a gourd, it would not stay down, no matter how far under the sater the kappa put it. Even so, the kappa spent all fall and the next winter trying to put the gourd under the water. But it wouldn't stay down, and the kappa was unable to get the headman's daughter as his bride. And that's the happy ending.