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Okay, so all of this talk about the upcoming Tian Xia book and the fact that they were featured on Destination: Truth last week has put me in the mind to convert the Kappa, so here it is.
Kappa CR 2
XP 600
CN small monstrous humanoid (aquatic)
Init: +3, Senses: Darkvision 60 ft, Perception +8
AC: 20 (+3 Dex, +1 size, +6 natural)
hp: 19 (3d10+3), Fast Healing 3
Fort: +1, Ref: +7, Will: +6
Speed: 20 ft, swim 40 ft
Melee: claw +6 (1d3+3)
Melee: bite +6 (1d4+3)
Str: 16, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 7, Wis 14, Cha 11
Base Atk: +3, CMB: +6 CMD: 19
Feats: Step Up, Toughness
Skills: Perception +8, Swim +9
Languages: Common, Kappa
SQ: Head Bowl, Water Immunity
Environment: Any aquatic
Organization: Solitary or Brood (2-5)
Treasure: Standard
Head Bowl (Su): The indentation on top of a kappa's head is filled with the water of the lake or stream where it lives. Normal movement and even combat does not cause the water to spill. However, if an opponent makes a special Combat Maneuver check he can spill the water out of the kappa's head bowl. When that happens the kappa's Strength and Constitution scores drop to 8 and it loses it's fast healing ability.
Water Immunity (Su): Kappas are immune to all water based spells including spells with the [water] descriptor.
Kappa are a race of turtle-like malevolent beings that live in the lakes and streams of the world. They smell like fish and are generally portrayed with the body of a tortoise, ape-like head, scaly limbs, long hair circling the skull, webbed feet and hands, and yellow-green skin. About the size of a child aged 6 to 10, the kappa is nonetheless incredibly strong. It attacks horses, cattle, and humans, usually dragging its prey into the water, where they drink their blood and eat their entrails. Kappa are notorious tricksters and their tricks often lead to the death of their victims. Not all kappa are evil beings and some are quite skilled at herbal medicine and bone setting.
I've seen many depictions of Kappa, and read many accounts, as I'm a Japanophile and long time reader of Kaidan stories, while most of your description seems accurate enough. I don't believe I've seen or heard kappa as having an 'ape-like' head... usually its either turtle like or frog like, even one with a wide ear to ear mouth, but never an ape.
Where's that idea from?
GP
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The idea mostly came from a lot of ancient depictions of the kappa, mostly from the Edo and the Meiji periods. Many of the earliest depictions I have been able to find of the kappa have very simian or ape-like heads. I have even found one screen print from the Edo period that shows a kappa with a cat-like head. Yanagida Kunio, the famous Japanese folklorist wrote about how in some of the more rural parts of Japan the word kappa and enko are used interchangably, with enko being the word for monkey. There are also some theories that kappa is a corruption of kapi, the sanskrit word for monkey. The stories of kapi, the monkeys who dwelt in southern India and were very mischevious in Hindu and, later, Buddist lore would have spread to Japan with Buddism. Since kappa did not start to appear in Japanese folk lore, at least according to my research, It is highly likely that the corrupted word quikly began to be used for a river kami when it began to take on Buddaized attributes.
Hmmm, not that I don't believe you but I must have looked at different ukiyo-e prints and heard different kappa stories, because I have heard of neither monkey-headed, nor cat-headed kappa before. I too do lots of Japanese folklore research myself. I'm not just a casual old Japanophile.
I could even point to directly two different kappa story translations online and neither mention monkey/cat heads. Though the one mentions the ear to ear mouth, and that's the only story I've ever heard of that description.
Now your Buddhist/India connection makes sense though, as many Japanese folklore has been 'Buddhisized' in their later eras.
Still, I can point you out a dozen ukiyo-e prints with frog-like kappa heads - just something I've never seen or heard of.
GP
PS: I'm working on my own feudal Japan setting crossed with Asian horror, called Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting so this is my current research as well, and more heavily so than before - which feature kappa as a monster if not a PC race.
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There is an illustration in Wakan Sansaizue that not only shows the kappa with a monkey like head, but it also shows it covered in fur. It was reprinted in "Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yōkai" which should be availible from Amazon. According to my sources, mostly my neighbor who is a Japanese folklorist, this is the oldest illustration of a kappa that we know of. Also there is a statue at Gokoku Shrine in Gifu City that has a monkey like head if viewed from the side. Here is a good site with some various depictions of kappa, including the cat faced one. The second picture is the Gokoku Shrine kappa, unfortunately they do not have the side view here. The 9th one is the one I describe as cat-like and the 12th one is the Wakan Sansaizue kappa.
cat-headed kappa
Maybe, it's kawauso(Otter) head. Otter is one of models of Kappa.
In folklore, Kappa of southern Japan(Chugoku, Shikoku, Kyushu) is like aquatic ape. Some of them migrate to mountains to be Yamawaro/Shibaten in Winter, and come back to rivers and lakes at the beginning of spring.
Some folklores say that Kappa's arms are linked through the body and he can extend one arm by shortening opposite arm. Kappa uses these arms and slippy skin ckeverly to grapple , so he can match against much larger foe at Sumo. And with extended arm Kappa attacks prey by surprise to drag into water.