Kappa

Psychiatric patient No. 23, “quite the youthful looking madman,” relates his experiences in the curious realm of the mythological Kappa, in this unfussy new translation of Akutagawa’s final novella, from 1927. As with the cultural turmoil of Taishō-era Japan, the Kappa find themselves in an eclectic roil of competing values and traditions, the old ways given over to a religion called Nowism, devoted to “eating, drinking, and copulating.” As for politics, “every speech is a complete lie. But everyone knows that, so in the end, it might as well be the truth.” Existential questions lurk beneath the antic topsy-turvydom of Kappaland, such as when Kappas are asked in the womb if they wish to be born (many do not). The Kappa poet Tok, who shoots himself while plagiarizing Goethe, then returns as a ghost preoccupied with posthumous fame, hinting at Akutagawa’s own impending suicide.