The Kappa is a creature from Japanese folklore known for dragging unwary
toddlers to their deaths in rivers: a scaly, child-sized creature,
looking something like a frog, but with a sharp, pointed beak and an
oval-shaped saucer on top of its head, which hardens with age.
Akutagawa's Kappa is narrated by Patient No. 23, a madman in a lunatic
asylum: he recounts how, while out hiking in Kamikochi, he spots a
Kappa. He decides to chase it and, like Alice pursuing the White Rabbit,
he tumbles down a hole, out of the human world and into the realm of the
Kappas. There he is well looked after, in fact almost made a pet of: as
a human, he is a novelty. He makes friends and spends his time learning
about their world, exploring the seemingly ridiculous ways of the Kappa,
but noting many--not always flattering--parallels to Japanese mores
regarding morality, legal justice, economics, and sex. Alas, when the
patient eventually returns to the human world, he becomes disgusted by
humanity and, like Gulliver missing the Houyhnhnms, he begins to pine
for his old friends the Kappas, rather as if he has been forced to take
leave of Toad of Toad Hall...
