The Kappa is a creature from Japanese folklore described as a scaly, child-sized being with a face like a tiger and a sharp, pointed beak. In the hands of Ryunosuke Akutagawa, one man's journey to Kappaland becomes the vehicle for a critique of Japanese life and customs in the tradition of Swift and Kafka. A perfectly formed gem from the pen of one of Japan's most important modern writers, this tale is at once a fable, a comedy, and a brilliant satire.
Über den Autor Ryunosuke Akutagawa
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Ryunosuke Akutagawa was a short-story writer, poet and essayist, and one of the first Japanese modernists translated into English. He was born in Tokyo in 1892, and began writing for student publications at the age of ten. He graduated from Tokyo University with an English Literature degree and worked as a teacher before becoming a full-time writer in 1919. His mother had suffered a mental breakdown shortly after his birth and he was plagued by fear of inherited insanity all his life. He killed himself in 1927.
