Kappa (Japanese: 河童, Hepburn: Kappa) is a 1927 novella written by the Japanese author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. The story is narrated by a psychiatric patient who claims to have travelled to the land of the kappa, a creature from Japanese mythology. Critical opinion has often been divided between those who regard it as a biting satire of Taishō Japan and those who see it as expression of Akutagawa's private agony.