Umami Stories: The Kappa and the Yokozuna

In Edo-era Ōmi, farmer’s son Koji is sent to Lake Biwa with cucumbers and sake to beg the kappa Keroyuki — a cursed former yokozuna — to teach him sumo and save his family’s land. Keroyuki agrees: ten deadly kimarite for ten cucumber recipes. But the training is a ruse. Koji never actually meets the kappa; instead, he breaks his vow, gorges on the offerings, and passes out drunk for three nights. Keroyuki paralyzes him, brines him in sake and cucumber like a “cow for slaughter,” then butchers him. The “victory feast” where Koji defeats Ed Hondae is a drunken hallucination. The story ends with Keroyuki alone by Biwa, eating chanko nabe made from Koji’s sake-marinated flesh, the boy’s mawashi hanging nearby as he waits for his next hungry student.

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Title: The Koto
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