Edogawa Rampo

“The Caterpillar” (Imomushi) is a disturbing short story by Japanese writer Edogawa Rampo, published in January 1929 in the magazine Shin Seinen. It tells the disturbing story of Tokiko’s life with her husband, Lieutenant Sunaga, a former Japanese soldier who was seriously wounded in the war and is now reduced to a body without limbs or voice. In a remote house, she cares for him, caught between compassion and boredom. As the days pass, in an increasingly oppressive and sinister atmosphere, Tokiko experiences a marked psychological deterioration due to guilt, a feeling of confinement, and her darkest desires.