The Human Chair

by Edogawa Rampo

The Human Chair by Edogawa Rampo is a chilling and psychologically unsettling tale from one of Japan’s greatest masters of mystery and horror fiction. Blending suspense, obsession, and dark imagination, this classic story explores the disturbing depths of loneliness, desire, and the hidden corners of the human mind.



The story unfolds through a mysterious confession sent to a female writer, revealing the horrifying secret of a craftsman who creates a luxurious chair with a concealed space inside it—allowing him to secretly observe and physically experience the lives of those who sit upon it. As the narrative progresses, the line between fantasy and reality becomes increasingly uncertain, creating an atmosphere of unease and psychological tension.



Known for his innovative storytelling and eerie psychological insight, Edogawa Rampo crafts a haunting exploration of voyeurism, identity, and obsession that continues to captivate readers decades after its original publication. The Human Chair remains an essential work of Japanese Gothic and psychological horror literature.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Japanese Literature, Fiction, Classics, Japan, Mystery

24 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1925

About the author

Hirai Tarō (平井 太郎), better known by the pseudonym Rampo Edogawa ( 江戸川 乱歩), sometimes romanized as "Ranpo Edogawa", was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery fiction.

Reviews

[Alekzander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am now afraid of chairs.

[Tobi ﾄﾋﾞ · Rating 5 out of 5]

edogawa why the hell would you write this

[Ed Erwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I may never sit down again!

[Rami Hamze · Rating 5 out of 5]

A M A S T E R P I E C E !

completely blown away.

creepy, emotional, dark. The best short story in a long time.

[Jane Dominique · Rating 4 out of 5]

from now on i'll be stabbing my chair aggressively before sitting down, thank you very much.

[Sarah ♡ (let’s interact!) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loneliness can apparently be enough to drive a man to confine himself within a chair. Just so he can feel close to other human beings, especially women. Is this real or all mere fantasy?

Read this after Junji Ito’s illustrated re-imagining of this short story. I like how the author’s pen name is a reference to Edgar Allen Poe. You can see his influence within his own work.

[Daniel Warriner · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Human Chair" (人間椅子, 1925) by Edogawa Rampo isn't so much a scary tale as it is a deviant's disturbing fantasy come to life. An ugly furniture maker crafts a chair into which he can slip to sit unbeknownst to those (mostly women) sitting atop him. You can hear the wheels turning in Rampo's head as you read this; everything you might want to know about holing up in a chair is covered here. It's a fun story written in a serious tone. It also has that typically Japanese form of horror that's rooted half in the quotidian and half in the frightfully bizarre. Put another way, Eugene Thacker, writing for The Japan Times, described it as "exemplary of a particular trope in Japanese horror where an innocuous, everyday event sends a character chasing a single idea — methodically, bit by bit — to its logical and terrifying conclusion."

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story's junji Ito manga adaptation left me completely baffled as I read it. The original story is even greater; everything that happens is so horrifying that, for a split second, believing it to be true, it may cause lifelong trauma.

[Cassi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun little story that leaves your skin crawling. Great writing, entertaining plot, not much else to say about it. It's a good story for when you're sitting in your favorite armchair.

[Semi Murderous ^_^ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute story about a man who wasn't getting laid so he turned himself into a chair so people can sit on his face. 10/10 [Must read]
you might get creeped out and feel very uncomfortable at times but the story is exceptional. Def, worth a read.

[Amin · Rating 4 out of 5]

صندلی انسانی یکی از جالبترین و هیجان انگیزترین داستانهای کوتاهی بود که خوندم و خلاقیت نویسنده ستودنیه واقعا

[Mili Chamberlain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh fuck! No more sitting methinks.

[onthebooksel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story was so fucking creepy. I made the mistake of reading this at night before class on my HOLLOWED OUT COUCH and let me tell you that was a mistake. Edogawa Rampo really wrote this, and I remember class discussion being really fun this day and so I’m super thankful to Dr. Yi for making me read this.

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think about your favorite chair; it's like a broken-in pair of jeans, really comfortable, or a well-worn leather jacket-a second skin, a comfy bed…Well imagine if someone was living in that chair, right underneath you, as you enjoy your most intimate moments relaxing while you are completely unaware someone is sitting right there. Is that the ultimate violation? Or is it something much worse?

You have got to be kidding me, right? A person living in a chair?! That seemed completely ridiculous. I get that you have to have some disbelief in reality for a horror story to be scary, but that’s stretching it.

I initially gave this 2 stars, but shortly after I read it, it stuck with me. It was creepy, and the narrator—the dude living in the chair—was very creepy. It deserves 4 stars, it’s really short and I recommend it.

- Beware, this was originally in Japanese, and some of the translated versions are wacky- hard to understand, especially the Kindle version.

[QHuong(BookSpy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mấy truyện trinh thám tâm lý khá là sợ ấy, còn vài truyện mang yếu tố siêu nhiên cũng dị dị nhưng mình thấy sợ mấy truyện tâm lý hơn, đặc biệt là truyện "Sâu bướm" vừa đọc vừa hình dung đã thấy rùng mình rồi.

[ryan ❦]

he was a real life chairman…

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

i will now be inspecting every chair i ever sit in

[Jovana Autumn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Welcome to my project of reading *weird* fiction in 2023

➥ What begins as an almost tedious story about an accomplished female author going through her fan letters, quickly turns into a psychological terror ending in one of the aptest culmination that I have come across in short fiction.

Rampo composes his story with elegance: He swiftly places the reader as a bystander in the story, reading the letter alongside his protagonist.

¶ There is a dual nature of terror in this story – the first is the fear of being unknowingly observed and the second fear lies in the ambiguity of the ending: was the writer of the letter lying in the first letter or in the second?
If he was lying in the first, that would lead to the surfacing of a new voice in writing that could replace the old one (the addressee replacing the addresant).
If the second letter is untrue, there is an imminent threat to deal with immediately. Both cases are anxiety-inducing and unfortunate for the protagonist.

Regardless of which end is true, the story is a satisfying piece as far as the average reader goes and Rampo is a writer worth inspecting.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creo que ahora tengo miedo de las sillas.

[Repellent Boy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cada mañana, Yoshiko se sienta en su escritorio para escribir, sin embargo, esta no será una jornada habitual. Ha recibido un misterioso manuscrito, y aunque por su profesión suelen llegarle muchos, no suele prestarles atención, pero algo en este la atrapa rápidamente. En él, un hombre apela a su atención, pues quiere confesar un delito y solo ella debe saberlo y puede darle paz. Este hombre, al cual le cuesta relacionarse con otras personas, ha encontrado una manera de estar presente, pero sin ser visto.

No voy a decir mucho de “La butaca humana” de Rampo Edogawa, porque solo es un relato, tiene varios golpes de efecto que logran sorprender y creo que hay que llegar sin saber demasiado, pero sí que me gustaría alabar la facilidad que tenía Edogawa para, a través de un par de frases, meternos en una atmósfera incómoda, desagradable y hasta pegajosa. No en vano, es el máximo exponente del eroguro, subgénero japonés que mezcla lo grotesco con el erotismo.

“La butaca humana” es capaz de trasladar al lector a los perversos mundos de fantasía de su creador, donde todo lo que aparece es capaz de estremecer. Las imágenes que proyecta en la mente de los lectores son dignas de nuestras peores pesadillas, y es precisamente eso lo que más me gusta de él. Escenas impensables, te cortan la respiración, te perturban. Aunque en cierto momento el lector es capaz de intuir hacia donde va, no puede dejar la lectura. Y es que Edogawa te espanta, te incomoda, pero también te atrapa y te engancha desde la primera palabra hasta la última, siempre expectante ante qué nuevo horror te mostrará.

Entre tanto horror, creo que es interesante como se filtran otras cosas más profundas. En este relato, Edogawa habla de la dificultad para comunicarnos como producto de la inseguridad y el sentimiento de inferioridad. Llevado al extremo, esto puede provocar que una persona cometa grandes "errores".

Desde luego que Edogawa no es un autor para todo el mundo, los lugares a los que lleva al lector no son agradables, pero para los que disfrutéis de lo grotesco, de lo más perverso, Rampo Edogawa es un autor indispensable. Yo pienso seguir leyendo todo lo que caiga en mis manos de él.

[natura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy buen relato de terror en el que vas descubriendo, a la vez que la protagonista, el descabellado caso de una “butaca humana”. La inquietud que te va invadiendo según avanzas en la historia la remata Rampo de forma genial haciendo que descubras el fantástico desenlace a la vez que Yoshiko. El revés de los últimos párrafos casi es una concesión a los “finales felices” occidentales, y se sale un poco de la historia, a un pelo de resultar moñas tipo “final de Los Serrano”. Se lo perdonaremos porque el resto es una pasada.

[Jimena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inquietante, siniestro y fascinante.

Qué hijo de puta este Edogawa.

[Margo Oka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so funny

[Sima Khairullah · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Though I am ugly, my heart burns with strong desire. I dream of beauty, of rich and wonderful things. I imagine a world far beyond my true life.”

When humans let their intrusive thoughts win, they craft something extraordinary, something strange and haunting, something infinitely disturbing, and they pour it all into their writing. This was superb!!!

But like… team letter or manuscript? 😭

[Mihaela Oprea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Foarte stranie povestire. Cert este faptul că e una din puținele cărți din literatura japoneză care mi-a plăcut, dar și că mă voi gândi de două ori data viitoare când voi vrea să iau loc într-un fotoliu.

[Atlantisli · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was very creepy... short but an impressive story.

AaaaA okurken içim bi tuhaf oldu sürekli kafamda canlandırmaya çalıştım. çok kısa ama etkileyici bir hikayeydi.

[Suha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A piece of delicious dark chocolate; this short story is well written, enjoyable, creepy and imaginative. Loved it 😊

[AndrewP · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this Japanese horror short story in a round about way. The actual Japanese title is 'Ningen Isu', this is also the name of a Japanese rock band that I recently discovered. In fact, the band took their name from this story. They formed in 1987, and are still going strong, so this is not a recent association.
Short story but quite disturbing, as with many great stories there is a twist at the end. I read a translation but there is also a manga version available.

Worth checking out. Also the band of the same name if you're into prog rock/horror influenced by Black Sabbath and H. P. Lovecraft.

[Esmé · Rating 3 out of 5]

gross! grossest of all was that the narrator has no idea how to write women. what do you mean her "deep sense of feminine consideration" brother?? anyway this was a fun and ooky read. i wish it didnt have the second letter at the end. gets bonus points for the junji ito adaptation

[Zuzia · Rating 4 out of 5]

wtf???