art name An art name (pseudonym or pen name), also known by its native names ''hào'' (in Mandarin), ''gō'' (in Japanese), ''ho'' (in Korean), and ''tên hiệu'' (in Vietnamese), is a professional name used by East Asian artists, poets and writers. The ...

, was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, ...

active in the Taishō period in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. He is regarded as the "father of the Japanese

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

", and Japan's premier literary award, the

Akutagawa Prize The is a Japanese literary award presented biannually. Because of its prestige and the considerable attention the winner receives from the media, it is, along with the Naoki Prize, one of Japan's most sought after literary prizes. History Th ...

, is named after him. He committed suicide at the age of 35 through an

overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended.

barbital Barbital (or barbitone), marketed under the brand names Veronal for the pure acid and Medinal for the sodium salt, was the first commercially available barbiturate. It was used as a sleeping aid (hypnotic) from 1903 until the mid-1950s. The chemic ...

Early life

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa was born in Irifune, Kyōbashi,

Tokyo City was a municipality in Japan and part of Tokyo-fu which existed from 1 May 1889 until its merger with its prefecture on 1 July 1943. The historical boundaries of Tokyo City are now occupied by the Special Wards of Tokyo. The new merged gov ...

(present-day Akashi, Chūō,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

), the eldest son of businessman Toshizō Niihara and his wife Fuku. His family owned a milk production business. His mother experienced a mental illness shortly after his birth, so he was adopted and raised by his maternal uncle, Dōshō Akutagawa, from whom he received the Akutagawa family name. He was interested in classical Chinese literature from an early age, as well as in the works of

Mori Ōgai Lieutenant-General , known by his pen name , was a Japanese Army Surgeon general officer, translator, novelist, poet and father of famed author Mari Mori. He obtained his medical license at a very young age and introduced translated German la ...

and

Natsume Sōseki , born , was a Japanese novelist. He is best known around the world for his novels ''Kokoro'', ''Botchan'', ''I Am a Cat'', '' Kusamakura'' and his unfinished work '' Light and Darkness''. He was also a scholar of British literature and writer ...

. He entered the First High School in 1910, developing relationships with classmates such as

Kan Kikuchi , also known as Kan Kikuchi (which uses the same kanji as his real name), was a Japanese author. He established the publishing company Bungeishunjū, the monthly magazine Bungeishunjū (magazine), of the same name, the Japan Writer's Association ...

, Kume Masao, Yūzō Yamamoto, and , all of whom would later become authors. He began writing after entering

Tokyo Imperial University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

in 1913, where he studied

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

. While still a student he proposed marriage to a childhood friend, Yayoi Yoshida, but his adoptive family did not approve the union. In 1916 he became engaged to Fumi Tsukamoto, whom he married in 1918. They had three children: (1920–1981) was an actor, Takashi Akutagawa (1922–1945) was killed as a student draftee in Burma, and Yasushi Akutagawa (1925–1989) was a composer. After graduation, he taught briefly at the Naval Engineering School in

Yokosuka, Kanagawa is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 409,478, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The city ...

as an

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

instructor, before deciding to devote his full efforts to writing.

Literary career

In 1914, Akutagawa and his former high school friends revived the

literary journal A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and lett ...

''Shinshichō'' ("New Currents of Thought"), publishing translations of

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

and

Anatole France (; born , ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie França ...

along with their own works. Akutagawa published his second

''Rashōmon'' the following year in the literary magazine ''Teikoku Bungaku'' ("Imperial Literature"), while still a student. The story, based on a twelfth-century tale, was not well received by Akutagawa's friends, who criticized it extensively. Nonetheless, Akutagawa gathered the courage to visit his idol,

, in December 1915 for Sōseki's weekly literary circles. In November, he published his short story

Rashomon is a 1950 Jidaigeki psychological thriller/ crime film directed and written by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, and Takashi Shimura as v ...

on ''Teikoku Mongaku'', a literary magazine. In early 1916 he published ''Hana'' ("The Nose", 1916), which attracted a letter of praise from Sōseki and secured Akutagawa his first taste of fame. It was also at this time that he started writing

haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a '' kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a '' kigo'', or ...

under the ''haigo'' (or pen-name) ''Gaki''. Akutagawa followed with a series of short stories set in

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japan ...

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

or early

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

Japan. These stories reinterpreted classical works and historical incidents. Examples of these stories include: ''Gesaku zanmai'' ("A Life Devoted to Gesaku", 1917) and ''Kareno-shō'' ("Gleanings from a Withered Field", 1918), ''Jigoku hen'' ("Hell Screen", 1918); ''Hōkyōnin no shi'' ("The Death of a Christian", 1918), and ''Butōkai'' ("The Ball", 1920). Akutagawa was a strong opponent of naturalism. He published ''Mikan'' ("Mandarin Oranges", 1919) and ''Aki'' ("Autumn", 1920) which have more modern settings. In 1921, Akutagawa interrupted his writing career to spend four months in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, as a reporter for the ''

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

Mainichi Shinbun The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (pr ...

''. The trip was stressful and he suffered from various illnesses, from which his health would never recover. Shortly after his return he published ''Yabu no naka'' (" In a Grove", 1922). During the trip, Akutagawa visited numerous cities of southeastern China including

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also Chinese postal romanization, romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the prov ...

and

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trad ...

. Before his travel, he wrote a short story ""; concerning the Chinese Christian community; according to his own imagination of Nanjing influenced by Classical Chinese literature.

Influences

Akutagawa's stories were influenced by his belief that the practice of literature should be universal and can bring together Western and Japanese cultures. This can be seen in the way that Akutagawa uses existing works from a variety of cultures and time periods and either rewrites the story with modern sensibilities or creates new stories using ideas from multiple sources. Culture and the formation of a cultural identity is also a major theme in several of Akutagawa's works. In these stories, he explores the formation of cultural identity during periods in history where Japan was most open to outside influences. An example of this is his story ''Hōkyōnin no Shi'' ("The Martyr", 1918) which is set in the early missionary period. The portrayal of women in Akutagawa's stories was primarily shaped by the influence of three women who acted as his mother figures; most significant was his biological mother Fuku, from whom he worried about inheriting her mental illness. Although Akutagawa was removed from Fuku eight months after his birth, he identified strongly with her and believed that, if at any moment he might go mad, life was meaningless. His aunt Fuki played the most prominent role in his upbringing, controlling much of Akutagawa's life as well as demanding much of his attention, especially as she grew older. Women that appear in Akutagawa's stories, much like the women he identified as mothers, were mostly written as dominating, aggressive, deceitful, and selfish. Conversely, men were often represented as the victims of such women.

Later life

The final phase of Akutagawa's literary career was marked by his deteriorating physical and

mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles Stress (biology), stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-maki ...

. Much of his work during this period is distinctly

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

, some even taken directly from his diaries. His works during this period include ''Daidōji Shinsuke no hansei'' ("The Early Life of Daidōji Shinsuke", 1925) and ''Tenkibo'' ("Death Register", 1926). Akutagawa had a highly publicized dispute with

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki was a Japanese author who is considered to be one of the most prominent figures in modern Japanese literature. The tone and subject matter of his work ranges from shocking depictions of sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions to subtle por ...

over the importance of structure versus lyricism in story. Akutagawa argued that structure, how the story was told, was more important than the content or plot of the story, whereas Tanizaki argued the opposite. Akutagawa's final works include ''

Kappa Kappa (uppercase Κ, lowercase κ or cursive ; el, κάππα, ''káppa'') is the 10th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless velar plosive sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, has a value ...

'' (1927), a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming o ...

based on a creature from

Japanese folklore Japanese folklore encompasses the informally learned folk traditions of Japan and the Japanese people as expressed in its oral traditions, customs, and material culture. In Japanese, the term is used to describe folklore. The academic study o ...

, ''Haguruma'' ("Spinning Gears", 1927), ''Aru ahō no isshō'' ("A Fool's Life"), and ''Bungeiteki na, amari ni bungeiteki na'' ("Literary, All Too Literary", 1927). Towards the end of his life, Akutagawa began suffering from visual

hallucinations A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinati ...

and anxiety over the fear that he had inherited his mother's mental disorder. In 1927 he survived a

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

attempt, together with a friend of his wife. He later died of suicide after taking an overdose of

Veronal Barbital (or barbitone), marketed under the brand names Veronal for the pure acid and Medinal for the sodium salt, was the first commercially available barbiturate. It was used as a sleeping aid (hypnotic) from 1903 until the mid-1950s. The chemic ...

, which had been given to him by Mokichi Saitō on 24 July of the same year. In his will he wrote that he felt a about the future. He was 35 years old.

Legacy

Akutagawa wrote over 150 short stories during his brief life, a number of which were adapted into other art forms:

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...

's classic 1950 film '' Rashōmon'' retells Akutagawa's ''In a Grove'', with the title and the frame scenes set in the Rashomon Gate taken from Akutagawa's ''Rashōmon''. Ukrainian composer

Victoria Poleva Victoria Vita Polevá (also spelled: Poleváya; uk, Вікторія Польова; russian: Виктория Полевая; born September 11, 1962) is a Ukrainian composer. Biography Born on September 11, 1962 in Kiev, Ukraine, daughter of ...

wrote the ballet ''Gagaku'' (1994), based on Akutagawa's ''

Hell Screen is a short story written by Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. It was a reworking of '' Uji Shūi Monogatari'' and originally published in 1918 as a serialization in two newspapers. It was later published in a collection of Akutagawa short sto ...

''. Japanese composer Mayako Kubo wrote an opera named ''Rashomon'', based on Akutagawa's story. The German version premiered in Graz, Austria in 1996, and the Japanese version in Tokyo in 2002. In 1930, writer

Tatsuo Hori was a Japanese translator and writer of poetry, short stories and novels. Early life Born in Tokyo, Hori studied Japanese literature at Tokyo Imperial University under Saisei Murō and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. In addition to Japanese writers of ...

, who saw himself as a disciple of Akutagawa, published his short story '' Sei kazoku'' (lit. "The Holy Family"), which was written under the impression of Akutagawa's death and even paid reference to the dead mentor in the shape of the deceased character Kuki. In 1935, Akutagawa's lifelong friend

established the

literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony. M ...

for promising new writers, the

, in his honor. In 2020

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

produced and aired the film ''A Stranger in Shanghai''. It depicts Akutagawa's time in as a reporter in the city and stars

Ryuhei Matsuda is a Japanese film and television actor. Matsuda's best known film roles include the young and desirable samurai Sōzaburō Kanō in ''Taboo'' and the rock star Ren Honjo in '' Nana''. Early life Matsuda was born on 9 May 1983 in Tokyo, to Yūs ...

Selected works

Works in English translation

*''Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan, Vol. 2''. Trans. Eric S. Bell & Eiji Ukai. Tokyo: Kaitakusha, 1930(?). ::The Spider's Web.--The Autumn.--The Nose. *''Tales Grotesque and Curious''. Trans. Glenn W. Shaw. Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press, 1930. ::Tobacco and the devil.--The nose.--The handkerchief.--Rashōmon.--Lice.--The spider's thread.--The wine worm.--The badger.--The ball.--The pipe.--Mōri Sensei. *''Hell Screen and Other Stories''. Trans. W.H.H. Norman. Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press, 1948. ::Jigokuhen.--Jashūmon.--The General.--Mensura Zoilii. *''Kappa''. Trans. Seiichi Shiojiri. Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press, 1951. *''The Three Treasures''. Trans. Sasaki Takamasa. Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press, 1951. *''The Real Tripitaka and Other Pieces''. George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1952. ::"San Sebastian" translated by Arthur Waley. *''Rashomon and Other Stories''. Trans. Takashi Kojima. Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1952. ::In a Grove.--Rashomon.--Yam Gruel.--The Martyr.--Kesa and Morito.--The Dragon. ::Not to be confused with a book of the same title that contains translations by Shaw, published by Hara Shobo in 1964 and reprinted in 1976. *''Modern Japanese Literature''. Grove/Atlantic, 1956. ::"Kesa and Morito" translated by Howard Hibbett. *''Modern Japanese Stories: An Anthology''. UNESCO, 1961. ::"Autumn Mountain" translated by Ivan Morris. *''Posthumous Works of Ryunosuke Akutagawa: His Life, Suicide, & Christ''. Trans. Akio Inoue. 1961. ::A Note Forwarded to a Certain Old Friend.--Life of a Certain Fool.--Western Man.--Western Man Continued. *''Japanese Short Stories''. Trans. Takashi Kojima. New York: Liveright Pub. Corp., 1961. ::The Hell Screen.--A Clod of Soil.--Nezumi-Kozo.--Heichu, the Amorous Genius.--Genkaku-Sanbo.--Otomi's Virginity.--The Spider's Thread.--The Nose.--The Tangerines.--The Story of Yonosuke. *''Exotic Japanese stories: The Beautiful and the Grotesque''. Trans. Takashi Kojima & John McVittie. New York: Liveright Pub. Corp., 1964. ::The Robbers.--The Dog, Shiro.--The Handkerchief.--The Dolls.--Gratitude.--The Faith of Wei Shêng.--The Lady, Roku-no-miya.--The Kappa.--Saigô Takamori.--The Greeting.--Withered Fields.--Absorbed in letters.--The Garden.--The Badger.--Heresy (Jashumon).--A Woman's Body. ::Reissued by Liveright in 2010 as ''The Beautiful and the Grotesque''. *''Tu Tze-Chun''. Trans. Dorothy Britton. Tokyo:

Kodansha International is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' and ...

, 1965. *''Kappa''. Trans. Geoffrey Bownas. London:

Peter Owen Publishers Peter Owen Publishers is a family-run London-based independent publisher based in London, England. It was founded in 1951.John Self"Peter Owen: Sixty years of innovation" Books Blog, ''The Guardian'', 4 July 2011. History The company was founded ...

, 1970. *''A Fool's Life''. Trans. Will Petersen. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1970. *''La fille au chapeau rouge''. Trans. Lalloz ed. Picquier (1980). in (French edition) *''Cogwheels and Other Stories''. Trans. Howard Norman. Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press, 1982. ::Cogwheels.--Hell Screen.--The Spider's Thread. *''The Spider's Thread and Other Stories''. Trans. Dorothy Britton. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1987. ::The Spider's Thread.--The Art of the Occult.--Tu Tze-chun.--The Wagon.--The Tangerines.-- The Nose.-- The Dolls.-- Whitie. *''Hell screen. Cogwheels. A Fool's Life''. Eridanos Press, 1987. ::Reprints Kojima and Petersen translations; "Cogwheels" translated by Cid Corman and Susumu Kamaike. *''Akutagawa & Dazai: Instances of Literary Adaptation''. Trans. James O'Brien. Tempe, Arizona: Arizona State University Press, 1988. ::The Clown's Mask.--The Immortal.--Rashō Gate.--Hell Screen.--Within a Grove.--The Shadow. *''The Kyoto Collection: Stories from the Japanese''. 1989 ::"The Faint Smiles of the Gods" translated by Tomoyoshi Genkawa & Bernard Susser. *''Travels in China'' (''Shina yuki''). Trans. Joshua Fogel. ''Chinese Studies in History'' 30, no. 4 (1997). *''Essential Akutagawa''. New York: Marsilio Publishers, 1999. ::Rashomon.--The Nose.--Kesa and Morito.--The Spider's Thread.--Hell Screen.--The Ball.--Tu Tze-chun.--Autumn Mountain.--In a Grove.--The Faint Smiles of the Gods.--San Sebastian.--Cogwheels.--A Fool's Life.--A Note to a Certain Old Friend. ::"Rashomon," "The Nose," "The Spider's Thread," "The Ball," & "In a Grove" translated by Seiji M. Lippit; "A Note to a Certain Old Friend" translated by Beongcheon Yu. Reprints translations by Britton, Corman & Kamaike, Genkawa & Susser, Hibbett, Kojima, Morris, Petersen, & Waley. *''Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories''. Trans.

Jay Rubin Jay Rubin (born 1941) is an American academic and translator. He is one of the main translators of the works of the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami into English. He has also written a guide to Japanese, ''Making Sense of Japanese'' (originally t ...

. Penguin Classics, 2006. ::Rashomon.--In a Bamboo Grove.--The Nose.--Dragon: The Old Potter's Tale.--The Spider Thread.--Hell Screen.--Dr. Ogata Ryosai: Memorandum.--O-Gin.--Loyalty.--The Story of a Head That Fell Off.--Green Onions.--Horse Legs.--Daidoji Shinsuke: The Early Years.--The Writer's Craft.--The Baby's Sickness.--Death Register.--The Life of a Stupid Man.--Spinning Gears. *''The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature, Vol. 1: From Restoration to Occupation, 1868-1945''. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. ::"The Nose" translated by Ivan Morris and "Christ of Nanking" translated by Van C. Gessel; also has three of Akutagawas haikus translated by Makoto Ueda. *''A Fool's Life''. Trans. Anthony Barnett & Toraiwa Naoko. Lewes, England: Allardyce Books, 2007. *''Mandarins''. Trans. Charles De Wolf.

Archipelago Books Archipelago Books is an American not-for-profit publisher dedicated to promoting cross-cultural exchange through international literature in translation." Located in Brooklyn, New York, it publishes small to mid-size runs of international ficti ...

, 2007. ::Mandarins.--At the Seashore.--An Evening Conversation.--The Handkerchief.--An Enlightened Husband.--Autumn.--Winter.--Fortune.--Kesa and Morito.--The Death of a Disciple.--O’er a Withered Moor.--The Garden.--The Life of a Fool.--The Villa of the Black Crane.--Cogwheels. *''3 Strange Tales''. Trans. Glen Anderson. New York: One Peace Books, 2012. ::Rashomon.--A Christian Death.--Agni.--In a Grove. 'sic''/small> *''Murder in the Age of Enlightenment: Essential Stories''. Trans. Bryan Karetnyk. London:

Pushkin Press Pushkin Press is a British-based publishing house dedicated to publishing novels, essays, memoirs and children's books. The London-based company was founded in 1997 and is notable for publishing authors such as Stefan Zweig, Marcel Aymé, Anta ...

, 2020. ::The Spider's Thread.--In a Grove.--Hell Screen.--Murder in the Age of Enlightenment.--The General.--Madonna in Black.--Cogwheels.

References

English

* Keene, Donald. ''Dawn to the West''. Columbia University Press; (1998). * Ueda, Makoto. ''Modern Japanese Writers and the Nature of Literature''. Stanford University Press (1971). * ''Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories'' - the Chronology Chapter, Trans. Jay Rubin. Penguin Classics (2007).

Japanese

* Nakada, Masatoshi. ''Akutagawa Ryunosuke: Shosetsuka to haijin''. Kanae Shobo (2000). * Shibata, Takaji. ''Akutagawa Ryunosuke to Eibungaku''. Yashio Shuppansha (1993). * Takeuchi, Hiroshi. ''Akutagawa Ryunosuke no keiei goroku''. PHP Kenkyujo (1983). * Tomoda, Etsuo. ''Shoki Akutagawa Ryunosuke ron''. Kanrin Shobo (1984).

External links

* * * *
Short works in English translation
(from Asymptote (journal)).
Short stories in English translation
(from

The Yale Review ''The Yale Review'' is the oldest literary journal in the United States. It is published by Johns Hopkins University Press. It was founded in 1819 as ''The Christian Spectator'' to support Evangelicalism. Over time it began to publish more on h ...

).
Akutagawa Ryunosuke on aozora.gr.jp
(complete texts with

furigana is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller kana or syllabic characters printed either above or next to kanji (logographic characters) or other characters to indicate their pronunciation. It is one type of ruby text. Furigana is also kn ...

)
Akutagawa Ryunosuke on Amazon Kindle Store
(Japanese texts with

)
Literary Figures from Kamakura

*
Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories

J'Lit , Authors : Ryunosuke Akutagawa , Books from Japan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akutagawa, Ryunosuke 1892 births 1927 suicides Drug-related suicides in Japan Barbiturates-related deaths University of Tokyo alumni Writers from Tokyo Japanese male short story writers Japanese haiku poets 1927 deaths Weird fiction writers