‘Clear-eyed glimpses of human behavior in the extremities of poverty, stupidity, greed, vanity… Story-telling of an unconventional sort, with most of the substance beneath the shining, enameled surface.’ –The New York Times Book Review
Widely acknowledged as ‘the father of the Japanese short story, ‘ Ryunosuke Akutagawa remains one of the most influential Japanese writers of all time.
Rashomon and Other Stories, a collection of his most celebrated work, resonates as strongly today as when it first published a century ago.
This volume includes:
- In a Grove: An iconic, contradictory tale of the murder of a samurai in a forest near Kyoto told through three varying accounts
- Rashomon: A masterless samurai contemplates following a life of crime as he encounters an old woman at the old Rashomon gate outside Kyoto
- Yam Gruel: A low-ranking court official laments his position all the while yearning for his favorite, yet humble, dish
- The Martyr: Set in Japan’s Christian missionary era, a young boy is excommunicated for fathering an illegitimate child, but not all is as it seems
- Kesa and Morito: An adulterous couple plots to kill the woman’s husband as the situation threatens to spin out of control
- The Dragon: A priest concocts a prank involving a dragon, but the tall tale begins to take on a life of its own
About the author
Ryunosuke Akutagawa was the author of over 100 short stories. Described as one of the best-read men of his generation, he received a degree in English Literature from Tokyo Imperial University and published translations by Anatole France and W. B. Yeats. Two of his short stories from this collection became the basis of the award-winning movie
Rashomon by famed director Akira Kurosawa. In 1927, he committed suicide at the age of thirty-five.
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