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

, was a Japanese

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

active in the Taishō period in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. He is regarded as the "father of the Japanese

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single 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 old ...

", and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him. He took his own life 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. Retrieved on September 20, 2014.

of barbital.

Early life

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa was born in Irifune, Kyōbashi,

Tokyo City was a Cities of Japan, municipality in Japan and capital of Tokyo Prefecture (1868–1943), Tokyo Prefecture (or ''Tokyo-fu'') which existed from 1 May 1889 until the establishment of Tokyo Metropolis on 1 July 1943. The historical boundari ...

(present-day Akashi, Chūō,

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

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

Chinese literature The history of Chinese literature extends thousands of years, and begins with the earliest recorded inscriptions, court archives, building to the major works of philosophy and history written during the Axial Age. The Han dynasty, Han (202 ...

from an early age, as well as in the works of Mori Ōgai and Natsume Sōseki. He entered the First High School in 1910 and developed relationships with classmates such as Kan Kikuchi, Kume Masao, Yūzō Yamamoto, and , all of whom would later become authors. He began writing after entering Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo) in 1913, where he studied

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

. 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 , whom he married in 1918. They had three children: Hiroshi Akutagawa (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. Following graduation, Akutagawa taught briefly at the Naval Engineering School in

Yokosuka, Kanagawa is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 373,797, 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 is ...

as an

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

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

Literary career

In 1914, Akutagawa and his former high school friends revived the literary journal ''Shinshichō'' ("New Currents of Thought"), where they published translations of

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th century in literature, 20th-century literature. He was ...

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.short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single 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 old ...

" 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 greatly criticized it. Nonetheless, Akutagawa gathered up the courage to visit his idol, Natsume Sōseki, in December 1915 for Sōseki's weekly literary circles. In November, he published the work in the literary magazine ''Teikoku Mongaku''. In early 1916 he published "Hana" ("The Nose", 1916), which received a letter of praise from Sōseki and secured Akutagawa his first taste of fame. It was also at this time that Akutagawa started writing

haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

under the ''haigo'' (

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

) ''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 Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

or early

Meiji period The was 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 colonizatio ...

Japan. These stories reinterpreted classical works and historical incidents. Examples of these stories include: ''Gesaku zanmai'' ("Absorbed in Letters", 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. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, as a reporter for the ''

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

Mainichi Shinbun''. 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 or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

and

Suzhou Suzhou is a major prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. As part of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, it is a major economic center and focal point of trade and commerce. Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou rapidly grew in size by the ...

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

Influences

Akutagawa's stories were influenced by his belief that the practice of literature should be universal and could bring together Western and Japanese cultures. The idea can be seen in the way that Akutagawa used 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 his 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 mainly 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 madness. 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. The women who appear in Akutagawa's stories, much like his mother figures, were for the most part 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 deteriorating physical and

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

. 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, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

, some with text 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). At this time, 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 range from shocking depictions of sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions to subtle portr ...

over the importance of structure versus lyricism in stories. 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 ; , ''káppa'') is the tenth 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 of 20. It was d ...

'' (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 exposin ...

based on the eponymous creature from

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

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

hallucinations A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the compelling sense of reality. They are distinguishable from several related phenomena, such as dreaming ( REM sleep), which does not involve wakefulness; pse ...

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

suicide attempt A suicide attempt is an act in which an individual tries to kill themselves but survives. Mental health professionals discourage describing suicide attempts as "failed" or "unsuccessful", as doing so may imply that a suicide resulting in death is ...

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

During the course of his short life, Akutagawa wrote 150 short stories. A number of these have been adapted into other media.

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...

's famous 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 wrote the ballet ''Gagaku'' (1994), based on Akutagawa's " Hell Screen". Japanese composer Mayako Kubo wrote an

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

entitled ''Rashomon'', based on Akutagawa's story. The German version premiered in Graz, Austria in 1996, and the Japanese version in Tokyo in 2002. The central conceit of the story (i.e. conflicting accounts of the same events from different points of view, with none "definitive") has entered into storytelling as an accepted trope. In 1930, Tatsuo Hori, a writer, who saw himself as a disciple of Akutagawa, published his short story " Sei kazoku" (literally "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 Kan Kikuchi established the

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

for promising new writers, the Akutagawa Prize, in his honor. In 2020

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

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

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, 1965. *''Kappa''. Trans. Geoffrey Bownas. London: Peter Owen Publishers, 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). *''The 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. 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

s 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 fictio ...

, 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, 2020. ::The Spider's Thread.--In a Grove.--Hell Screen.--Murder in the Age of Enlightenment.--The General.--Madonna in Black.--Cogwheels. *''In Dreams: The Very Short Stories of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa''. Trans. Ryan Choi. London: Paper + Ink, 2023. ::Old Age.--In Dreams.--The Heron and the Mandarin Duck.--A Certain Socialist.--Sentences and Words.--Duck Hunting.--A Case of Two Fakes.--A Game of Tag.--Merchant Virgin Mary.--Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.--Pagoda Trees.--Frogs.--Kimono.--Snow.--Eastern Autumn.--Swamps I & II.--Kanzan and Jittoku.--Frosty Night.--Collecting Books.--River Fish Market--Dialogue with Hiroshi.--Tiger Stories.--A Moral Point.--Kachikachi Mountain.--Sennin.--Senjo.--Birthing Hut.--Masks.--As Food.--Hardship.--Strong Gifted Man, Weak Gifted Man.--The Women I Like in Romance Novels.--Flowers of the Sal Tree.--Garden Verdure.--On a Sunny Spring Day, Walking Idly Alone.--The Parrot: Notes on the Great Earthquake.--On Applause.--Memories from the Red Gate.--Yokosuka Scenes.--In the City (or Tokyo 1916).--Spring Nights.--Notes on Delirium.--Twenty Remarks on China.--Selected Notes from Kugenuma.--Ten Thorns.--Record of Eyes and Ears.--Nagasaki.--Karuizawa.--Hack Writer: A Play.--Tiger Stories: A Play)

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

furigana is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller kana (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 know ...

)
Akutagawa Ryunosuke on Amazon Kindle Store
(Japanese texts with furigana)

*
Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories

J'Lit , Authors : Ryunosuke Akutagawa , Books from Japan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akutagawa, Ryunosuke 1892 births 1927 deaths 1927 suicides 20th-century Japanese poets Barbiturates-related deaths Drug-related suicides in Japan Japanese haiku poets Japanese male short story writers Japanese satirists Japanese satirical novelists People from Chūō, Tokyo University of Tokyo alumni Weird fiction writers Writers from Tokyo