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Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (芥川 龍之介, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, 1 March 1892 – 24 July 1927), art name Chōkōdō Shujin (澄江堂主人),[2] was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period in Japan. He is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story", and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him.[3] He committed suicide at the age of 35 through an overdose of barbital.[4]

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Native name	芥川 龍之介
Born	Ryūnosuke Niihara (新原 龍之介) (1892-03-01)1 March 1892 Kyōbashi, Tokyo, Empire of Japan
Died	24 July 1927(1927-07-24) (aged 35) Tokyo, Empire of Japan
Occupation	Writer
Language	Japanese
Nationality	Japan
Alma mater	University of Tokyo
Genre	Short stories
Literary movement	Modernism[1]
Notable works	In a Grove Rashōmon Hana
Spouse	Fumi Akutagawa
Children	3 (including Yasushi Akutagawa)
Japanese name
Kanji	芥川 龍之介
Hiragana	あくたがわ りゅうのすけ
Transcriptions Romanization Akutagawa Ryūnosuke

Early life

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa was born in Irifune, Kyōbashi, Tokyo City (present-day Akashi, Chūō, Tokyo), the eldest son of businessman Toshizō Niihara and his wife Fuku. His family owned a milk production business.[5] 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 and Natsume Sōseki.

He entered the First High School in 1910, developing relationships with classmates such as Kan Kikuchi, Kume Masao, Yūzō Yamamoto, and Tsuchiya Bunmei [ja], all of whom would later become authors. He began writing after entering Tokyo Imperial University in 1913, where he studied English literature.

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: Hiroshi Akutagawa [ja] (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 as an English language 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 Shinshichō ("New Currents of Thought"), publishing translations of William Butler Yeats and Anatole France along with their own works. Akutagawa published his second short story 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, Natsume Sōseki, in December 1915 for Sōseki's weekly literary circles. In November, he published his short story Rashomon on Teikoku Mongaku, a literary magazine.[2] 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.[6]

It was also at this time that he started writing haiku under the haigo (or pen-name) Gaki. Akutagawa followed with a series of short stories set in Heian period, Edo period or early Meiji period 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, as a reporter for the Osaka 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, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou. Before his travel, he wrote a short story "The Christ of Nanjing [ja]"; concerning the Chinese Christian community; according to his own imagination of Nanjing influenced by Classical Chinese literature.[7]

Influences

This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2021)

This section possibly contains original research. (September 2021)

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.[8] Although Akutagawa was removed from Fuku eight months after his birth,[8] 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. Much of his work during this period is distinctly autobiographical, 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 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 (1927), a satire based on a creature from Japanese folklore, 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 and anxiety over the fear that he had inherited his mother's mental disorder. In 1927 he survived a suicide attempt, 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 "vague insecurity" (ぼんやりした不安, bon'yari shita fuan) about the future.[9] He was 35 years old.

Legacy

Akutagawa wrote over 150 short stories during his brief life,[10] a number of which were adapted into other art forms: Akira Kurosawa'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.[11] Ukrainian composer Victoria Poleva wrote the ballet Gagaku (1994), based on Akutagawa's Hell Screen. 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, 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[12] and even paid reference to the dead mentor in the shape of the deceased character Kuki.[13] In 1935, Akutagawa's lifelong friend Kan Kikuchi established the literary award for promising new writers, the Akutagawa Prize, in his honor.

In 2020 NHK 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.[14]

Selected works

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Year	Japanese title	English title(s)	English translator(s)
1914	老年 Rōnen	"Old Age"	Ryan Choi
1915	羅生門 Rashōmon	"Rashōmon"	Glen Anderson; Takashi Kojima; Jay Rubin; Glenn W. Shaw
1916	鼻 Hana	"The Nose"	Glen Anderson; Takashi Kojima; Jay Rubin; Glen W. Shaw
	芋粥 Imogayu	"Yam Gruel"	Takashi Kojima
	手巾 Hankechi	"The Handkerchief"	Charles De Wolf; Glenn W. Shaw
	煙草と悪魔 Tabako to Akuma	"Tobacco and the Devil"	Glenn W. Shaw
1917	尾形了斎覚え書 Ogata Ryosai Oboe gaki	"Dr. Ogata Ryosai: Memorandum"	Jay Rubin
	戯作三昧 Gesakuzanmai	"Absorbed in writing popular novels"
	首が落ちた話 Kubi ga ochita hanashi	"The Story of a Head That Fell Off"	Jay Rubin
1918	蜘蛛の糸 Kumo no Ito	"The Spider's Thread"	Dorothy Britton; Charles De Wolf; Bryan Karetnyk; Takashi Kojima; Howard Norman; Jay Rubin; Glenn W. Shaw
	地獄変 Jigokuhen	"Hell Screen"	Bryan Karetnyk; Takashi Kojima; Howard Norman; Jay Rubin
	枯野抄 Kareno shō	"A Commentary on the Desolate Field for Bashou"
	邪宗門 Jashūmon	"Jashūmon"	W.H.H. Norman
	奉教人の死 Hōkyōnin no Shi	"The Death of a Disciple"	Charles De Wolf
	袈裘と盛遠 Kesa to Morito	"Kesa and Morito"	Takashi Kojima; Charles De Wolf
1919	魔術 Majutsu	"Magic"
	竜 Ryū	"Dragon: the Old Potter's Tale"	Jay Rubin
1920	舞踏会 Butou Kai	"A Ball"	Glenn W. Shaw
	秋 Aki	"Autumn"	Charles De Wolf
	南京の基督 Nankin no Kirisuto	"Christ in Nanking"	Van C. Gessel
	杜子春 Toshishun	"Tu Tze-chun"	Dorothy Britton
	アグニの神 Aguni no Kami	"God of Aguni"
1921	山鴫 Yama-shigi	"A Snipe"
	秋山図 Shuzanzu	"Autumn Mountain"
	上海游記 Shanhai Yūki	"A Report on the Journey of Shanghai"
1922	藪の中 Yabu no Naka	"In a Grove," or "In a Bamboo Grove"	Glen Anderson; Bryan Karetnyk; Takashi Kojima; Jay Rubin
	将軍 Shōgun	"The General"	Bryan Karetnyk; W.H.H. Norman
	トロッコ Torokko	"A Lorry"
1923	保吉の手帳から Yasukichi no Techō kara	"From Yasukichi's Notebook"
1924	一塊の土 Ikkai no Tsuchi	"A Clod of Earth"	Takashi Kojima
		"Writer's Craft"	Jay Rubin
1925	大導寺信輔の半生 Daidōji Shinsuke no Hansei	"Daidōji Shinsuke: The Early Years"	Jay Rubin
	侏儒の言葉 Shuju no Kotoba	"Aphorisms by a Pygmy"
1926	点鬼簿 Tenkibo	"Death Register"	Jay Rubin
1927	玄鶴山房 Genkaku Sanbō	"Genkaku Sanbo"	Takashi Kojima
	蜃気楼 Shinkiro	"A Mirage"
	河童 Kappa	Kappa	Geoffrey Bownas; Seiichi Shiojiri
	仙人 Sennin	"The Wizard"	Charles De Wolf
	文芸的な、余りに文芸的な Bungeiteki na, amarini Bungeiteki na	"Literary, All-Too-Literary"
	歯車 Haguruma	"Spinning Gears" or "Cogwheels"	Charles De Wolf; Howard Norman; Jay Rubin
	或阿呆の一生 Aru Ahō no Isshō	"A Fool's Life" or "The Life of a Fool"	Charles De Wolf; Jay Rubin
	西方の人 Saihō no Hito	"The Man of the West"
1927	或旧友へ送る手記 Aru Kyūyū e Okuru Shuki	"A Note to a Certain Old Friend"

Works in English translation

• 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.[15]

• 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.[16]

• Tu Tze-Chun. Trans. Dorothy Britton. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1965.
• Kappa. Trans. Geoffrey Bownas. London: Peter Owen Publishers, 1970. ISBN 072064870X
• A Fool's Life. Trans. Will Petersen. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1970. ISBN 0670323500
• La fille au chapeau rouge. Trans. Lalloz ed. Picquier (1980). in ISBN 978-2-87730-200-5 (French edition)
• Cogwheels and Other Stories. Trans. Howard Norman. Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press, 1982. ISBN 0889621772

Cogwheels.--Hell Screen.--The Spider's Thread.

• The Spider's Thread and Other Stories. Trans. Dorothy Britton. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1987. ISBN 4061860275

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. ISBN 0941419029

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. ISBN 093925218X

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. ISBN 1568860617

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. ISBN 0140449701

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. ISBN 0231118600

"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. ISBN 9780907954354
• Mandarins. Trans. Charles De Wolf. Archipelago Books, 2007. ISBN 9780977857609

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. ISBN 9781935548126

Rashomon.--A Christian Death.--Agni.--In a Grove. [sic]

• Murder in the Age of Enlightenment: Essential Stories. Trans. Bryan Karetnyk. London: Pushkin Press, 2020. ISBN 9781782275558

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). ISBN 0-231-11435-4
• Ueda, Makoto. Modern Japanese Writers and the Nature of Literature. Stanford University Press (1971). ISBN 0-8047-0904-1
• Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories - the Chronology Chapter, Trans. Jay Rubin. Penguin Classics (2007). ISBN 978-0-14-303984-6

Japanese

• Nakada, Masatoshi. Akutagawa Ryunosuke: Shosetsuka to haijin. Kanae Shobo (2000). ISBN 4-907846-03-7
• Shibata, Takaji. Akutagawa Ryunosuke to Eibungaku. Yashio Shuppansha (1993). ISBN 4-89650-091-1
• Takeuchi, Hiroshi. Akutagawa Ryunosuke no keiei goroku. PHP Kenkyujo (1983). ISBN 4-569-21026-0
• Tomoda, Etsuo. Shoki Akutagawa Ryunosuke ron. Kanrin Shobo (1984). ISBN 4-906424-49-X

External links

• Works related to Ryūnosuke Akutagawa at Wikisource
• Works by Ryunosuke Akutagawa at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Ryūnosuke Akutagawa at Internet Archive
• Works by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• 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)
• Akutagawa Ryunosuke on Amazon Kindle Store (Japanese texts with furigana)
• Literary Figures from Kamakura
• Ryunosuke Akutagawa's grave
• Petri Liukkonen. "Ryūnosuke Akutagawa". Books and Writers
• Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories
• J'Lit | Authors : Ryunosuke Akutagawa | Books from Japan (in English)

На других языках

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- [en] Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

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[ru] Акутагава, Рюноскэ

Рюно́скэ Акутага́ва (яп. 芥川 龍之介 Акутагава Рю:носукэ, 1 марта 1892, Токио — 24 июля 1927, там же) — японский писатель, классик новой японской литературы. Отец композитора Ясуси Акутагавы и драматурга Хироси Акутагавы  (яп.) (рус.. Известен своими рассказами и новеллами. В 1935 году в Японии учреждена литературная Премия имени Рюноскэ Акутагавы.

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