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Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

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
BornRyūnosuke Niihara (新原 龍之介)
(1892-03-01)1 March 1892
Kyōbashi, Tokyo, Empire of Japan
Died24 July 1927(1927-07-24) (aged 35)
Tokyo, Empire of Japan
OccupationWriter
LanguageJapanese
Nationality Japan
Alma materUniversity of Tokyo
GenreShort stories
Literary movementModernism[1]
Notable works
SpouseFumi Akutagawa
Children3 (including Yasushi Akutagawa)
Japanese name
Kanji芥川 龍之介
Hiraganaあくたがわ りゅうのすけ
Transcriptions
RomanizationAkutagawa 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

 
A set photograph of 1919. The second from the left is Akutagawa. At the far left is Kan Kikuchi.

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

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

 
"Horse Legs", manuscript page, 1925

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

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
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"

Ryū
"Dragon: the Old Potter's Tale" Jay Rubin
1920 舞踏会
Butou Kai
"A Ball" Glenn W. Shaw

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

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

References

  1. ^ "Akutagawa Ryunosuke and the Taisho Modernists". aboutjapan.japansociety.org. About Japan. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  2. ^ a b 戸部原, 文三 (2015). 一冊で名作がわかる 芥川龍之介(KKロングセラーズ). PHP研究所. ISBN 978-4-8454-0785-9.
  3. ^ Jewel, Mark. "Japanese Literary Awards" . Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-28.. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  4. ^ , Time Magazine. Dec. 29, 1952
  5. ^ Ueda, Masaaki (2009). Konsaisu nihon jinmei jiten. Hideo Tsuda, Keiji Nagahara, Shōichi Fujii, Akira Fujiwara. Sanseidō. p. 19. ISBN 978-4-385-15801-3. OCLC 290447626.
  6. ^ Keene, Donald (1984). Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. pp. 558–562. ISBN 978-0-03-062814-6.
  7. ^ 関口, 安義 (2007). 世界文学としての芥川龍之介. Tokyo: 新日本出版社. p. 223. ISBN 9784406050470.
  8. ^ a b Tsuruta, Kinya (1999). "The Defeat of Rationality and the Triumph of Mother "Chaos": Akutagawa Ryūnosuke's Journey". Japan Review (11): 75–94. ISSN 0915-0986. JSTOR 25791036.
  9. ^ "芥川龍之介 或旧友へ送る手記". www.aozora.gr.jp.
  10. ^ Peace, David (27 March 2018). "There'd be dragons". The Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  11. ^ Arita, Eriko, "Ryunosuke Akutagawa in focus", Japan Times, 18 March 2012, p. 8.
  12. ^ "堀辰雄 (Hori Tatsuo)". Kotobank (in Japanese). Retrieved 3 September 2021.
  13. ^ Watanabe, Kakuji (1960). Japanische Meister der Erzählung (in German). Bremen: Walter Dorn Verlag.
  14. ^ World-Japan, Nhk (2019-12-03). "A Stranger in Shanghai, Dramatic Film that Captures Tumult of 1920's Shanghai, Makes International Broadcast Premiere on NHK WORLD-JAPAN December 27, 28". GlobeNewswire News Room. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  15. ^ Classe, Olive, ed. (2000). The Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English, Vol. 1. London & Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn. p. 31. ISBN 9780203825501.
  16. ^ "The Beautiful and the Grotesque". wwnorton.com. Retrieved 2022-10-26.

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)
  • Petri Liukkonen. "Ryūnosuke Akutagawa". Books and Writers
  • Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories
  • J'Lit | Authors : Ryunosuke Akutagawa | Books from Japan (in English)

ryūnosuke, akutagawa, native, form, this, personal, name, akutagawa, ryūnosuke, this, article, uses, western, name, order, when, mentioning, individuals, 芥川, 龍之介, akutagawa, ryūnosuke, march, 1892, july, 1927, name, chōkōdō, shujin, 澄江堂主人, japanese, writer, ac. The native form of this personal name is Akutagawa Ryunosuke This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals Ryunosuke Akutagawa 芥川 龍之介 Akutagawa Ryunosuke 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 Ryunosuke AkutagawaNative name芥川 龍之介BornRyunosuke Niihara 新原 龍之介 1892 03 01 1 March 1892Kyōbashi Tokyo Empire of JapanDied24 July 1927 1927 07 24 aged 35 Tokyo Empire of JapanOccupationWriterLanguageJapaneseNationality JapanAlma materUniversity of TokyoGenreShort storiesLiterary movementModernism 1 Notable worksIn a GroveRashōmonHanaSpouseFumi AkutagawaChildren3 including Yasushi Akutagawa Japanese nameKanji芥川 龍之介Hiraganaあくたがわ りゅうのすけTranscriptionsRomanizationAkutagawa Ryunosuke Contents 1 Early life 2 Literary career 3 Influences 4 Later life 5 Legacy 6 Selected works 7 Works in English translation 8 References 8 1 English 8 2 Japanese 9 External linksEarly life EditRyunosuke Akutagawa was born in Irifune Kyōbashi Tokyo City present day Akashi Chuō 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 Yuzō 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 Edit A set photograph of 1919 The second from the left is Akutagawa At the far left is Kan Kikuchi 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 EditThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed September 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message This section possibly contains original research Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations Statements consisting only of original research should be removed September 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message 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 Edit Horse Legs manuscript page 1925 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 EditAkutagawa 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 EditThis section may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Japanese October 2022 Click show for important translation instructions View a machine translated version of the Japanese article Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate rather than simply copy pasting machine translated text into the English Wikipedia Consider adding a topic to this template there are already 3 256 articles in the main category and specifying topic will aid in categorization Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low quality If possible verify the text with references provided in the foreign language article You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Japanese Wikipedia article at ja E8 8A A5 E5 B7 9D E9 BE 8D E4 B9 8B E4 BB 8B E8 91 97 E4 BD 9C see its history for attribution You should also add the template Translated ja E8 8A A5 E5 B7 9D E9 BE 8D E4 B9 8B E4 BB 8B E8 91 97 E4 BD 9C to the talk page For more guidance see Wikipedia Translation Year Japanese title English title s English translator s 1914 老年Rōnen Old Age Ryan Choi1915 羅生門Rashōmon Rashōmon Glen Anderson Takashi Kojima Jay Rubin Glenn W Shaw1916 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 Shaw1917 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 Rubin1918 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 Jashumon Jashumon 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 Wolf1919 魔術 Majutsu Magic 竜 Ryu Dragon the Old Potter s Tale Jay Rubin1920 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 Yuki 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 Rubin1925 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 Rubin1927 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 Kyuyu e Okuru Shuki A Note to a Certain Old Friend Works in English translation EditEminent Authors of Contemporary Japan Vol 2 Trans Eric S Bell amp Eiji Ukai Tokyo Kaitakusha 1930 The Spider s Web The Autumn The Nose dd 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 dd Hell Screen and Other Stories Trans W H H Norman Tokyo The Hokuseido Press 1948 Jigokuhen Jashumon The General Mensura Zoilii dd 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 amp Unwin Ltd 1952 San Sebastian translated by Arthur Waley dd 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 dd Modern Japanese Literature Grove Atlantic 1956 Kesa and Morito translated by Howard Hibbett dd Modern Japanese Stories An Anthology UNESCO 1961 Autumn Mountain translated by Ivan Morris dd Posthumous Works of Ryunosuke Akutagawa His Life Suicide amp Christ Trans Akio Inoue 1961 A Note Forwarded to a Certain Old Friend Life of a Certain Fool Western Man Western Man Continued dd 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 dd Exotic Japanese stories The Beautiful and the Grotesque Trans Takashi Kojima amp John McVittie New York Liveright Pub Corp 1964 The Robbers The Dog Shiro The Handkerchief The Dolls Gratitude The Faith of Wei Sheng The Lady Roku no miya The Kappa Saigo 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 dd 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 0889621772Cogwheels Hell Screen The Spider s Thread dd The Spider s Thread and Other Stories Trans Dorothy Britton Tokyo Kodansha International 1987 ISBN 4061860275The Spider s Thread The Art of the Occult Tu Tze chun The Wagon The Tangerines The Nose The Dolls Whitie dd Hell screen Cogwheels A Fool s Life Eridanos Press 1987 ISBN 0941419029Reprints Kojima and Petersen translations Cogwheels translated by Cid Corman and Susumu Kamaike dd Akutagawa amp Dazai Instances of Literary Adaptation Trans James O Brien Tempe Arizona Arizona State University Press 1988 ISBN 093925218XThe Clown s Mask The Immortal Rashō Gate Hell Screen Within a Grove The Shadow dd The Kyoto Collection Stories from the Japanese 1989 The Faint Smiles of the Gods translated by Tomoyoshi Genkawa amp Bernard Susser dd Travels in China Shina yuki Trans Joshua Fogel Chinese Studies in History 30 no 4 1997 Essential Akutagawa New York Marsilio Publishers 1999 ISBN 1568860617Rashomon 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 amp In a Grove translated by Seiji M Lippit A Note to a Certain Old Friend translated by Beongcheon Yu Reprints translations by Britton Corman amp Kamaike Genkawa amp Susser Hibbett Kojima Morris Petersen amp Waley dd Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories Trans Jay Rubin Penguin Classics 2006 ISBN 0140449701Rashomon 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 dd 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 dd A Fool s Life Trans Anthony Barnett amp Toraiwa Naoko Lewes England Allardyce Books 2007 ISBN 9780907954354 Mandarins Trans Charles De Wolf Archipelago Books 2007 ISBN 9780977857609Mandarins 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 dd 3 Strange Tales Trans Glen Anderson New York One Peace Books 2012 ISBN 9781935548126Rashomon A Christian Death Agni In a Grove sic dd Murder in the Age of Enlightenment Essential Stories Trans Bryan Karetnyk London Pushkin Press 2020 ISBN 9781782275558The Spider s Thread In a Grove Hell Screen Murder in the Age of Enlightenment The General Madonna in Black Cogwheels dd References Edit Akutagawa Ryunosuke and the Taisho Modernists aboutjapan japansociety org About Japan Retrieved 8 June 2019 a b 戸部原 文三 2015 一冊で名作がわかる 芥川龍之介 KKロングセラーズ PHP研究所 ISBN 978 4 8454 0785 9 Jewel Mark Japanese Literary Awards Jlit Net Archived from the original on 2015 04 02 Retrieved 2015 03 28 Retrieved 2014 06 25 Books Misanthrope from Japon Monday Time Magazine Dec 29 1952 Ueda Masaaki 2009 Konsaisu nihon jinmei jiten Hideo Tsuda Keiji Nagahara Shōichi Fujii Akira Fujiwara Sanseidō p 19 ISBN 978 4 385 15801 3 OCLC 290447626 Keene Donald 1984 Dawn to the West Japanese Literature of the Modern Era New York Holt Rinehart and Winston pp 558 562 ISBN 978 0 03 062814 6 関口 安義 2007 世界文学としての芥川龍之介 Tokyo 新日本出版社 p 223 ISBN 9784406050470 a b Tsuruta Kinya 1999 The Defeat of Rationality and the Triumph of Mother Chaos Akutagawa Ryunosuke s Journey Japan Review 11 75 94 ISSN 0915 0986 JSTOR 25791036 芥川龍之介 或旧友へ送る手記 www aozora gr jp Peace David 27 March 2018 There d be dragons The Times Literary Supplement Retrieved 4 March 2019 Arita Eriko Ryunosuke Akutagawa in focus Japan Times 18 March 2012 p 8 堀辰雄 Hori Tatsuo Kotobank in Japanese Retrieved 3 September 2021 Watanabe Kakuji 1960 Japanische Meister der Erzahlung in German Bremen Walter Dorn Verlag World Japan Nhk 2019 12 03 A Stranger in Shanghai Dramatic Film that Captures Tumult of 1920 s Shanghai Makes International Broadcast Premiere on NHK WORLD JAPAN December 27 28 GlobeNewswire News Room Retrieved 2021 10 02 Classe Olive ed 2000 The Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English Vol 1 London amp Chicago Fitzroy Dearborn p 31 ISBN 9780203825501 The Beautiful and the Grotesque wwnorton com Retrieved 2022 10 26 English Edit 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 6Japanese Edit 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 XExternal links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ryunosuke Akutagawa Wikiquote has quotations related to Ryunosuke Akutagawa Novels portal Japan portal Biography portal Works related to Ryunosuke Akutagawa at Wikisource Works by Ryunosuke Akutagawa at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Ryunosuke Akutagawa at Internet Archive Works by Ryunosuke 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 Ryunosuke Akutagawa Books and Writers Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories J Lit Authors Ryunosuke Akutagawa Books from Japan in English Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Ryunosuke Akutagawa amp oldid 1130977204, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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