In 1915, during the Taisho period of Japanese history, Japanese author Ryunosuke Akutagawa created a collection of short stories titled Rashomon and Other Stories. A progenitor of the modern Japanese short story, Akutagawa's collection of allegorical sketches transcends the boundaries of social, moral, and linguistic constructs and has received worldwide praise. When it was translated into English in 1952, Rashomon had already accumulated many fans around the world, including Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, whose 1950 cinematic integration of the novel's first two stories, "Rashomon" and "In a Grove”, is considered one of his best films. These two stories from Akutagawa's novel are not just an excellent format for cinematic interpretation, but also a mirror through which Akutagawa's literary masterpiece can be interpreted.Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay A student of Natsume Soseki, the acclaimed author of psychological novels on par with the Russian masters, Akutagawa delves into the psyche and pathos of medieval Japan, creating a stylistic veneer of simple beauty matched only by the rich underlying social commentary and observations of Japan's dizzying entry into the industrialized world. Born in Tokyo in 1892, Akutagawa experienced a childhood of loss and unhappiness: he lost his mother to mental illness and his father gave him up for adoption to his relatives. These early tragedies would cast a shadow over young Akutagawa that would haunt and depress him for the rest of his life. To comfort his troubled mind, Akutagawa fell in love with the written word and began studying and writing literature at Tokyo Imperial University. The first work of the talented young writer was published even before graduating from college. After his successful years at Tokyo Imperial University, Akutagawa visited Russia and China and began teaching English and writing haikus, short stories, and short stories. His depression deepened and persisted throughout his life, extending into his work and his dark and powerful depictions of medieval Japan, until his suicide in 1927, at the age of just 35. His powerful diction and imagery in his portrayal of Japanese culture is reminiscent of Kafka's dark portrait of Prague or Sinclair's grimy urban America. His simple but poignant style, similar to that of his contemporary Japanese authors, is a subtle return to French naturalist fiction. Akutagawa expounds the naturalist school of thought and, without the limitations of the scientific style of authors like Honor de Balzac, he captures a view of Japan through a more subjective look at humanity itself. His pastoral recollections of the Japanese peasant subject to courtesan rule give his readers a personal insight into the Japanese culture of times gone by. Through an understanding of the influence of this era, its readers gain an appreciation of the means by which modern Japanese culture came into existence. Akutagawa opens his novella with the short story “In A Grove”. Written from the perspectives of seven different people about a crime allegedly committed by a thief, Tajomaru, the multi-perspective narrative is a revolutionary format that has since been replicated by authors and filmmakers from both East and West. The only hard facts in the story are that a man was found dead in a grove of trees, with a single wound to his chest. Akutagawa explores the different angles of the story from the perspectives of the woodcutter who discovered the body, a Buddhist priest who met the slain man just before his death, apolice officer who arrested Tajomaru, the mother of the deceased's wife, Tajomaru himself, the dead man's wife, and finally the dead man himself, through a psychic medium. Each character adds different facts to the story, sometimes contradictory to each other, and sometimes corroborating the accounts of other witnesses. The beauty and simplicity of Akutagawa's style lies in the fact that he never reveals the true story through a third-person omniscient narrator. After a quick reading of the text, this may seem like an omission on the part of the author that leaves his readers wanting to resolve the story, but upon closer examination, this apparent lack of information is actually a method by which Akutagawa proves a very valid point. Akutagawa points out that, as in the real world, in his story there is no ultimate truth about reality, nor a correct and conclusive answer. Perception is reality, and for each of the characters in the story, their perceptions of the events that took place, as well as their narratives, are their own inherent realities. This does not mean, however, that the accounts given by each of the characters are indeed what they actually perceived, or even what they actually believe happened. Akutagawa, while not literally discussing medieval Japanese values ​​of samurai honor and shame, actually gives his readers a deeper insight into these ancient values ​​than could be literally transcribed onto paper. Tajomaru admits in his account to raping the murdered man's wife while the man watched; bound to the root of the cedar and killing man himself. However, he claims he only stabbed his husband because the murdered man's wife pushed him to do so. After crossing swords with the man and emerging victorious, Tajomaru turned around to find that the woman had fled the grove. The woman's account differs somewhat, in that she claims that she was the one who murdered her husband in order to preserve his honor. After witnessing the violation of his wife by another man, the murdered man could no longer continue to live by the code of honor of a Japanese warrior. After mercifully stabbing her husband, the woman claims she attempted suicide by drowning herself, but, unable to commit suicide, she returned to the village to live in dishonor. The story of the murdered man differs again. He claims that his wife complied with Tajomaru's sexual demands and that after having sex in front of the bound man, she agreed to marry Tajomaru, on the condition that Tajomaru kill her husband. There is no honorable way to marry another while her husband is still alive, so the only solution for the woman would be the murder of the man. The murdered man says that Tajomaru refused to kill the man for his own honor and he gave the man a choice over his wife's fate. In doing so, the man claims that his wife ran away and that Tajomaru broke his ties and ran away as well. After being thus betrayed by his wife, the man took his own sword and thrust it into his chest in sacrificial suicide. These discrepancies in the different narratives arise not only from differences in perceptions, but also from differences in how each person would like the story to be remembered, both for their own honor and that of their loved ones. Each character's narrative presents them in the best possible light, given the circumstances. The murdered man would like to be remembered not as someone who was killed after losing a battle to another warrior, but as someone who valiantly committed suicide in response to shame and dishonor that his wife inflicted on him. At the same time, he does not want to incriminate his wife fora wrongdoing, so even if she stabbed him out of lack of honor, he couldn't tell the police, because that would make her guilty of his murder. The wife of the murdered man, also respecting the code of honor, would not dare reveal anything if there was indeed a romantic connection between her and Tajomaru, and yet, at the same time, she would not want her husband to be perceived as someone infamous. shot down in combat or killed while tied to a tree. Therefore, she says that she did an honorable thing, that she took her husband's life, and then tried to take his life.hers. Tajomaru of course doesn't want to be found guilty of this man's murder and therefore wouldn't admit to it. At the same time, if he had indeed had an extramarital affair with this man's wife, he would not want to reveal their infidelity out of respect for the woman he loves. This complex web of deception and misinformation causes Akutagawa's readers to step back from the individual narratives, examine the story as a whole, and draw their own conclusion as to the true chain of events. Since no narrative can be more reliable than another, Akutagawa opens up a world of speculation and imagination that could not be conveyed through more conventional means of storytelling. This revolutionary style has captured the imagination of countless readers and paved the way for debate about the schisms between perception and reality; truth and lies, honor and dishonor. This open story format is now an almost archetypal style, often seen in modern society in advertisements, novels; such as Christopher McQuarrie's "The Usual Suspects" and films; like Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" (1992). Akutagawa's second story in the Rashomon collection is an eponymous vignette centered on a large, dilapidated gate in Kyoto, Japan named Rashomon. Built during the Japanese Heian period in 789, when the capital of Japan was moved to Heian, now called Kyoto, the gate fell into disrepair after western Kyoto was abandoned. A series of natural disasters and a steady decline in the workforce left the gate a mere facade of its once mighty architecture. During this period, Japan continued to refine its cultural heritage and the country became a model of the life of a courtesan, always in search of beauty. While courtesans prospered, provincial clans also rose to higher levels of power, creating a socio-economic divide in the country. As courtesans moved further and further away from life outside the palace walls, the quality of life of the proletariat declined. As social classes separated further, a complete disregard for the lower states emerged. The Rashoman, once a proud monument, has become a hideout for thieves and murderers. Rats and vermin have infested its structure. As the death toll from malnutrition, disease, and various natural disasters increased, the unclaimed bodies of the lower classes were left to rot at the door. The underlying pattern of history is the balance between what is right and what is necessary. . Akutagawa's protagonist in "Rashoman" is a servant who has recently been dismissed from his position. He finds himself a man without a master and has few options for survival. While waiting for heavy rain at Rashoman's base, the man decides he only has two options available to him; he may attempt to seek honest means of financing and inevitably face prolonged starvation, ending up rotting like so many others at the door, or he may become a thief and, with luck, survive these hard times through ill-gotten gains.Lost in thought, the man seeks refuge from the storm inside the wall. After climbing the stairs to the inner recesses of the wall, he sees a horrible, emaciated old woman, carefully plucking long black hair from the head of one of the many corpses lining the floor of the cavernous room. The servant instantly recoils at the sight of the old woman, and Akutagawa relates that if the man had then thought about his debate between theft and righteous living, he would most certainly choose the path of honesty, honor and righteousness. inevitable death. He approaches the woman angrily, furious that someone would steal from the deceased in this way, and asks her why she is defiling these corpses. Her answer surprises him. She tells him that she collects the hair to make a wig and that the seemingly innocent corpse she loots actually belonged to a local merchant who sold snake flesh to the town guards, passing it off as dried fish. . The old woman explained that what the merchant had done, although deceptive and dishonest, could not be objected to morally, because if she had not deceived the city guards, the merchant would have starved to death. . Likewise, the old woman would starve if she did not steal the long black hair to make wigs to sell, and so the merchant whose corpse was being desecrated would have no objection to the old woman's actions. . This sense of logic first confuses the man, then seemingly codifies his own choices for him. In what appears to be a moment of anger and clarity, he tells the old woman that he must steal her possessions so that he can then sell them, so that he too does not risk death from starvation. thought the maid's actions in stealing his clothes were morally wrong, and yet there is much more to Akutagawa's story than that. At first, it seems that the servant adheres to the old woman's code of survival ethics, takes his clothes, and leaves into the night in order to continue his original plan of stealing to survive; fortified by its new moral code. However, upon further evaluation of the text, this does not appear to be the case. Akutagawa uses this story to sardonically highlight the differences between the morals and ethics of the Eastern world and the Western world. Western philosophy generally holds that morality comes from divine decree. According to Judeo-Christian philosophy, what is considered immoral is evil because a supreme being has deemed it so, and therefore it should not be done out of fear of divine vengeance. Eastern philosophy does not characterize morality in this way. Akutagawa's protagonist is a servant who has been removed from his position, a man with no master or supreme being exercising control over him, much like a follower of Buddhism or Shintoism. His actions are responsible to himself and to those upon whom his actions affect, whether good or bad. The servant actually seems to realize that death is a better option than dishonor, both for him and for the old woman. By taking her clothes and fleeing into the night, the man is not simply choosing to follow her path, but is actually showing her that her code of ethics is flawed and naive. It is very likely that the old woman will die without clothes and possessions, but if, as a result of the actions of the servant, she realizes the error of her erroneous perceptions of morality before her death, then her death and, more importantly, the handmaid's actions did not take place. in vain. Akutagawa seems to be trying to emphasize that the reward for man's good deeds is not a larger share of the Judeo-Christian paradise, but earthly reciprocity of good deeds, or, 1919.