Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Born	1 March 1892(1892-03-01) Tokyo, Japan
Died	24 July 1927(1927-07-24) (aged 35) Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Writer
Genres	short stories
Notable work(s)	"In a Grove" "Rashōmon" "Hana"

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (芥川 龍之介, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke^?, March 1, 1892 – July 24, 1927) was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period in Japan. He is regarded as the "Father of the Japanese short story". He committed suicide at age of 35 through an overdose of barbital.^[1]

Early life

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa was born in the Kyōbashi district of Tokyo, the third child and only son of father Toshizō Niihara and mother Fuku Niihara (née Akutagawa). He was named "Ryūnosuke" ("Son [of] Dragon") because he was allegedly born in the Year of the Dragon, in the Month of the Dragon, on the Day of the Dragon, and at the Hour of the Dragon. His mother went insane shortly after his birth, so he was adopted and raised by his maternal uncle, Akutagawa Dōshō, from whom he received the Akutagawa family name. He was interested in classical Chinese literature from an early age, as well as 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, Yamamoto Yūzō, and Tsuchiya Bunmei, 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 (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 Ryunosuke 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 first 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 noticed by author Natsume Sōseki. Encouraged by the praise, Akutagawa thereafter considered himself Sōseki's disciple, and began visiting the author for his literary circle meetings every Thursday. It was also at this time that he started writing haiku under the haigo (or pen-name) Gaki.

These meetings led to Hana ("The Nose", 1916), which was published in Shinshicho. 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).

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 attacked author Jun'ichirō Tanizaki by claiming that lyricism was more important than structure in a story.

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 the Bungeiteki na, amari ni bungeiteki na ("Literary, Much Too Literary", 1927).

Towards the end of his life, Akutagawa began suffering from visual hallucinations and nervousness over fear that he had inherited his mother's mental disorder. In 1927 he tried to take his own life, together with a friend of his wife, but the attempt failed. He finally committed suicide by taking an overdose of Veronal, which had been given to him by Saito Mokichi on July 24 of the same year. His dying words in his will claimed he felt a "vague insecurity" 「ぼんやりとした不安」 (Bon'yaritoshita fuan^?) about the future. He was 35 years old.^{[citation needed]}

Legacy

Akutagawa wrote no full-length novels, focusing instead on short stories of which he wrote over 150 during his brief life. The classic film Rashōmon (1950) directed by Akira Kurosawa is a reasonably faithful retelling of Akutagawa's story In a Grove. Only the title and the frame scenes set in the Rashomon Gate are taken from Akutagawa's story, "Rashomon." In the film Kurosawa must finally offer a scene which purports to show the events as they would have appeared to an objective observer. In Akutagawa's story no such resolution is required and the reader is left with no guide but their own understanding to unravel an unexplained mystery.

Japanese composer Mayako Kubo has written an opera named Rashomon, based on Akutagawa's story. The German version was premiered in Graz, Austria, in 1996, the Japanese version followed 2002 in Tokyo.

In 1935, Akutagawa's lifelong friend Kan Kikuchi established the literary award for promising new writers, the Akutagawa Prize, in his honor.

Selected works

Year	Japanese title	English title
1914	老年 Rōnen	Old Age
	羅生門 Rashōmon	Rashōmon
1916	鼻 Hana	The Nose
	芋粥 Imogayu	Yam Gruel
	手巾 Hankechi	The Handkerchief
	煙草と悪魔 Tabako to Akuma	Tobacco and the Devil
1917	尾形了斎覚え書 Ogata Ryosai Oboe gaki	Dr. Ogata Ryosai: Memorandum
	戯作三昧 Gesakuzanmai	Absorbed in writing popular novels
1918	蜘蛛の糸 Kumo no Ito	The Spider's Thread
	地獄変 Jigokuhen	Hell Screen
	枯野抄 Kareno shou	A commentary on the desolate field for Bashou
	邪宗門 Jashūmon	Jashūmon
	奉教人の死 Hōkyōnin no Shi	The Martyr
1919	魔術 Majutsu	Magic
	龍 Ryū	Dragon: the Old Potter's Tale
1920	舞踏会 Butou Kai	A ball
	秋 Aki	Autumn
	南京の基督 Nankin no Kirisuto	Christ in Nanking
	杜子春 Toshishun	Tu Tze-chun
	アグニの神 Aguni no Kami	God of Aguni
1921	山鴫 YamaShigi	A snipe
	秋山 Akiyama	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, also In a Bamboo Grove
	将軍 Shogun	The general
	トロッコ Torokko	A Lorry
1923	保吉の手帳から Yasukichi no Techou kara	From Yasukichi's notebook
1924	一塊の土 Ikkai no Tsuchi	A clod of earth
1925	大導寺信輔の半生 Daidoji Shinsuke no Hansei	Daidoji Shinsuke: The Early Years
	侏儒の言葉 Shuju no Kotoba	Aphorisms by a pygmy
1926	点鬼簿 Tenkibo	Death Register
1927	玄鶴山房 Genkaku Sanbō	Genkaku's room
	河童 Kappa	Kappa (novel)
	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
	或阿呆の一生 Aru Ahō no Isshō	Fool's Life
	或旧友へ送る手記 Aru Kyūyū he Okuru Shuki	A Note to a Certain Old Friend
	西方の人 Saihō no Hito	The Man of the West

Selected works in translation

• Fool's Life. Trans. Will Peterson Grossman (1970). ISBN 0670323500
• Kappa. Trans. Geoffery Bownas. Peter Owen Publishers (2006) ISBN 0720612004
• Hell Screen. Trans. H W Norman. Greenwood Press. (1970) ISBN 0837130174
• Mandarins. Trans. Charles de Wolf. Archipelago Books (2007) ISBN 0-9778576-0-3
• Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories. Trans. Jay Rubin. Penguin Classics (2004). ISBN 0143039849
• TuTze-Chun. Kodansha International (1965). ASIN B0006BMQ7I
• La fille au chapeau rouge. Trans. Lalloz ed. Picquier (1980). in ISBN 978-2877302005 (French edition)

References

1. ^ Books: Misanthrope from Japon Monday, Time Magazine. Dec. 29, 1952

English

• Keene, Donald. Dawn to the West. Columbia University Press; (1998). ISBN 0231114354
• Ueda, Makoto. Modern Japanese Writers and the Nature of Literature. Stanford University Press (1971). ISBN 0804709041
• Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories - the Chronology Chapter, Trans. Jay Rubin. Penguin Classics (2004). ISBN 0143039846

Japanese

• Nakada, Masatoshi. Akutagawa Ryunosuke: Shosetsuka to haijin. Kanae Shobo (2000). ISBN 4907846037
• Shibata, Takaji. Akutagawa Ryunosuke to Eibungaku. Yashio Shuppansha (1993). ISBN 4896500911
• Takeuchi, Hiroshi. Akutagawa Ryunosuke no keiei goroku. PHP Kenkyujo (1983). ISBN 4569210260
• Tomoda, Etsuo. Shoki Akutagawa Ryunosuke ron. Kanrin Shobo (1984). ISBN 490642449X

External links

• Works by Ryunosuke Akutagawa at Project Gutenberg
• 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
• Biography by Petri Liukkonen
• Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories

Persondata
Name	Akutagawa, Ryūnosuke
Alternative names	芥川 龍之介 (Japanese); Akutagawa Ryūnosuke
Short description	Japanese writer
Date of birth	1 March 1892
Place of birth	Tokyo, Japan
Date of death	24 July 1927
Place of death	Tokyo, Japan