The Story
For fans of ShĹgun: The best stories by the father of the Japanese short storyâincluding the two that inspired Kurosawa's classic samurai film about the subjectivity of truthâfeaturing an introduction by Haruki Murakami
RyĂźnosuke Akutagawa is one of Japan's foremost stylistsâa modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour. "RashĂśmon"and "In a Bamboo Grove" inspired Kurosawa's magnificent film and depict a past in which morality is turned upside down, while tales such as "The Nose," "O-Gin" and "Loyalty" paint a rich and imaginative picture of a medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns and priests, vagrants and peasants.
And in later works such as "Death Register," "The Life of a Stupid Man," and "Spinning Gears," Akutagawa drew from his own life to devastating effect, revealing his intense melancholy and terror of madness in exquisitely moving impressionistic stories.
Description
For fans of ShĹgun: The best stories by the father of the Japanese short storyâincluding the two that inspired Kurosawa's classic samurai film about the subjectivity of truthâfeaturing an introduction by Haruki Murakami
RyĂźnosuke Akutagawa is one of Japan's foremost stylistsâa modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour. "RashĂśmon"and "In a Bamboo Grove" inspired Kurosawa's magnificent film and depict a past in which morality is turned upside down, while tales such as "The Nose," "O-Gin" and "Loyalty" paint a rich and imaginative picture of a medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns and priests, vagrants and peasants.
And in later works such as "Death Register," "The Life of a Stupid Man," and "Spinning Gears," Akutagawa drew from his own life to devastating effect, revealing his intense melancholy and terror of madness in exquisitely moving impressionistic stories.
