Rashōmon

This collection includes both historical stories and novellas that brought Akutagawa worldwide fame and are automatically associated with his name (including the legendary “In a Grove,” which served as the basis for Kurosawa’s immortal film “Rashomon”), as well as less well-known stories for Western readers, but held even higher at the author’s homeland. Their events take place against the backdrop of the early 20th century Japan contemporaneous with the author—still preserving many elements of national distinctiveness, but rapidly and greedily “Europeanizing.” Special mention should be made of Akutagawa’s recurring reminiscences of classical Russian literature, which he admired without limit and in which, alongside his native history, he found an inexhaustible source of inspiration.