Rashomon & Seventeen Other Stories

Ryünosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of Japan`s foremost stylists - a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour. `Rashömon` 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.