Akutagawa's Rashomon and Other Stories
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa · 1915
Akutagawa essentially invented modern Japanese short fiction. His psychologically complex, formally inventive stories established the tradition that runs through Kawabata, Mishima, and Murakami. "Rashomon" and "In a Grove" (the basis for Kurosawa's 1950 film) are essential.
The case against
Akutagawa's irony is surgical and cold to the touch; the stories are flawless mechanisms that keep you at a clinical distance from everyone in them. Many are reworkings of twelfth-century Konjaku tales, borrowed frames polished to a high shine. Which translation you pick matters enormously, and the collections never agree on contents.
Short Stories · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
