Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Japanese writer of the Taishō period (1 March 1892, Kyōbashi, Tokyo — 24 July 1927, Tokyo). Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (芥川 龍之介), born Ryūnosuke Niihara (新原 龍之介), is widely regarded as the "founding father of Japanese short story." Despite a prematurely ended career, Akutagawa published a diverse body of texts translated into dozens of languages, leaving a lasting and profound impact on contemporary writers across the globe. One of the nation's most prestigious literary awards, the Akutagawa Prize (芥川龍之介賞), awarded bi-annually since 1935, is named after him. Ryunosuke had three sons, including actor Hiroshi Akutagawa (1920—1981) and composer Yasushi Akutagawa (1925—1989). In September 2015, one of the Mercury craters received the writer's name. Ryunosuke Akutagawa committed suicide by barbiturates overdose at only 35; he suffered from hallucinations and heavy anxiety over possibly inheriting his mother's mental disorder for several years. In his will, the writer described his feelings as "vague insecurity" (ぼんやりした不安) about the future. Akutagawa's most renowned stories are 1915 Rashōmon (羅生門), based on the adaption of traditional tales from the VIII-XII-century anthology Konjaku Monogatarishū (今昔物語集), and 1922 In a Grove (藪の中), sometimes translated as In a Bamboo Grove. The latter was Akutagawa's original story, divided into seven sections with different testimonies of the same murder. (Ryunosuke was likely inspired by Robert Browning's narrative poem The Ring and the Book (1868/69) and The Moonlit Road 1907 gothic horror story by Ambrose Bierce). The two texts often overlap in the Western audience's perception — due to the best-known film adaption, Akira Kurosawa's 1950 Rashōmon. (The movie is primarily based on the Grove's narrative and only utilized a few of Rashomon's attributes; however, Kurosawa still decided to name it after the least used story). The same is true for the next generation's primary cinematic tribute to Akutagawa, the '99 film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring Forest Whitaker. Other notable acknowledgments and dedications to Rashōmon and In a Grove include: ♬ 1972 LP album by Takeshi Terauchi & Blue Jeans ⎙ Rashomon: The Opera (1995–99) by Alejandro Viñao ⎙ See What I Wanna See (2006) Broadway musical by Michael John LaChiusa