Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories

This collection features a brilliant new translation of the Japanese master's stories, from the source for the movie *Rashōmon* to his later, more autobiographical writings.

Ryūnosuke 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. ‘*Rashōmon*’ 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.

A WORLD IN DECAY

- *Rashōmon*

- *In a Bamboo Grove*

- *The Nose*

- *Dragon: The Old Potter's Tale*

- *The Spider Thread*

- *Hell Screen*

UNDER THE SWORD

- *Dr. Ogata Ryōsai: Memorandum*

- *O-Gin*

- *Loyalty*

MODERN TRAGICOMEDY

- *The Story of a Head That Fell Off*

- *Green Onions*

- *Horse Legs*

AKUTAGAWA'S OWN STORY

- *Daidōji Shinsuke: The Early Years*

- *The Writer's Craft*

- *The Baby's Sickness*

- *Death Register*

- *The Life of a Stupid Man*

- *Spinning Gears*