Akutagawa Ryunosuke (
1892-
1927) was a prominent modern
Japanese poet and author.
Early on, Ryunosuke’s brilliance asserted itself. He studied
English at the
University of Tokyo from
1913 to
1916. While still an undergraduate, he achieved literary fame. He translated Western literature such as the work of
Anatole France and
William Butler Yeats. His short stories "
Rashomon" (the basis for the
Akira Kurosawa film several decades later) and
"Hana" ("The Nose") were highly acclaimed, especially by the prominent novelist
Natsume Soseki. Soseki helped him gain entrance into literary circles and served as a source of inspiration and encoragement.
After graduation, he taught English in
Tokyo and began writing
haiku under the
pseudonym "
Gaki". In
1919, he began writing short stories and essays for the newspaper
Mainichi. Following a five month visit to
China in
1921, his health seriously deteriorated and he suffered from
nervous breakdowns.
Akutagawa’s fiction was often exotic and drew from disparate sources from all over Japanese history and legend. Important stories include "The Handkerchief" (
1916),
"Yabu no naka" ("In a Grove",
1921), "Hell Screen" (
1922), and "
Kappa" (
1927), the last based on the amphibious demons of Japanese mythology.
In
1927, at age 35, he committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills.