Essential Akutagawa

Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of the biggest names in Japanese literature, recognized for his mastery of the short story form. He was a contemporary of Osamu Dazai, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki and Soseki Natsume. In the West, he is best known for his short story In a Grove, adapted by Akira Kurosawa in his award-winning movie Rashomon. Many of his stories highlight a fascination with supernatural and transformational phenomena while others have vivid historical backdrops and display influences from classic Japanese and Western fiction. In 1927, at the age of 35, he killed himself.Richard Medhurst was born in the UK and lives in Yokohama. His translation of Akutagawa's An Odd Tale was published in Kyoto Journal in 2018, and his translation of Eiji Suzuki's Lingering Fragrance was published in the anthology Strokes of Brush and Blade (Kurodahan Press, 2018). He has worked as a translator, editor and writer for the online magazine Nippon.com for over a decade, specializing in literature and history. He has also written a popular series of articles about studying Japanese which have received tens of thousands of page views. His article on Japan's 72 microseasons helped popularize the concept in the English-speaking world.

"Akutagawa wrote in the 1910s and 1920s, a period of rapid change in Japan with the influx of capitalist ideas and industrialization. "His work reflects the time's dread, sense of moral decay, and struggle for truth and meaning," Taylor says. "These themes are all really modern." She recommends Akutagawa for fans of Dostoevsky, Murakami, Kafka, and Flannery O'Connor." —Library Journal interviews Cathy Taylor on "The most comprehensive anthology of short stories by Japanese master Ryunosuke Akutagawa ever published in English," The Essential Akutagawa