Ryunosuke Akutagawa
Kappa
drawing at the bottom by an author.
Ryunosuke Akutagawa was born on March 1, 1892.
The word “Rashomon” was made world famous by Akira Kurosawa. (there are many Rashomon blogs – like this one).
In”Rashomon” Kurosawa combined two short stories by Akutagawa, Rashomon and In the Grove.
“In the Grove” – The rape, robbery and murder also from the Seven stories.
“In the case of “The Spider’s Thread” three separate sources served as Akutagawa’s inspiration12 : 1) a fable found in The Brothers Karamazov, 2) a captioned illustration found in The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, and 3) a story titled “The Spider’s Web” in Karma: A Story of Early Buddhism.”
Read “The Spider’s Thread” and commentary from here.
In 1935, his lifelong friend Kikuchi Kan established Japan’s most prestigious literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, in his honor.
Last Words (He was Pisces.)
Haunted by his mother’s madness, insomnia and self-loathing, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, one of Japan’s leading literary figures, killed himself at 35. But not before a final creative outpouring, says David Peace
Synchronicity – Mozart, Shiki Masaoka, Modigliani and Akutagawa all died at age of 35 years. (from here in Japanese)
Review of Kappa
See Kappa maki sushi here.
Two of Akutagawa sons became famous, Yasushi Akutagawa was a composer and Hiroshi Akutagawa was a Shakespearian actor who has appeared in Japanese film classics such as “The Mistress” , Kurosawa’s “Dodeska den” and other famous Mifune’s samurai films.
Fredrick Chopin and Lytton Strachey were born on March 1. All three of them had long faces. Lytton was by far the funniest, less melancholy than Chopin or Ryunosuke Akutagawa. He lived a little bit longer, died at 52 years.