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*{{cite book|author=Murray, Giles|year=2003|title=Breaking into Japanese Literature |publisher=Kodansha|id=ISBN 4770028997}} A bilingual book with "In a Grove" & "Rashomon" | ||
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Revision as of 20:54, 26 February 2006
"Rashōmon" (羅生門) is a short story by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke based on tales from the Konjaku Monogatarishū.
The story was published in 1915 in Teikoku Bungaku. Together with In a Grove, it provided the plot material for the Akira Kurosawa movie Rashōmon.
The story recounts the encounter between a fired servant and a poor woman, who is robbing hair from the dead bodies left in the dilapidated Rashōmon Gate.
The man, just fired, contemplates whether to starve to death or to steal to survive in the barren times. Hearing a noise upstairs he encounters the woman, is disgusted, and decides then that he would take the path of rightousness even if it meant starving. He is furious with the woman.
But the old woman tells him that she steals hair to make wigs so she can survive. In addition, the woman whose body she is currently robbing cheated people in her life by selling snake meat and claiming it was fish. The old woman says that this was not wrong because it allowed the woman to survive -- and so in turn this entitles her to steal from the dead person, because if she doesn't, she will starve. The man responds "Then, it is right for me to steal from you too. If I don't, I will starve." He then brutally robs the woman of her kimono and disappears into the night. The last line is "Nobody knows the man's whereabouts."
External links
- Rashōmon (in Japanese) at Project Gutenberg
- Murray, Giles (2003). Breaking into Japanese Literature. Kodansha. ISBN 4770028997. A bilingual book with "In a Grove" & "Rashomon"
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