In November, he published his short story Rashomon in Teikoku Mongaku, a literary magazine. In early 1916, he published Hana ("The Nose"), which attracted a letter of praise from Soseki and secured Akutagawa his first taste of fame. It was also at this time that he started writing haiku under the haigo (or pen-name) Gaki. In April 1917, he published Kegon ("The Eye") as part for an amateur contest held by Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan's largest newspapers. This marked the beginning of his career as a professional writer. Ryunosuke Akutagawa was born on January 4, 1892 in Tokyo. His father was a government employee who died when Ryunosuke was only six. After graduating from elementary school, he attended middle school before entering Takushoku University. However, he left school to work as an editor for a newspaper chain. In 1915, he became interested in Japanese literature after reading The Tale of Genji and decided to write stories himself. He submitted his first manuscript - a short novel called Rinchi - to a publishing house but it wasn't accepted. Two years later, he managed to get his second book, Hana, published. This success encouraged him to submit more manuscripts until finally he got a book titled Kegon published in April 1917. This made him realize how difficult it was to be a professional writer in 1920s Japan when many famous writers were struggling to make a living.