Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa was born in the Kyōbashi district of Tokyo, the third child and only son of father Toshizō Nīhara and mother Fuku Akutagawa. His mother experienced a mental illness shortly after his birth, so he was adopted and raised by his maternal uncle, Dōshō Akutagawa, from whom he received the Akutagawa family name. He was interested in classical Chinese literature from an early age, as well as in the works of Mori Ōgai and Natsume Sōseki.
In 1914, Akutagawa and his former high school friends revived the literary journal Shinshichō ("New Currents of Thought"), publishing translations of William Butler Yeats and Anatole France along with their own works. Akutagawa published his second short story Rashōmon the following year in the literary magazine Teikoku Bungaku ("Imperial Literature"), while still a student. The story, based on a twelfth-century tale, was not well received by Akutagawa's friends, who criticized it extensively. Nonetheless, Akutagawa gathered the courage to visit his idol, Natsume Sōseki, in December 1915 for Sōseki's weekly literary circles. In November, he published his short story Rashomon on Teikoku Mongaku, a literary magazine. In early 1916 he published Hana ("The Nose", 1916), which attracted a letter of praise from Sōseki 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. Akutagawa followed with a series of short stories set in Heian period, Edo period or early Meiji period Japan. These stories reinterpreted classical works and historical incidents. Examples of these stories include: Gesaku zanmai ("A Life Devoted to Gesaku", 1917) and Kareno-shō ("Gleanings from a Withered Field", 1918), Jigoku hen ("Hell Screen", 1918); Hōkyōnin no shi ("The Death of a Christian", 1918), and Butōkai ("The Ball", 1920). Akutagawa was a strong opponent of naturalism. He published Mikan ("Mandarin Oranges", 1919) and Aki ("Autumn", 1920) which have more modern settings.
In 1921, Akutagawa interrupted his writing career to spend four months in China, as a reporter for the Osaka Mainichi Shinbun. The trip was stressful and he suffered from various illnesses, from which his health would never recover. Shortly after his return he published Yabu no naka ("In a Grove", 1922). During the trip, Akutagawa visited numerous cities of southeastern China including Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou. Before his travel, he wrote a short story "The Christ of Nanjing [ja]"; concerning the Chinese Christian community; according to his own imagination of Nanjing influenced by Classical Chinese literature.
He is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story", and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him. 
Towards the end of his life, Akutagawa began suffering from visual hallucinations and anxiety over the fear that he had inherited his mother's mental disorder. In 1927 he survived a suicide attempt, together with a friend of his wife.
He committed suicide at the age of 35 through an overdose of barbital.
Cadabra Releases:
In A Grove
Bibliography:
Year	Japanese title 	English title 	English translation	 	
1914	老年 Rōnen 	Old Age 	Ryan Choi 	 	
1915	羅生門 Rashōmon 	Rashōmon 	Jay Rubin 	 	
1916	鼻 Hana 	The Nose 	Jay Rubin 	 	
1916	芋粥 Imogayu 	Yam Gruel 	 	 	
1916	手巾 Hankechi 	The Handkerchief 	Charles De Wolf 	 	
1916	煙草と悪魔 Tabako to Akuma 	Tobacco and the Devil 	 	 	
1917	尾形了斎覚え書 Ogata Ryosai Oboe gaki 	Dr. Ogata Ryosai: Memorandum 	 	 	
1917	戯作三昧 Gesakuzanmai 	Absorbed in writing popular novels 	 	 	
1917	首が落ちた話 Kubi ga ochita hanashi 	The Story of a Head That Fell Off 	2004, Jay Rubin 	 	
1918	蜘蛛の糸 Kumo no Ito 	The Spider's Thread 	Jay Rubin 	 	
1918	地獄変 Jigokuhen 	Hell Screen 	Jay Rubin 	 	
1918	枯野抄 Kareno shō 	A commentary on the desolate field for Bashou	 	 	
1918	邪宗門 Jashūmon 	Jashūmon 	 	 	
1918	奉教人の死 Hōkyōnin no Shi 	The Death of a Disciple 	Charles De Wolf 	 	
1918	袈裘と盛遠 Kesa to Morito 	Kesa and Morito 	Takashi Kojima 	 	
1919	魔術 Majutsu 	Magic 	 	 	
1919	竜 Ryū 	Dragon: the Old Potter's Tale 	Jay Rubin 	 	
1920	舞踏会 Butou Kai 	A ball 	 	 	
1920	秋 Aki 	Autumn 	Charles De Wolf 	 	
1920	南京の基督 Nankin no Kirisuto 	Christ in Nanking 	 	 	
1920	杜子春 Toshishun 	Tu Tze-chun 	 	 	
1920	アグニの神 Aguni no Kami 	God of Aguni 	 	 	
1921	山鴫 Yama-shigi 	A snipe 	 	 	
1921	秋山図 Shuzanzu 	Autumn Mountain 	 	 	
1921	上海游記 Shanhai Yūki 	A report on the journey of Shanghai 	 	 	
1922	藪の中 Yabu no Naka 	In a Grove, also In a Bamboo Grove 	 	 	
1922	将軍 Shōgun 	The General 	 	 	
1922	トロッコ Torokko 	A Lorry 	 	 	
1923	保吉の手帳から Yasukichi no Techō kara 	From Yasukichi's notebook 	 	 	
1924	一塊の土 Ikkai no Tsuchi 	A clod of earth 	 	 	
1925	大導寺信輔の半生 Daidōji Shinsuke no Hansei 	Daidōji Shinsuke: The Early Years 	 	 	
1925	侏儒の言葉 Shuju no Kotoba 	Aphorisms by a pygmy 	 	 	
1926	点鬼簿 Tenkibo 	Death Register 	Jay Rubin 	 	
1927	玄鶴山房 Genkaku Sanbō 	Genkaku Sanbo 	 	 	
1927	蜃気楼 Shinkiro 	A Mirage 	 	 	
1927	河童 Kappa 	Kappa 	 	 	
1927	文芸的な、余りに文芸的な Bungeiteki na, amarini Bungeiteki na 	Literary, All-Too-Literary 	 	 	
1927	歯車 Haguruma 	Spinning Gears 	Jay Rubin 	also CogwheelsShinshichō 	Charles De Wolf
1927	或阿呆の一生 Aru Ahō no Isshō 	Fool's Life 	Jay Rubin 	also 'The Life of a Fool"	Charles De Wolf
1927	西方の人 Saihō no Hito 	The Man of the West 	 	 	
1927	或旧友へ送る手記 Aru Kyūyū e Okuru Shuki 	A Note to a Certain Old Friend 	 	 	
== Selected works in translation ==
* Tales of Grotesque and Curious. Trans. Glenn W. Shaw. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1930.
* "The Christ of Nanking" (Nankyo no Kirisuto). Trans. Ivan Morris. In The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature, Volume 1: From Restoration to Occupation, 1868-1945. New York: Columbia University Press (2005).
* Fool's Life. Trans. Will Peterson Grossman (1970). ISBN 0-670-32350-0
* Kappa. Trans. Geoffrey Bownas. Peter Owen Publishers (2006) ISBN 0-7206-1200-4
* Hell Screen. Trans. H W Norman. Greenwood Press. (1970) ISBN 0-8371-3017-4
* Mandarins. Trans. Charles De Wolf. Archipelago Books (2007) ISBN 0-9778576-0-3
* Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories. Trans. Jay Rubin. Penguin Classics (2004). ISBN 0-14-303984-9
* Travels in China (Shina yuki). Trans. Joshua Fogel. Chinese Studies in History 30, no. 4 (1997).
* TuTze-Chun. Kodansha International (1965). ASIN B0006BMQ7I
* La fille au chapeau rouge. Trans. Lalloz ed. Picquier (1980). in ISBN 978-2-87730-200-5 (French edition)