Akutagawa Ryunosuke - is considered to be a classic of the new Japanese literature. He lived a short life, but managed to create many wonderful works. His sons continued their career: one of them (Hiroshi) became a playwright, and the second (Yasushi) became a composer.
Personal life of the writer Akutagawa Ryunosuke
Akutagawa Ryunosuke was born in Tokyo in 1892 in the family of a poor milk seller. His name, meaning "dragon", was given to him in honor of the year and hour of birth.
His father and mother, by the standards of Japan, were not young: 40 and 30 years old, respectively. It was considered a bad omen in those days. When the writer was only 9 months old, his mother committed suicide in a madhouse. His father was not able to raise his son alone, which is why Ryunoskatch was adopted by his uncle Mitaki Akutagawa, whose name he later adopted.
His family was intelligent and in the past consisted of a lot of pundits and writers, carefully observed all traditions, family members were fond of literature and painting of the Middle Ages, strictly kept the ancient way, based on obedience to the head of the house.
Ryunosuke suffered from visual hallucinations, he saw larvae and insects in food. On July 24, 1927, he took a lethal dose of Veronal. In his last note, he wrote that the world in which he lives is transparent as ice, and death will grant, if not happiness, but liberation.
Study
From 1913 to 1916, Ryunosuke Akutagawa studied English at Tokyo Imperial University . His thesis was dedicated to William Morris. Throughout his life, Akutagawa was a faithful reader of novels by Western authors.
He began to write short stories while still studying. The first work was a translation of the work of Anatole France “Belshazzar” in 1914. And the following year, he, along with a couple of friends, created a literary magazine, where he published his story "The Gate of Rasemon." The plot of this work begins in Kyoto in the 12th century, where in a ruined town a man who was a former servant is trying to save his life. He faces a choice between good and criminal act.
Work
After graduating from university, Akutagawa begins teaching at the Yokosuka Military School and at about the same time marries a girl named Tsukamoto Fumiko. He was invited to work by the universities of Tokyo and Kyoto, but he decided to completely devote himself to literature. As a result, he became an employee of a small newspaper in Osaka, as a correspondent, he even visited China, but could not write anything because of a sudden illness.
Creative way
Almost all of his works, Akutagawa Ryunosuke wrote ten years before his death. Among the early works were well-thought-out historical stories. Later, emotions and the spirit of modernity take over. Fame comes to him with the story "Nose", written in 1916, based on which were taken "Stories of past times." In this work, a Buddhist monk is bothered by his too big nose.
Although the author had never been to the West, he was very familiar with the works of Nietzsche, Merimet, Baudelaire and Tolstoy. In his short story Gears, he makes a reference to his two most beloved authors - The Legends by August Strindberg and Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.
Among the autobiographical short stories of Akutagawa Ryunosuke, it is worth noting a book written in 1925, "The Early Years of Daijoji Shinsuke", which remained unfinished, "The Life of an Idiot" and "Cog Wheels" of 1927.
One of the most significant works of the writer is considered "In the country of water" (1927). In this story, by describing kappa folk creatures, the life of Japanese society is satirically depicted. The plot is based on a patient in a psychiatric hospital who tells the story of his unusual journeys to an underground country, which he desperately does not want to leave.
Adaptations of Akutagawa Ryunosuke's books
Of the 150 written stories, some were filmed, for example, "Rashomon" and "More often" became the main famous film "Anger" by Akira Kurosova, in 1964 he was even remade by Hollywood, however, unsuccessfully.
In 1969, Shiro Toeda made the film-drama "Paintings of Hell" based on the novel "Flour of Hell", which takes place in fourteenth-century Japan. The plot focuses on the talented but mischievous Korean artist Yoshihide, who is in the service of the oppressive and wealthy Japanese official Horikawa. Khorikawa instructs the artist to write a picture of paradise on one of the walls of the palace, but Yoshihide refuses, because she does not see anything even remotely resembling paradise in the possessions. Instead, he depicts an old poor peasant killed by the Horikawa army.
This picture is so realistic and frightening that it begins to haunt the official in his dreams. Then Horikawa kidnaps the artist’s daughter, forcing him to write a paradise story in exchange for her life.
The artist agrees, but he is unable to relocate himself, and he draws an official who burns alive in his own carriage. Horikawa furiously kills daughter Yoshihide in the same way right before his eyes, which leads the artist to suicide. In the final scene of the film, Horikawa looks with horror in his eyes at the artist’s last painting and the ghost of Yoshihide begins to haunt him.
Akutagawa Ryunosuke Prize
In 1935, Kikuchi Kana, a close friend of the writer, established the Akutagawa Ryunosuke Literature Prize. Today it is one of the most honorable awards that a novice writer in Japan can receive.
Over the years, her laureates were Reiti Tsuji “Alien” (1950), Atsushi Mori “Moon Mountain” (1973), Ayamada Hiroko “Hole” (2013), Yamashita Sumito “New World” (2016) and many other authors who later became famous not only in Japan, but throughout the world.