An Encounter with… Ryunosuke Akutagawa
Posted 8th February 2021
Featured image: @mikitravelgram
Murder in the Age of Enlightenment by Ryunosuke Akutagawa is available now from Pushkin Press, introduced and translated by Bryan Karetnyk.
To give readers a glimpse into Akutagawa’s strange, beautiful, highly visual world, we have paired excerpts from the masterful stories contained in this new collection with classic examples of Japan’s most enduringly popular art form—the colourful woodblock prints known as ukiyo-e and their descendent the shin-hanga. As subtle and arresting as the stories told, here are our five views of Akutagawa’s Japan.
One day, brothers and sisters, Lord Buddha Shakyamuni was strolling alone by the banks of the Lotus Pond in Paradise. The blossoms on the pond were each a perfect white pearl, and from their golden centres wafted unceasingly a wondrous fragrance surpassing all description. It must have been morning in Paradise, brothers and sisters.
from ‘The Spider’s Thread’
That’s right, Your Honour. It was I who found the body. This morning I went out as usual to cut cedar in the mountains overlooking the village, when I came across the body lying in a shady grove. The exact location? A few hundred yards from the Yamashina stage road. An out-of-the-way spot with a few scrub cedars dotted among the bamboo.
from ‘In a Grove’
Our first meeting took place on 3rd August, in the eleventh year of Meiji, at a firework display near the Ryōgoku Bridge. We were introduced through a mutual acquaintance and spent the pleasure of that first evening together in the company of ten geisha at the Manpachi restaurant in Yanagibashi. Pleasure . . . Was it truly a pleasure? No, I dare say that pain far outstripped any pleasure
from ‘Murder in the Age of Enlightenment’
Bathed in the crimson light of hundreds of paper lanterns, he stood by the entrance to the Shintomi-za, watching as Mitsumura’s carriage raced off amid the downpour. His soul thronged with the resentments of yesterday and the joys of tomorrow…
from ‘Murder in the Age of Enlightenment’
Tall buildings lined both sides of the street. As I was walking, I suddenly recalled the pine forest. I also became aware that something strange had entered my field of vision — a set of steadily spinning transparent cogwheels.
from ‘Cogwheels’
