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Cover of 羅生門 (Rashōmon)

Upper intermediate · JLPT N2

羅生門Rashōmon — Beneath the Rashōmon

by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (芥川竜之介, 1892–1927)

  • JLPT N2
  • 5,684 characters
  • 4 parts
  • about 47 minutes

Akutagawa's first major story, published in 1915 and drawn from a tale in the medieval collection Konjaku Monogatarishū, is a short, grim study of how a person talks himself into doing wrong. On a cold, rainy evening in a Kyōto ruined by earthquakes, fires and famine, a recently dismissed servant shelters beneath the crumbling Rashōmon gate. With no money and nowhere to go, he turns over one question: starve, or become a thief? What he finds when he climbs into the gate's upper storey forces the question on him. The tone is cool, precise and unsentimental, and the narrator often steps forward as 'the author' to comment on his own storytelling. For learners, the story is short enough to finish yet dense. It uses plain -dearu narration, Sino-Japanese compounds and some archaic kanji and vocabulary. Much of the plot happens inside the servant's head, so you need to follow shifts in his feelings clause by clause. The small cast and the single setting help, and the dialogue gives useful contrast between two old-fashioned speech styles. Kurosawa's 1950 film takes its title and gate from this story, but its plot comes mainly from Akutagawa's 'In a Grove'.

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Contents

  1. A Servant Waits Beneath the Ruined GateOn a rainy evening, a servant recently dismissed by his master shelters alone beneath the Rashōmon. Two or three years of calamities have ruined the capital, and the gate has become a place where foxes and thieves live, crows gather, and unclaimed corpses are dumped. With nowhere to go, he reasons that if he is not choosy he must become a thief, but he cannot yet find the courage to accept it.
  2. Climbing Toward the Light AboveShivering in the cold, the servant decides to spend the night in the tower above the gate and quietly climbs the ladder. He sees a flickering light and finds the floor strewn with rotting corpses. Among them crouches an old woman holding a pine torch, and she begins pulling the hair, one strand at a time, from a dead woman's head.
  3. The Servant Seizes the Old WomanAs the servant watches the old woman pull hair from a corpse, his fear turns into a burning hatred of all evil, and he forgets that he meant to become a thief himself. He leaps up, blocks her escape, wrestles her to the floor and threatens her with his sword. Realising her life is entirely in his hands, his anger cools into a calm sense of mastery, and he gently demands to know what she was doing. She stares at him with sharp, bird-like eyes and begins to speak in a croaking voice.
  4. The Servant Makes His ChoiceThe old woman explains that she pulls hair from the corpses to make wigs, and says the dead woman was a cheat who would forgive her because everyone must do something to survive. Hearing her reasoning, the servant finds the courage to become a thief: he strips the old woman of her robe, kicks her down among the corpses, and escapes into the night. The old woman crawls to the top of the ladder and peers down, but there is only darkness, and no one knows where the servant went.

Before you read

  • Learn the core vocabulary first: 下人 (げにん, servant, which is how the protagonist is always called), 老婆 (ろうば, old woman), 死骸 (しがい, corpse), 盗人 (ぬすびと, thief), 饑死 (うえじに, starving to death) and 勇気 (ゆうき, courage). The whole moral question turns on 饑死 versus 盗人.
  • The narration explains and emphasizes with ～のである / ～のだ and uses the archaic negative ～ぬ (知らぬ, 云わぬ). You will also see older kanji such as 云う for 言う. Read ～ぬ as ～ない.
  • Decode the old woman's speech with a few equivalences: わし = 'I', じゃ = だ, 思うた = 思った, せねば = しなければ, and sentence-final ぞよ is emphatic. The servant's 己 (おれ, 'I') and おのれ ('you', said with contempt) mark his rough, commanding tone.
  • Watch the servant's changing feelings, which the narrator tracks closely: fear, then hatred of evil (悪を憎む心), then cold contempt, then a new courage. The pimple (面皰, にきび) on his cheek that he keeps touching marks each turn in his thinking.
  • Passages beginning 作者は are the narrator talking to you directly, not part of the action, and the French word Sentimentalisme appears in one of them. Recognizing these asides will keep you from losing the thread of the plot.

Words to know

The most useful words from the notes across the story.

WordMeaningJLPT
盗人ぬすびとthiefOlder word for 泥棒 (どろぼう). Also read ぬすっと.—
下人げにんservant, menial of low rankHistorical word for a low-ranking retainer in a noble household; the story's hero is never named.—
手段しゅだんmeans, method手段を選ばない means 'to stop at nothing'.N3
肯定こうていaffirmation; accepting something as true or rightOpposite of 否定 (ひてい, denial).N2
勝敗しょうはいvictory or defeat, outcomeN2
執拗くしゅうねいstubborn, persistent, tenacious (adverbial 執拗く: stubbornly)dictionary form: 執拗いOld reading; the modern reading of 執拗 is しつよう.N2
始末しまつ(bad) state of affairsIn その始末 it means 'such a sorry state'. It also means 'dealing with' something, as in 始末する.N1
顧るかえりみるto pay attention to, to care aboutdictionary form: 顧みるModern spelling 顧みる. Here the older okurigana 顧る is used.N1
当てあてaim, plan, something to count on当てがない means 'to have no plan or prospects'.N1
反感はんかんantipathy, revulsionN1
未練みれんlingering attachment, regret何の未練もなく = without the slightest hesitation or regret.N1
罵ったののしるto shout abuse at, reviledictionary form: 罵るN1
面皰にきびpimpleUsually written in kana today; the servant's pimple is a recurring detail in the story.N1
雨やみあまやみa break in the rain; sheltering until the rain stops雨やみを待つ and 雨やみをする both mean waiting out the rain under cover. Also read あめやみ.—
災わざわいcalamity, disasterdictionary form: 災いUsually written 災い today; 災害 (さいがい) is the everyday word.—

Plot summary

Show the full summary (contains spoilers)

A servant, dismissed by his master, sits under the Rashōmon in the rain, knowing that to survive he must become a thief but unable to bring himself to decide. He climbs to the upper storey, where abandoned corpses lie, and sees an old woman plucking hair from a dead woman's head to make wigs. Filled with hatred of this evil, he seizes her at sword-point. She explains herself: the dead woman used to sell snake meat to palace guards as dried fish so she would not starve, and would surely forgive what the old woman now does for the same reason. Her argument gives the servant the courage he lacked. He strips her of her robe, saying that he too must do this or starve, kicks her down onto the corpses, and vanishes into the night. No one knows where he went.

About the author

Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892–1927) was one of the most important writers of modern Japanese short fiction. Born in Tokyo, he studied English literature at Tokyo Imperial University, and his early story 鼻 (The Nose) won praise from Natsume Sōseki. Many of his works retell older Japanese and Chinese tales with modern psychological insight, including 羅生門 (Rashōmon) and 藪の中 (In a Grove), which later inspired Kurosawa Akira's film Rashomon. He died by suicide at the age of 35. The Akutagawa Prize was named in his honour by his friend Kikuchi Kan.

More stories by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke →