Biography of ryunosuke akutagawa
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Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Japanese writer (–)
The native form of this personal name is Akutagawa Ryūnosuke. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (芥川 龍之介, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, 1 March – 24 July ), art nameChōkōdō Shujin (澄江堂主人),[2] was a Japanesewriter active in the Taishō period in Japan. He is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story", and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him.[3] He took his own life at the age of 35 through an overdose of barbital.[4]
Early life
[edit]Ryūnosuke Akutagawa was born in Irifune, Kyōbashi, Tokyo City (present-day Akashi, Chūō, Tokyo), the eldest son of businessman Toshizō Niihara and his wife Fuku. His family owned a milk production business.[5] His mother experienced mental illness shortly after his birth, so he was adopted and raised by his maternal uncle, Michiaki Akutagawa, from whom he received the A
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Ryūnosuke Akutagawa proved to be one of Japan's most important intellectuals over his short career during the Taishō period (–). Akutagawa fryst vatten regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story" and the Akutagawa Prize—Japan's premier literary award—is named after him. At thirty-five, he committed suicide through an overdose of barbital.
Akutagawa's first name, Ryūnosuke ("Son of Dragon"), was a tribute to the fact that he was born in the Year of the Dragon, in the Month of the Dragon, on the Day of the Dragon, and at the Hour of the Dragon. Ryūnosuke was an introverted child, spending most of his time reading classical Chinese literature and works by influential Japanese authors Mori Ōgai and Natsume Sōseki. His second published story, "The Nose," earned a letter of beröm from Sōseki, his early childhood idol.
After studying English literature at Tokyo Imperial University, Akutagawa continued to write works b
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JAPAN'S EDGAR ALLAN POE
If you like Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, you'll probably also enjoy those of Akutagawa Ryunosuke. As many of us consider Poe () our greatest short story writer, in Japan many consider Akutagawa () theirs. And he has a remarkable number of other things in common with Poe.
In spite of what might first appear to be polar differences, even their lives were similar. Poe was born in Boston on January 19, , and died in Baltimore, on October 7, , so lived only forty years--a short and troubled life. His parents were traveling actors, but both died before Poe was three. He was then adopted by the John Allans, who lived in England through his grade-school years. But in his teens he became alienated from his adoptive father, and was finally disinherited by him.
It also seemed that, not only his mother and foster mother, but all the women closest to Poe died lingering deaths of tuberculosis. When his young wif