- Mother went mad and died
- Father gave to maternal uncle, where he received his surname, family for adoption
- Committed suicide at age 35 of overdose.
- Published 1915
- 1950 movie only takes scenes, plot based on 1922 short story "In a Grove"
- Story based in Kyoto.
- Akutagawa's use of the gate was deliberately symbolic, with the gate's ruined state representing the moral and physical decay of Japanese civilization and culture.
Rashomon- mean 'wall gate' and had a sister gate at the northern tip of city also, while this one was located at the southern end.
The Rashomon effect
-Effect of subjectivity of perception on recollection. Event observers able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts.
