Rashomon- Ryunosuke Akutagawa

• 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.