1. A woodcutter finds the body of a murdered samurai in the mountains. He is questioned by a police commissioner about the details.
2. The commissioner then questions a policeman who arrested the notorious brigand Tajomaru. Evidence suggests Tajomaru murdered the samurai.
3. The old mother of the murdered samurai's wife is questioned. She provides details about her daughter and son-in-law, expressing worry about her daughter's fate.
4. Tajomaru confesses to luring and killing the samurai, but claims he does not know what happened to the wife. He admits killing was not difficult for him.
Original Description:
Short story on the basis of which Rashomon was made
1. A woodcutter finds the body of a murdered samurai in the mountains. He is questioned by a police commissioner about the details.
2. The commissioner then questions a policeman who arrested the notorious brigand Tajomaru. Evidence suggests Tajomaru murdered the samurai.
3. The old mother of the murdered samurai's wife is questioned. She provides details about her daughter and son-in-law, expressing worry about her daughter's fate.
4. Tajomaru confesses to luring and killing the samurai, but claims he does not know what happened to the wife. He admits killing was not difficult for him.
1. A woodcutter finds the body of a murdered samurai in the mountains. He is questioned by a police commissioner about the details.
2. The commissioner then questions a policeman who arrested the notorious brigand Tajomaru. Evidence suggests Tajomaru murdered the samurai.
3. The old mother of the murdered samurai's wife is questioned. She provides details about her daughter and son-in-law, expressing worry about her daughter's fate.
4. Tajomaru confesses to luring and killing the samurai, but claims he does not know what happened to the wife. He admits killing was not difficult for him.
Woodcutter, Questioned by a Buddhist Priest, Questioned High Police Commissioner by a High Police Commissioner 1 Yes, sir. Certainly, it was I who found the body. This 7 The time? Certainly, it was morning, as usual, I went to cut about noon yesterday, sir. The my daily quota of cedars, when I unfortunate man was on the road found the body in a grove in a from Sekiyama to Yamashina. He hollow in the mountains. The was walking toward Sekiyama exact location? About 150 meters with a woman accompanying him off the Yamashina stage road. It's on horseback, who I have since an out-of-the-way grove of learned was his wife. A scarf bamboo and cedars. hanging from her head hid her face from view. All I saw was the 2 The body was lying flat on color of her clothes, a lilac- its back dressed in a bluish silk colored suit. Her horse was a kimono and a wrinkled head- sorrel with a fine mane. The dress of the Kyoto style. A single lady's height? Oh, about four feet sword-stroke had pierced the five inches. Since I am a Buddhist breast. The fallen bamboo-blades priest, I took little notice about around it were stained with her details. Well, the man was bloody blossoms. No, the blood armed with a sword as well as a was no longer running. The bow and arrows. And I remember wound had dried up, I believe. that he carried some twenty odd And also, a gad-fly was stuck fast arrows in his quiver. there, hardly noticing my footsteps. 8 Little did I expect that he would meet such a fate. Truly 3 You ask me if I saw a sword human life is as evanescent as or any such thing? the morning dew or a flash of lightning. My words are 4 No, nothing, sir. I found only inadequate to express my a rope at the root of a cedar near sympathy for him. by. And . . . well, in addition to a rope, I found a comb. That was The Testimony of a Policeman, all. Apparently he must have Questioned by a High Police made a battle of it before he was Commissioner murdered, because the grass and fallen bamboo-blades had been 9 The man that I arrested? He trampled down all around. is a notorious brigand called Tajomaru. When I arrested him, 5 "A horse was near by?" he had fallen off his horse. He was groaning on the bridge at 6 No, sir. It's hard enough for Awataguchi. The time? It was in a man to enter, let alone a horse. the early hours of last night. For the record, I might say that the twenty-six. He was of a gentle other day I tried to arrest him, disposition, so I am sure he did but unfortunately he escaped. He nothing to provoke the anger of was wearing a dark blue silk others. kimono and a large plain sword. And, as you see, he got a bow 12 My daughter? Her name is and arrows somewhere. You say Masago, and her age is nineteen. that this bow and these arrows She is a spirited, fun-loving girl, look like the ones owned by the but I am sure she has never dead man? Then Tajomaru must known any man except Takehiko. be the murderer. The bow wound She has a small, oval, dark- with leather strips, the black complected face with a mole at lacquered quiver, the seventeen the corner of her left eye. arrows with hawk feathersthese were all in his possession I 13 Yesterday Takehiko left for believe. Yes, Sir, the horse is, as Wakasa with my daughter. What you say, a sorrel with a fine bad luck it is that things should mane. A little beyond the stone have come to such a sad end! bridge I found the horse grazing What has become of my by the roadside, with his long rein daughter? I am resigned to giving dangling. Surely there is some up my son-in-law as lost, but the providence in his having been fate of my daughter worries me thrown by the horse. sick. For heaven's sake leave no stone unturned to find her. I hate 10 Of all the robbers prowling that robber Tajomaru, or around Kyoto, this Tajomaru has whatever his name is. Not only given the most grief to the my son-in-law, but my daughter . women in town. Last autumn a . . (Her later words were drowned wife who came to the mountain in tears.) back of the Pindora of the Toribe Temple, presumably to pay a Tajomaru's Confession visit, was murdered, along with a girl. It has been suspected that it 14 I killed him, but not her. was his doing. If this criminal Where's she gone? I can't tell. murdered the man, you cannot Oh, wait a minute. No torture can tell what he may have done with make me confess what I don't the man's wife. May it please know. Now things have come to your honor to look into this such a head, I won't keep problem as well. anything from you. The Testimony of an Old 15 Yesterday a little past noon I Woman, Questioned by a High Police Commissioner met that couple. Just then a puff of wind blew, and raised her hanging scarf, so that I caught a 11 Yes, sir, that corpse is the glimpse of her face. Instantly it man who married my daughter. was again covered from my view. He does not come from Kyoto. He That may have been one reason; was a samurai in the town of she looked like a Bodhisattva. At Kokufu in the province of that moment I made up my mind Wakasa. His name was Kanazawa to capture her even if I had to kill no Takehiko, and his age was her man. 16 Why? To me killing isn't a man had no objectionhe was matter of such great consequence blinded by greed. The woman as you might think. When a said she would wait on woman is captured, her man has horseback. It was natural for her to be killed anyway. In killing, I to say so, at the sight of a thick use the sword I wear at my side. grove. To tell you the truth, my Am I the only one who kills plan worked just as I wished, so I people? You, you don't use your went into the grove with him, swords. You kill people with your leaving her behind alone. power, with your money. Sometimes you kill them on the 20 The grove is only bamboo pretext of working for their good. for some distance. About fifty It's true they don't bleed. They yards ahead there's a rather open are in the best of health, but all clump of cedars. It was a the same you've killed them. It's convenient spot for my purpose. hard to say who is a greater Pushing my way through the sinner, you or me. (An ironical grove, I told him a plausible lie smile.) that the treasures were buried under the cedars. When I told 17 But it would be good if I him this, he pushed his laborious could capture a woman without way toward the slender cedar killing her man. So, I made up visible through the grove. After a my mind to capture her, and do while the bamboo thinned out, my best not to kill him. But it's and we came to where a number out of the question on the of cedars grew in a row. As soon Yamashina stage road. So I as we got there, I seized him managed to lure the couple into from behind. Because he was a the mountains. trained, sword-bearing warrior, he was quite strong, but he was 18 It was quite easy. I became taken by surprise, so there was their traveling companion, and I no help for him. I soon tied him told them there was an old up to the root of a cedar. Where mound in the mountain over did I get a rope? Thank heaven, there, and that I had dug it open being a robber, I had a rope with and found many mirrors and me, since I might have to scale a swords. I went on to tell them I'd wall at any moment. Of course it buried the things in a grove was easy to stop him from calling behind the mountain, and that I'd out by gagging his mouth with like to sell them at a low price to fallen bamboo leaves. anyone who would care to have them. Then . . . you see, isn't 21 When I disposed of him, I greed terrible? He was beginning went to his woman and asked her to be moved by my talk before he to come and see him, because he knew it. In less than half an hour seemed to have been suddenly they were driving their horse taken sick. It's needless to say toward the mountain with me. that this plan also worked well. The woman, her sedge hat off, 19 When he came in front of came into the depths of the the grove, I told them that the grove, where I led her by the treasures were buried in it, and I hand. The instant she caught asked them to come and see. The sight of her husband, she drew a small sword. I've never seen a 24 But I didn't like to resort to woman of such violent temper. If unfair means to kill him. I untied I'd been off guard, I'd have got a him and told him to cross swords thrust in my side. I dodged, but with me. (The rope that was she kept on slashing at me. She found at the root of the cedar is might have wounded me deeply the rope I dropped at the time.) or killed me. But I'm Tajomaru. I Furious with anger, he drew his managed to strike down her small thick sword. And quick as sword without drawing my own. thought, he sprang at me The most spirited woman is ferociously, without speaking a defenseless without a weapon. At word. I needn't tell you how our least I could satisfy my desire for fight turned out. The twenty-third her without taking her husband's stroke . . . please remember this. life. I'm impressed with this fact still. Nobody under the sun has ever 22 Yes . . . without taking his clashed swords with me twenty life. I had no wish to kill him. I strokes. (A cheerful smile.) was about to run away from the grove, leaving the woman behind 25 When he fell, I turned in tears, when she frantically toward her, lowering my blood- clung to my arm. In broken stained sword. But to my great fragments of words, she asked astonishment she was gone. I that either her husband or I die. wondered to where she had run She said it was more trying than away. I looked for her in the death to have her shame known clump of cedars. I listened, but to two men. She gasped out that heard only a groaning sound from she wanted to be the wife of the throat of the dying man. whichever survived. Then a furious desire to kill him seized 26 As soon as we started to me. (Gloomy excitement.) cross swords, she may have run away through the grove to call for 23 Telling you in this way, no help. When I thought of that, I doubt I seem a crueler man than decided it was a matter of life and you. But that's because you didn't death to me. So, robbing him of see her face. Especially her his sword, and bow and arrows, I burning eyes at that moment. As ran out to the mountain road. I saw her eye to eye, I wanted to There I found her horse still make her my wife even if I were grazing quietly. It would be a to be struck by lightning. I mere waste of words to tell you wanted to make her my wife . . . the later details, but before I this single desire filled my mind. entered town I had already This was not only lust, as you parted with the sword. That's all might think. At that time if I'd my confession. I know that my had no other desire than lust, I'd head will be hung in chains surely not have minded knocking anyway, so put me down for the her down and running away. maximum penalty. (A defiant Then I wouldn't have stained my attitude.) sword with his blood. But the moment I gazed at her face in The Confession of a Woman the dark grove, I decided not to Who Has Come to the Shimizu leave there without killing him. Temple 27 That man in the blue silk you are." kimono, after forcing me to yield to him, laughed mockingly as he 31 This was all I could say. Still looked at my bound husband. he went on gazing at me with How horrified my husband must loathing and contempt. My heart have been! But no matter how breaking, I looked for his sword. hard he struggled in agony, the It must have been taken by the rope cut into him all the more robber. Neither his sword nor his tightly. In spite of myself I ran bow and arrows were to be seen stumblingly toward his side. Or in the grove. But fortunately my rather I tried to run toward him, small sword was lying at my feet. but the man instantly knocked Raising it over head, once more I me down. Just at that moment I said, "Now give me your life. I'll saw an indescribable light in my follow you right away." husband's eyes. Something beyond expression . . . his eyes 32 When he heard these words, make me shudder even now. That he moved his lips with difficulty. instantaneous look of my Since his mouth was stuffed with husband, who couldn't speak a leaves, of course his voice could word, told me all his heart. The not be heard at all. But at a flash in his eyes was neither glance I understood his words. anger nor sorrow . . . only a cold Despising me, his look said only, light, a look of loathing. More "Kill me." Neither conscious nor struck by the look in his eyes unconscious, I stabbed the small than by the blow of the thief, I sword through the lilac-colored called out in spite of myself and kimono into his breast. fell unconscious. 33 Again at this time I must 28 In the course of time I came have fainted. By the time I to, and found that the man in managed to look up, he had blue silk was gone. I saw only my already breathed his laststill in husband still bound to the root of bonds. A streak of sinking the cedar. I raised myself from sunlight streamed through the the bamboo-blades with difficulty, clump of cedars and bamboos, and looked into his face; but the and shone on his pale face. expression in his eyes was just Gulping down my sobs, I untied the same as before. the rope from his dead body. And . . . and what has become of me 29 Beneath the cold contempt since I have no more strength to in his eyes, there was hatred. tell you. Anyway I hadn't the Shame, grief, and anger . . . I strength to die. I stabbed my own don't know how to express my throat with the small sword, I heart at that time. Reeling to my threw myself into a pond at the feet, I went up to my husband. foot of the mountain, and I tried to kill myself in many ways. 30 "Takejiro," I said to him, Unable to end my life, I am still "since things have come to this living in dishonor. (A lonely pass, I cannot live with you. I'm smile.) Worthless as I am, I must determined to die . . . but you have been forsaken even by the must die, too. You saw my most merciful Kwannon. I killed shame. I can't leave you alive as my own husband. I was violated by the robber. Whatever can I the grove as if in a dream, her do? Whatever can I . . . I . . . hand in the robber's, she (Gradually, violent sobbing.) suddenly turned pale, and pointed at me tied to the root of The Story of the Murdered the cedar, and said, "Kill him! I Man, as Told Through a cannot marry you as long as he Medium lives." "Kill him!" she cried many times, as if she had gone crazy. 34 After violating my wife, the Even now these words threaten robber, sitting there, began to to blow me headlong into the speak comforting words to her. bottomless abyss of darkness. Of course I couldn't speak. My Has such a hateful thing come whole body was tied fast to the out of a human mouth ever root of a cedar. But meanwhile I before? Have such cursed words winked at her many times, as ever struck a human ear, even much as to say "Don't believe the once? Even once such a . . . (A robber." I wanted to convey some sudden cry of scorn.) At these such meaning to her. But my words the robber himself turned wife, sitting dejectedly on the pale. "Kill him," she cried, bamboo leaves, was looking hard clinging to his arms. Looking hard at her lap. To all appearance, she at her, he answered neither yes was listening to his words. I was nor no . . . but hardly had I agonized by jealousy. In the thought about his answer before meantime the robber went on she had been knocked down into with his clever talk, from one the bamboo leaves. (Again a cry subject to another. The robber of scorn.) Quietly folding his finally made his bold brazen arms, he looked at me and said, proposal. "Once your virtue is "What will you do with her? Kill stained, you won't get along well her or save her? You have only to with your husband, so won't you nod. Kill her?" For these words be my wife instead? It's my love alone I would like to pardon his for you that made me be violent crime. toward you." 37 While I hesitated, she 35 While the criminal talked, shrieked and ran into the depths my wife raised her face as if in a of the grove. The robber instantly trance. She had never looked so snatched at her, but he failed beautiful as at that moment. even to grasp her sleeve. What did my beautiful wife say in answer to him while I was sitting 38 After she ran away, he took bound there? I am lost in space, up my sword, and my bow and but I have never thought of her arrows. With a single stroke he answer without burning with cut one of my bonds. I remember anger and jealousy. Truly she his mumbling, "My fate is next." said, . . . "Then take me away Then he disappeared from the with you wherever you go." grove. All was silent after that. No, I heard someone crying. 36 This is not the whole of her Untying the rest of my bonds, I sin. If that were all, I would not listened carefully, and I noticed be tormented so much in the that it was my own crying. (Long dark. When she was going out of silence.) 39 I raised my exhausted body from the foot of the cedar. In front of me there was shining the small sword which my wife had dropped. I took it up and stabbed it into my breast. A bloody lump rose to my mouth, but I didn't feel any pain. When my breast grew cold, everything was as silent as the dead in their graves. What profound silence! Not a single bird-note was heard in the sky over this grave in the hollow of the mountains. Only a lonely light lingered on the cedars and mountains. By and by the light gradually grew fainter, till the cedars and bamboo were lost to view. Lying there, I was enveloped in deep silence.
40 Then someone crept up to
me. I tried to see who it was. But darkness had already been gathering round me. Someone . . . that someone drew the small sword softly out of my breast in its invisible hand. At the same time once more blood flowed into my mouth. And once and for all I sank down into the darkness of space.