Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Early biography
 Born on March 1, 1892, Kyobashi district, Tokyo, Japan
 Ryunosuke’s name which means “Son of Dragon” in English was
given to him since he was born in the Year of the Dragon, at the
Month of the Dragon, and in the Hour of the Dragon.
 The third child, and only son of Toshizo Nihara, and Fuku Akutagawa.
Sadly, his mother Fuku Akutagawa died shortly after his birth due to
mental illness
 Was raised by his maternal uncle instead, Dosho Akutagawa to which
he Ryunosuke received the Akutagawa family name.
 As a child, Akutagawa was sickly and hypersensitive, but was a
voracious reader and was proficient at school.
 His uncle was the one who influenced him into books, and found
classical Chinese literary works to be interesting.
 He would follow authors that were wrote for older audiences such as
Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki, and considered their works as
fascinating. This would spark his passion of writing.
 He began his literary career in Tokyo Imperial University (University
of Tokyo) where he studied English Literature from 1913 to 1916.
 Friends he made in his early life also became notable authors, like
Kume Masao, Kan Kikuchi, Tsuchiya Bunmei, and Yuzo Yamamoto.
 After graduating, he tried to work as an English teacher but was not
that fond of it, and after that was when he decided to pour his efforts
into writing.
Early literary career

 In 1914, Akutagawa and his friends revived the Japanese literary

journal Shinshicho which meant New Currents of Thought, along with
publishing their works, they also added translated works of William
Butler Yeats, and Anatole France.
 In 1915, he published his second short story “Rashomon” that caught
the attention of Natsume Soseki, a famous Japanese novelist during
that time. Soseki encouraged Ryunosuke which motivated him to
begin writing a series of stories based largely from 12 th – 13th century
Japanese tales but retold in a modern psychological manner in
addition with Ryunosuke’s writing style.