Ryunosuke Akutagawa: Author of Rashomon

Ryunosuke Akutagawa was born in 1892 in Tokyo, Japan. His mother died, insane, when he was very young. His father, who was a failure at everything he ever did, gave Ryunosuke over to his relatives to be raised. Throughout his life Ryunosuke harbored a great resentment towards his father.

Akutagawa attended the Tokyo Imperial University. He was a brilliant student and graduated with commendation: Akutagawa had already published two stories before graduation! One of the two stories was, "Rashomon", published in 1915. This is probably his most well known story; it was later made into a movie. Ryunosuke Akutagawa graduated from the Tokyo Imperial University in 1916.

Akutagawa was married two years later. He had three sons. He taught English at a local school. After a period of deep depression, he committed suicide in 1927, at the age of 35, by overdosing on pills. He wrote a suicide note entitled A Note To A Certain Old Friend.

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