Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of Japan`s foremost stylists
- a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty & wild humour. Rashomon & In a Bamboo Grove inspired Kurosawa`s magnificent film & depict a past in which morality is turned upside down, while tales such as The Nose, O-Gin & Loyalty paint a rich & imaginative picture of a medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns & priests, vagrants & peasants. & in later works such as Death Register, The Life of a Stupid Man & Spinning Gears, Akutagawa drew from his own life to devastating effect, revealing his intense melancholy & terror of madness in exquisitely moving impressionistic stories.