Akutagawa Ryūnosuke

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Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (second from left)

Akutagawa Ryūnosuke ( Japanese 芥 川 龍之介 ; born March 1, 1892 in Tokyo ; † July 24, 1927 there ) was a Japanese poet and writer . In addition to essays and poetry , he wrote about 150 short stories , short stories and novels . The most important Japanese literary prize, the Akutagawa Prize , is named after him.

Youth, career and writing activity

Akutagawa was born in Tokyo as the son of the less successful dairy farmer Niihara Toshizō. His mother, Fuku, developed psychosis shortly after he was born , after which she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. As a result, he was unable to establish an emotional connection with her, which burdened him heavily, as he describes in his autobiographical work "The Life of a Fool". She died in 1902 (Akutagawa was 10 years old at the time). However, Akutagawa was by his uncle adopted and his aunt could take over the role of mother. He published his first texts between 1912 and 1916 when he was studying English literature at the Imperial University of Tokyo . After teaching English for three years, he began writing for the Osaka Mainichi newspaper.

Akutagawa occasionally used short stories from old sources, which he revised. The templates for the short stories “Rashōmon” (羅 生 門), “Hana” (鼻) and “Imogyu” (芋 粥) come from the Konjaku Monogatarishū .

While still a student, he wanted to marry his childhood friend Yoshida Yayoi, but his family disapproved of the connection. In 1916 Akutagawa became engaged to Tsukamoto Fumi, whom he married in 1918. They had three children, Hiroshi (1920), Takashi (1922) and Yasushi (1925-1989). The latter became a well-known composer.

Death and inheritance

From 1919 onwards, Akutagawa's health deteriorated. It was also a psychosis. He had hallucinations and anxiety. The medicine of the time did not yet have a more precise understanding of this disease. For example, his family doctor told him that his hallucinations were caused by tobacco consumption.

At the same time, his stories showed increasing realism and social criticism. Eventually, in addition to his own illness , Akutagawa also experienced the decline of society , which was moving towards a war of expansion.

Although he is now a respected writer, he is getting worse and worse and his symptoms are increasing. He tries to deal with his situation in the story “Zahnräder”, but gets deeper and deeper into a crisis (the title is about his hallucinations: he hallucinates over and over again cogs that slide into his field of vision). He deals with the subject of suicide . The prevalent opinion on suicide in Japanese society at the time was that it is morally correct "if there is no other solution". Akutagawa interprets this maxim very much in favor of suicide, claiming that every suicide saw no other solution and thus acted morally right. Not being able to appear in the role of husband in front of his wife, as required by Japanese society, was the decisive factor in his suicide in 1927.

In his memory, the renowned Akutagawa Prize is awarded to outstanding Japanese writers every six months.

In 1950 his short stories Rashōmon (1915) and In the Bushes (1921) were filmed by the famous Japanese director Kurosawa Akira under the former title . Rashomon also served the Japanese composer Mayako Kubo as a template for an opera (1996).

meaning

Akutagawa tried as one of the first Asian poets and writers to combine the native literary style with European literature and thus to modernize it. His writing style revolutionized his era and had a lasting influence on the greatest Japanese writers.

Akutagawa was familiar with Japanese and Chinese as well as European literature. He was influenced by authors such as Edgar Allan Poe , Charles Baudelaire , Oscar Wilde , Mori Ōgai and Natsume Sōseki . The title of his autobiographical work “The Life of a Fool” refers to the likewise autobiographical novel “Le plaidoyer d'un fou” by August Strindberg from 1895, in which Strindberg paints a ruthless picture of his marriage to Siri von Essen.

The varied material in his short stories is often borrowed from Japanese folk tales or the literature of the Japanese Middle Ages . Most of the stories have a deeply psychological background. In this way, they remain transferable to the current situation even if they are set in a historical epoch.

In Japanese literature he is considered to be one of the most important representatives of the so-called intellectual school, which tried to find a balance between the purely objective description of naturalism and emotionally overloaded neo-romanticism .

Works

The kappa. Schobundo Verlag, Tokyo 1934. Dt. First edition
  • 1914 Rōnen 老年
  • 1915 Rashōmon 羅 生 門 (dt. Rashomon ) Introduction to Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon - Das Lustwäldchen
    • German Rashomon . Translated by Jürgen Berndt, in: Akutagawa. Japanese novels, Berlin Verlag Volk und Welt, 1966, pp. 115–124
  • 1916 Hana 鼻 (Eng. The nose )
  • 1917 Kubi ga ochita hanashi
    • Akutagawa Ryūnosuke: The Story of the Fallen Head . In: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens (Hrsg.): OAG Notes . No. 11_2013 . Tokyo November 2013, p. 24–31 ( oag.jp [PDF; accessed July 29, 2015]).
  • 1918 Jigokuhe 地獄 変
    • dt. torments of hell . Translated by Jürgen Berndt, in: Akutagawa. Japanese novels, Berlin Verlag Volk und Welt, 1966, pp. 125–168
  • 1918 Kumo no ito 蜘蛛 の 糸
    • dt. The thread of the spider. Translated by Heinz Brasch, in: Japan told. Edited by Margarete Donath, Frankfurt 1990, ISBN 3-596-10162-X , pp. 7-11
  • 1919 Mori-sensei 森 先生
    • German Professor Mori . Translated by Jürgen Berndt, in: Akutagawa. Japanese novels, Berlin Verlag Volk und Welt, 1966, pp. 291-310
  • 1919 Majutsu 魔術 (German magic arts )
    • Akutagawa Ryūnosuke: Magic . In: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens (Hrsg.): OAG Notes . No. 11_2013 . Tokyo November 2013, p. 32–39 ( oag.jp [PDF; accessed July 29, 2015]).
  • 1920 Aki 秋
    • German autumn . Translated by Jürgen Berndt, in: Akutagawa. Japanese novels, Berlin Verlag Volk und Welt, 1966, pp. 7–26
  • 1920 Shunzanzu (German: the picture of the mountains in autumn )
  • 1920 Nankin no kirisuto 南京 の 基督
    • Akutagawa Ryūnosuke: The Christ of Nanjing . In: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens (Hrsg.): OAG Notes . No. 11_2011 . Tokyo May 2011, p. 3–13 ( oag.jp [PDF; accessed June 3, 2012]).
  • 1920 Kokui seibo
    • Akutagawa Ryūnosuke: The Madonna in the Black Robe . In: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens (Hrsg.): OAG Notes . No. 11_2014 . Tokyo November 2014, p. 27–31 ( oag.jp [PDF; accessed July 29, 2015]).
  • 1920 Yūkawa
    • Akutagawa Ryūnosuke: The Temptation - A Screenplay . In: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens (Hrsg.): OAG Notes . No. 11_2014 . Tokyo November 2014, p. 31- ( oag.jp [PDF; accessed July 29, 2015]).
  • 1922 Shogun 将軍
    • German The General . Translated by Jürgen Berndt, in: Akutagawa. Japanese novels, Berlin Verlag Volk und Welt, 1966, pp. 191–290
  • 1922 Niwa 庭
    • dt. The garden. Translated by Jürgen Berndt, in: Akutagawa. Japanese novels, Berlin Verlag Volk und Welt, 1966, pp. 311–322
  • 1922 Yabu no Naka 薮 の 中 Original for Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon - Das Lustwäldchen
  • 1924 Ikkai no Tsuchi 一塊 の 土 ( Eng . A piece of earth )
  • 1927 Genkakusambō 玄 鶴山 房
    • Genkakus Bergklause . Translated by Jürgen Berndt, in: Akutagawa. Japanese novels, Berlin Verlag Volk und Welt, 1966, pp. 232–346
  • 1927 Kappa 河 童
    • dt. The Kappa . Translated by Kosaka-Yosiyuki u. W. Roth, Schobundo Verlag, Tokyo 1934, Dt. First edition
  • 1927 Haguruma 歯 車 ( Eng . Gears ) A haunting description of his psychotic symptoms
  • 1927 Aru ahō no isshō 或 阿呆 の 一生 ( Eng . The life of a fool ) autobiography in the form of aphoristic episodes
  • 1927 Mitsu no mado 三 つ の 窓
    • Akutagawa Ryūnosuke: Three Windows . In: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens (Hrsg.): OAG Notes . No. 11_2011 . Tokyo May 2011, p. 13–23 ( oag.jp [PDF; accessed June 3, 2012]).
  • 1927 Yume 夢
    • dt. The dream. Translated by Armin Stein, in: Akutagawa. The floods of the Sumida. Munich Academic 2010, pp. 159-165.
  • 1927 Saihō no Hito 西方 の 人 (posthumous manuscript)
    • dt. The man from the west. Translated by Armin Stein, in: Akutagawa. The floods of the Sumida. Munich Academic 2010, pp. 166–191

Quotes

  • "What is now best suited as a stepping stone [to suicide] is a woman."
  • "I thought of this fireworks display. This fireworks display, which is like our life, said the French naval officer, while he looked down at Akiko's face in an almost instructive tone." (From the story Der Chrysanthemenball , in: Das große Japan-Lesebuch, Munich 1990, p, 29) (The naval officer alludes to the French writer Pierre Loti (1850–1923), whose real name was Julien Viaud.)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Siegfried Schaarschmidt: Das große Japan-Lesebuch , Munich 1990, p. 374
  2. ↑ Akutagawa Ryūnosuke: The life of a fool, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1997, p. 79.
  3. ↑ Akutagawa Ryūnosuke: The life of a fool . P. 73.

literature

  • Anne Gentes: Study on the Evaluation of Translations. Using the example of Akutagawa Ryunosuke. Kappa. Munich: Iudicium. 2004. ISBN 3-89129-799-8
  • Dietmar Heidenreich: The aphorism as an epic in Akutagawa Ryunosuke. An overall interpretation from the perspective of the aphoristic tradition in the German-speaking area. Frankfurt am Main u. a .: Peter Lang. 1997. ISBN 3-631-31698-4

Web links

Commons : Ryūnosuke Akutagawa  - Collection of Images
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Akutagawa is the family name, Ryunosuke the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Akutagawa, Ryūnosuke
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 芥 川 龍之介 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese poet and writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Tokyo , Japan
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 1927
Place of death Tokyo , Japan