Talk:Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Novel or short story?

Rashomon (novel) calls "Rashomon" a novel. Is it a novel, or isn't it? I know the film, and seem to remember reading that it's based on a short story, but don't know anything for sure. --Camembert

It is a short story (23 pages in the translation I have).Jorge Stolfi 04:43, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)

To be precise: the plot of the movie comes from In a Grove, which is 23 pages long. Kurosawa got the movie's title and setting (the ruined Rasho gate in Kyoto), but nothing else, from another short tale, Rashomon.Jorge Stolfi 04:50, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Last words

Question: The article says that he uttered Bonyaritoshita fuan on his deathbed, but the account I have says that he just took an overdose of Veronal, went to bed, fell asleep, and when his wife noticed, it was too late - he died half an hour later. So when were his "last words" uttered?Jorge Stolfi 04:43, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)

   The "last words" you are talking about were never actually uttered, but were written
   down on his will titled "A note to an old friend". This appeared on major papers on the
   25th of July.

Cleanup needed

This article needs English titles for his works. At the very least, English titles for the works that have been published in English. Stratton 22:10, May 14, 2005 (UTC)--

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the debate was move. —Nightstallion (?) 08:26, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Requested move

Voting

• Support. WP standards. Jorge Stolfi 21:55, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Discussion

Akutagawa is his last name. I believe the article should be renamed

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Last name first is the Japanese way. If a change is needed for clarity, then the usual way (in my experience) is to put last names in all uppercase letters. AKUTAGAWA Ryunosuke, in this case. -Coltrey Mather 18:28, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

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This issue is addressed in Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Japan-related articles). Essentially, this guideline recommends using the "surname given-name" order only if the person is either:

• historical (commonly defined as being born before Meiji (1868)) -- Akutagawa was not
• commonly known today as "surname given-name" -- Akutagawa is published today as "Ryunosuke Akutagawa" (see the cover of his books)

The guideline also smartly recommends a redirect for the other name order. I've renamed the article according to these guidelines. --Ds13 21:49, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Regarding the above renaming... I has been brought to my attention that I should have moved rather than copied and pasted this article to accomplish the renaming. Initially, I tried to "Move this page" but since there was already a page at the new name (a redirect), I couldn't. So I did everything a non-admin could do.  ;-) The implication of all this is I've lost the edit history for the old page. Very sorry about that. --Ds13 02:39, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree with the move but the way it was done is strictly against the rules, because it loses the edit history. I am undoing the move before we get too many edits. Please request an administrator to move the page in the proper way. Thank you. Jorge Stolfi 21:29, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Suicide Note

Akutagawa's suicide note is no longer on Wikisource. Therefore, I'm removing that link from the article.Mjatucla 00:48, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

No Novels?

The "Legacy" section begins with "Akutagawa wrote no full-length novels," but his "selected works" directly below includes one novel (Kappa). As I know next to nothing about Akutagawa, I don't want to change anything, but could a knowledgeable editor clarify this matter? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.191.217.208 (talk) 23:28, 4 August 2013 (UTC)

relationship with Soseki

Keene, in Dawn to the West (1984), states that Soseki expressed praise for "The Nose" and not for "Rashomon." It appears that Akutagawa started attending Soseki's literary circle without encouragement from Soseki, and produced the Nose within a month or two of his first visit. Soseki then wrote a letter, later published, praising "The Nose". Since there is no source listed for the claim that Rashomon received Soseki's praise, it would probably be best to follow Keene's chronology.--LUxlii (talk) 02:35, 3 July 2014 (UTC)