Rashomon/ 羅生門

1. Rashomon/羅生門 -Do you still believe in yourself?

2. Who is Akutagawa? 芥川　龍之介: • Born in March 1 1892 and died in July 24, 1927. • Studied English literature at Tokyo Imperial University. • Wrote over 150 short stories, including The Nose, The Spider’s Thread, The hell Screen, In a Grove, Kappa. He did not write a full length novel. He ended his life by suicide with the word “ぼんやりとした不安” (dim uneasiness)

3. The West and The East • Akutagawa was often inspired by India andChinese fairy tale. • What does Akutagawa’s cultural inspiration from India and China tell us? • Before the end of Russo-Japanese War, Japan had been influenced both culturally and mentally by India and China. India and China had been Japan’s West for long time. • It tells us that “the West” is absolutely changeable according to several social factors. It is not a pure concept at all. We must be aware of this when we study a culture.

4. 黒澤　明（Akira Kurosawa) • -Born in March 23, 1910 and died in • September 6, 1998. • -A witness of Japan’s national changing • from the military dominant imperial country • to the economic giant. • -Kurosawa’s best-known films are set in • Japan’s feudal period (13th-17th century) • Some of his plots are adaptations of William Shakespeare’s work: Ran based on King Lear, and Throne of Blood, based on Macbeth. Also, he worked on film adaptation of The Idiot by Dostoevsky. Later in his life he worked on Hollywood project Tora! Tora! Tora!

5. Sanshiro Sugata (1943) The One Most Beautiful (1944) Sanshiro Sugata Part II (1945) They Who Step on the Tiger's Tail (1945) No Regrets for Our Youth (1946) One Wonderful Sunday (1946) Drunken Angel (1948) The Quiet Duel (1949) Stray Dog (1949) Scandal (1950) Rashomon (1950) The Idiot (1951) Ikiru aka To Live (1952) The Seven Samurai (1954)Record of a Living Being (1955) The Throne of Blood aka Spider Web Castle (1957) The Lower Depths (1957) The Hidden Fortress (1958) The Bad Sleep Well (1960) Yojimbo aka The Bodyguard (1961) Sanjuro (1962) High and Low aka Heaven and Hell (1963) Red Beard (1965) Dodesukaden (1970) Dersu Uzala (1975) Kagemusha aka Shadow Warrior (1980) Ran (1985) Dreams aka Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990) Rhapsody in August (1991) Madadayo aka Not Yet (1993) Filmography of Akira Kurosawa

6. Allegory VS Akutagawa and Kurosawa • Both of the authors prefer to talk about their stories as allegory. • Why? What is the power of allegory? • Allegory can be more than real, because it leaves us room to think and imagine what is happening in the actuality. A directly spoken story sometimes has an already determined interpretation. We, readers, occasionally have more difficulty to participate in the story. Taking advantage of the power of our imagination allows us to think about the story deeply and gain our own truth from there.

7. So, what is the truth? • “It was certainly me, Tajoumaru, who killed that man…”―Tajoumaru― • In Rashomon everybody makes something up, and certainly tells a lie not only for the audience but also for themselves. • However, their way of speech tells us that each of them is with certain degree of reality on their stories. They convey their story very realistically. • What is the truth in this story?

8. What do you see in this picture? • For you, is this a picture of a • looking back young woman, or • the side face of an old woman?

9. Fact/Reality/Truth“Truth is in a grove” • Fact is the most objective thing. Fact is something as it is. However, we always fail to tell a fact accurately because of the limitation of language an limitation of perception. Incidentally, this is one of main themes embodied in Rashomon and In a Grove. • Reality is a matter of feeling. As long as we feel something is real after the serious exploration of the matter, even though it is different from the fact, we are able to say it is real. • Truth is the most subjective one. It is a choice of reality. We collect several pieces of object to get the entire image of the object. Truth depends on which piece we employ.

10. The background of Rashomon • Why did Kurosawa need to talk about fact, reality, and truth? What makes him speak about the dilemma of human’s memory, and unreliability of human?

11. Society at that time (1950) • “なんでえ、人の一人や二人、、、” “So, what? Only one… Why up on top of this gate. There’s always 5 or 6bodies, no one worries about them.” “You’re right. […]Yes, each year is full of disaster[…] I, for one, have seen hundreds of people killed like tiny insects…” • 1937-1945 Second Shino-Japanese War. • 1941-1945 World War Ⅱ/ Asian Pacific War • 1945 8 15, Japan surrendered to the United States, England, Soviet Union, and China, which is the end of its imperialism. • Death was everywhere at that time, because of the war. • However…

12. The Tokyo War Crimes Trials • “本当のことが言えねえのが人間だ。” “Well, men are only men…That’s why they lie. They can’t tell the truth even to themselves.” • May 3, 1946 to Novenber 12, 1948 The Tokyo War Crimes Trials. ―People started to know what the Japanese imperialism and their military have done, in addition to their own tragedies. In this trial, some of the suspects did not convey the truth… • “After all, what is to be trusted nowadays? Look, we all want to forget something undesirable to see. So we construct stories to replace.” • “It’s easier that way…” • “Easier that way?”

13. Eyes speak more than words? • “Even now…I remember his eyes.[…] it was a cold hatred of me.”―Masago (the woman)― • Characters often emphasized that his/her eyes tell something. Eyes has an impact but leads to misunderstanding. • There is a cultural cliché in Japanese context; the people do not look at eyes. • What Kurosawa’s usage of eyes in the movie reflect on?

14. Invisible authority • “Yes, indeed. Excuse me? …” ―the man who captured Tajoumaru― • The characters speak/repeat the questions by themselves. We cannot hear the authority speaking. • What is the significance of this new style of monologue? • Where is the police?

15. Authority is nowhere but in our imagination. • 1945-1952 GHQ occupation. • The invisible authority might be behind us. Authority is always invisible. Authority is an imaginary creation. There is no authority in the world. Every authority can be disillusioned. We might need authority occasionally, but we should be aware that it is based upon our imagination.

16. The baby in the last scene • Does the baby really act as an implication of a hope? • It depends on the version of story you have gained from this story.