Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of Japans foremost stylists
- a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery cynicism beauty & wild humour. Rashomon" & " In a Bamboo Grove" inspired Kurosawas 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."