is a short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Ryunosuke Akutagawa

was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period in Japan. He is regarded as the "Father of the Japanese short story". He committed suicide at age of 35 through an overdose of barbital.-Early life:...

 based on tales from the Konjaku Monogatarishū

Konjaku Monogatarishu

is a Japanese collection of over one thousand tales written during the late Heian period . The entire collection was originally contained in 31 volumes, of which only 28 remain today...

.

The story was first published in 1915 in Teikoku Bungaku

Teikoku Bungaku

Teikoku Bungaku was a literature magazine from 1895 to 1920 published by Japanese writers, Inoue Tetsujiro, Ueda Kazutoshi, Takayama Chogyu and Ueda Bin.See also: Japanese literature...

. Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa

was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...

's film Rashomon

Rashomon (film)

The bandit's storyTajōmaru, a notorious brigand , claims that he tricked the samurai to step off the mountain trail with him and look at a cache of ancient swords he discovered. In the grove he tied the samurai to a tree, then brought the woman there. She initially tried to defend herself with a...

(1950), takes only its name and some of the material for the frame scenes, such as the theft of a kimono and the discussion of the moral ambiguity of thieving to survive, from this story. The plot of the film is based on Akutagawa's 1922 short story, "In a Grove

In a Grove

is a short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, first appearing in the January 1922 edition of the Japanese literature monthly Shinchō. Akira Kurosawa used this story as the basis for his award-winning movie Rashōmon....

".
The story recounts the encounter between a servant and an old woman in the dilapidated Rashōmon

Rashomon

Rashomon may refer to:* Rashōmon, the former main city gate in two Japanese capital cities, Heijokyō and Heiankyō * Rashōmon , a short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa first published in 1915...

, the southern gate of the then ruined city of Kyoto, where unclaimed corpses were sometimes dumped.

The man, a lowly servant recently fired, is contemplating whether to starve to death or to become a thief to survive in the barren times.