A Fool's Words (9784805320228)

"Akutagawa displays an insightful and keenly creative intelligence in prose so lucid its sophistication is hardly visible." —The Guardian

Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927), "the Father of the Japanese short story," wrote 150 stories during his brief career and is widely acclaimed as Japan's greatest storyteller. This new anthology, published exactly a century after his death, includes fresh translations of well-known classics as well as never-before-translated works:

• A Fool's Words: Aphorisms and reflections on life and literature, full of imagination and insight; this is Akutagawa at his most quotable, and the first complete English translation of this essay
• The Parrot: During the cataclysmic Great Kanto Earthquake, a man escapes a fire with his granddaughter and a caged parrot; separated, he searches desperately for her as his own situation worsens—the first-ever English translation of this story
• The Piano: Another first-time English translation set in the aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake: the narrator discovers a piano amidst the ruins and seems to hear a single note; only later does he realize the sound is caused by something else
• The Faith of Wei Sheng: A retelling of an ancient Chinese tale of in which a man waits under a bridge for his beloved until the rising waters drown him; the narrator finds in the man's faith an image of his own life
• The Swamp: At an art exhibition, the narrator is captivated by a neglected painting of a swamp; and when another visitor mocks it as madness, he insists that it is nonetheless a masterpiece
• The Mirage: Two brief seaside occurrences—one by day, one by night—share an uncanny stillness that hovers at the edge of ordinary life
• Plus seven other fascinating essays and tales

This is an absolute "must-have" for every serious fan of Japanese literature!


About the Author:
Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of the biggest names in Japanese literature, recognized for his mastery of the short story form. He was a contemporary of Osamu Dazai, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki and Soseki Natsume. In the West, he is best known for his short story In a Grove, adapted by Akira Kurosawa into the award-winning film Rashomon. Many Akutagawa stories highlight the writer's fascination with supernatural and transformational phenomena while others display vivid historical backdrops or influences from classical Japanese and Western fiction. In 1927, at the age of 35, he killed himself.

Richard Medhurst is a British writer, editor and translator who lives in Yokohama. His translation of Akutagawa's An Odd Tale was published in Kyoto Journal in 2018 and his translation of Eiji Suzuki's Lingering Fragrance was published in the anthology Strokes of Brush and Blade (Kurodahan Press, 2018). He has worked for the online magazine Nippon.com for over a decade, specializing in articles on literature and history. He has also written a popular series about learning Japanese which have received tens of thousands of page views, and his article on Japan's 72 micro-seasons helped popularize that concept in the English-speaking world. His first book, The Essential Akutagawa, containing twenty-two Akutagawa stories, was published by Tuttle in 2025.