Rashomon (short story)
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"Rashōmon" (羅生門) is a short story by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke based on tales from the Konjaku Monogatarishū.
The story was published in 1915 in Teikoku Bungaku. Together with In a Grove, it provided the plot material for the Akira Kurosawa movie Rashōmon.
The story recounts the encounter between a fired servant and a poor woman, who is robbing hair from the dead bodies left in the dilapidated Rashōmon Gate.
The man, just fired, contemplates whether to starve to death or to steal to survive in the barren times. Hearing a noise upstairs he encounters the woman, is disgusted, wants to kill her but she pleads she robs the bodies to survive. This sways the man from killing her, but also fixes his decision on stealing to survive. He then brutally robs the woman of her kimono.