In a Grove

"In a Grove" (藪の中, Yabu no Naka) is a short story by Ryunosuke 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 is often praised as being among the greatest in Japanese literature.

Background

"In a Grove" is an early modernist short story consisting of seven varying accounts of the murder of a samurai, Kanazawa no Takehiro, whose corpse has been found in a bamboo forest near Kyoto. Each section simultaneously clarifies and obfuscates what the reader knows about the murder, eventually creating a complex and contradictory vision of the event that questions humanity's ability or willingness to perceive and transmit objective truth.

Akutagawa's influences for this story may have come from several different sources:

• A story from the classic Japanese collection "Konjaku Monogatarishū": In the 23rd story of the 29th volume—"The Tale Of The Bound Man Who Was Accompanying His Wife to Tanba"—a man is tied to a tree in a bamboo grove and forced to watch helplessly as his wife gets raped by a young thief, who has stolen all of their belongings
• "The Moonlit Road" by Ambrose Bierce: a short story about the murder of a woman, as told by her husband and herself (through a medium), and introduced by their son
• "The Ring and the Book" by Robert Browning, a narrative poem based on the true story about a murder told 12 different ways

In Japan, hundreds of theses have been written (and debated) searching for the "truth" behind the story, but have, of course, reached no conclusion.

Plot summary

The story opens with the account of a woodcutter who has found a man's body in the woods. The woodcutter reports that man died of a single sword slash to the chest, and that the trampled leaves around the body showed there had been a violent struggle, but otherwise lacked any significant evidence as to what actually happened. There were no weapons nearby, and no horses—only a single piece of rope, a comb and a lot of blood.

The next account is delivered by a traveling Buddhist priest. He says that he met the man, who was accompanied by a woman on horseback, on the road, around noon the day before the murder. The man was carrying a sword, a bow and a black quiver. All of these, along with the woman's horse, a tall, short-maned palomino, were missing when the woodcutter discovered the body.

The next person to testify is a hōmen (放免, a released prisoner working under contract to the police, similar to a bounty hunter). He has captured an infamous criminal named Tajōmaru. Tajōmaru was injured when thrown from a horse (a tall, short-maned palomino), and he is carrying a bow and a black quiver, which do not belong to his usual arsenal. This proves, he says, that Tajōmaru was the perpetrator. Tajōmaru was not carrying the dead man's sword, however.

The next testimony is from an old woman, who identifies herself as the mother of the missing girl. Her daughter is a beautiful, strong-willed 19-year-old named Masago, married to Kanazawa no Takehiro—a 26-year-old samurai from Wakasa. Her daughter, she says, has never been with a man other than Takehiro. She begs the police to find her daughter.

Next, Tajōmaru confesses. He says that he met them on the road in the forest, and upon first seeing Masago, decided that was going to rape her. In order to rape Masago unhindered, he separated the couple, luring Takehiro into the woods with the promise of buried treasure. He then stuffed his mouth full of leaves, tied him to a tree and fetched Masago. When Masago saw her husband tied to the tree, she pulled a dagger from her bosom and tried to stab Tajōmaru, but he knocked the knife out of her hand, and he had his way with her. Originally, he had no intention of killing the man, he claims, but after the rape, she begged him to either kill her husband or kill himself—she could not live if two men knew her shame. She would leave with the last man standing. Tajōmaru did not wish to kill the Takehiro in a cowardly manner, so he untied him and they had a swordfight. During the duel, Masago fled. Tajōmaru dispatched the man and took the man's sword, bow, and quiver, as well as the woman's horse. He says that he sold the sword before he was captured by the bounty hunter.

The second-to-last account is that of Masago. According to her, after the rape, Tajōmaru fled, and her husband, still tied to the tree, looked at her with great disdain. She was ashamed that she had been raped, and no longer wished to live, but she wanted him to die with her. He agreed, or so she believed—he couldn't actually say anything because his mouth was still stuffed full of leaves—and she plunged her dagger into his chest. She then cut the rope that bound Takehiro, and ran into the forest, whereupon she attempted to commit suicide numerous times, she said, but her spirit was too strong to die. Of all of the accounts of the crime, the woman's is arguably the least believable, and in great discordance with the other two. At the end of her confession, she weeps.

The final account comes from Takehiro's ghost, as delivered through a spirit medium. The ghost says that after the rape, Tajōmaru persuaded Masago to leave her husband and become his own wife, which she agreed to do under one condition: He would have to kill Takehiro. Tajōmaru became enraged at the suggestion, kicked her to the ground, and asked Takehiro if he should kill the dishonorable woman. Hearing this, Masago fled into the forest. Tajōmaru then cut Takehiro's bonds and ran away. Takehiro grabbed Masago's fallen dagger and plunged it into his chest. Shortly before he died, he sensed someone creep up to him and steal the dagger from his chest. Throughout, it is obvious that he is furious at his wife.

Analysis

What we know

These facts remain undisputed:

• Tajōmaru led the couple into the forest as he said.
• Takehiro is dead.
• Tajōmaru raped Masago.
• Tajōmaru stole Takehiro's bow & quiver, as well as the woman's horse.
• In each of the accounts, Masago wishes Takehiro dead, although the details vary.
• Masago and Tajōmaru did not leave together.

Discrepancies, omissions and unlikelihoods

The differences between the characters' stories range from the trivial to the fundamental. What follows is a list of discrepancies between the characters' testimonies.

• The comb mentioned by the woodcutter is not mentioned by any of the other characters.
• The "violent struggle" that trampled the leaves, mentioned by the woodcutter, seems to occur only in Tajōmaru's version of the story—the swordfight.
• The woodcutter also claims that the man was killed by a single sword slash across the chest, but in both Masago's and Takehiro's versions of the story, he was killed by a dagger thrust to the chest.
• The woodcutter claims that Takehiro was wearing a Kyōto-style hat called a "sabi-eboshi", however Masago's mother says that he was not from Kyōto. We know that the author wanted to draw significance to this fact, because he specifically had the police investigator ask her if Takehiro was from Kyōto.
• The traveling priest says that he "clearly remember[s] that there were more than 20 arrows" in the man's quiver. The bounty hunter says that there were only 17.
• Tajōmaru does not mention how Masago's dagger disappeared from the crime scene.
• In Tajōmaru's and Takehiro's accounts, Masago and Tajōmaru have a long conversation after the rape, after which, she is willing to leave with Tajōmaru, so long as her husband is dead. Masago's account omits this completely.
• Masago does not mention how Takehiro's sword disappeared from the crime scene.
• It seems unlikely that Masago would fail at suicide so many times, particularly considering the first method she supposedly tried: driving her dagger into her neck.
• Masago says that Takehiro was repulsed by her after the rape. This is not true according to the other accounts. From Takehiro's story, it is clear that he is furious at her, but he claims that this is because she asked Tajōmaru to kill him. In Tajōmaru's version, he still loves her so much that he is willing to fight to the death for her.
• Takehiro introduces a new and unlikely character: the person who stole the dagger from his chest, conveniently, mere seconds before his death.
• Masago and Takehiro claim that Tajōmaru violently kicked her after the rape. Tajōmaru does not mention this.

In short, every character says at least one thing that is refuted by another.

"In a Grove" and the movies

The following movies have been based on the story of "In a Grove":

• "Rashōmon" - 1950, Japan; Director: Akira Kurosawa; Starring: Toshirō Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura
• "The Outrage" - 1964, America; Director: Martin Ritt; Starring: Paul Newman
• "Iron Maze" - 1991, America; Director: Hiroaki Yoshida; Starring: Jeff Fahey, Bridget Fonda, Hiroaki Murakami
• "In a Grove" - 1996, Japan; Director: Hisato Satō; Starring: Shunsuke Matsuoka, Kaori Sakagami, Shigeki Hosokawa
• "Misty" - 1997, Japan; Director: Kenki Saegusa; Starring: Yūki Amami, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Etsushi Toyokawa
• "Ghost Dog" - 1999, Jim Jarmush

References in Popular Culture

"In a Grove" is the favourite story of Ghost Dog, the main character from the movie "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai".

The name of the story has become an idiom in Japan, used to signify a situation where no conclusion can be drawn, because evidence is insufficient or contradictory. Similar terms include "in the dark" (闇の中, yami no naka) and "in the fog" (霧の中, kiri no naka).

Translation notes

Contrary to what some foreign-language versions of the story may imply, Masago does not confess to the police. This is clear in the Japanese version of the text. The title of this section is:「清水寺に来れる女の懺悔」(kiyomizu-dera ni kitareru onna no zange, translated in Giles as "The Confession of the Woman Visitor to Kiyomizudera Temple") The word 懺悔 (zange) is often translated as "confession", but the word also has heavy religious connotations, similar to "repentance" or "penitence". Although it can mean "to confess to other people", it almost always means "to confess to Buddha/God". Contrast this with Tajōmaru's confession to the police, referred to as 白状 (hakujō) in the text. This raises the question: The woman's story seems highly unlikely, but why would she lie to Buddha and ask him to for forgive her for a crime that she didn't commit? Without this important detail, we could be led to believe that Masago was lying to the police in an effort to save face.

Another minor translation mistake in the Giles version of the text is the use of the word "sorrel" to refer to the woman's horse. The Japanese word in question is 月毛 (tsukige, lit. "moon hair"). This word is better translated as "palomino".

Often omitted from translations is the proper translation of the word 征矢 (soya). Often translated merely as "arrow", the word actually has a slightly different denotation. "Soya" were extremely sharp arrows used for penetrating armor. Thus, as Takehiro is carrying "soya", we are to assume that he is not only an experienced swordsman, but also an experienced archer. Without knowing this, we might be led to assume that the arrows were used for hunting, which was clearly not the author's intention.

References

• Murray, Giles (2003). Breaking into Japanese Literature. Kodansha. ISBN 4-7700-2899-7. A bilingual book containing "In a Grove"
• Some of the content of this article comes from the equivalent Japanese-language Wikipedia article (retrieved April 5, 2006).

External links and further reading

• Free e-book (in Japanese)
• Free (Japanese) MP3s of the story, read by a professional Japanese actor
• Konjaku Monogatarishū - 29th Volume, 23rd Story (Japanese)
• "The Moonlit Road" by Ambrose Bierce
• "The Ring and the Book" by Robert Browning