In 1914, Akutagawa published his short story i]Rashomon /i], which won him considerable praise and he followed that up with another highly acclaimed short story, i]The Nose /i]. His reputation as one of the first great Japanese modernists in literature was already established during his lifetime. In 1950, a great Japanese film director, inspired by the work of Akutagawa, released his classic film Rashomon.Akutagawa was an avid reader of ghost stories, Chinese and Japanese classics as well as Poe, de Maupassant, Anatole France, Kipling and other masters of the short story. His works probe...