羅生門(らしょうもん)

らしょうもん
noun (proper)
Rashomon (Akutagawa story; Kurosawa film)
proper-nounwork-nameartentertainment
1. Rashomon (story by Akutagawa; film by Kurosawa)
A 1915 short story by 芥川龍之介(あくたがわりゅうのすけ), set at the ruined main gate of the old capital Kyoto, where a jobless servant decides to become a thief. Also the title of Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film, which takes its setting from this story and its plot of conflicting testimonies from Akutagawa's 藪(やぶ)の中(なか).
『羅生門(らしょうもん)』を読(よ)んだ。
I read Rashomon.
『羅生門(らしょうもん)』は芥川龍之介(あくたがわりゅうのすけ)の小説(しょうせつ)だ。
Rashomon is a story by Akutagawa Ryunosuke.
黒澤明(くろさわあきら)の映画(えいが)『羅生門(らしょうもん)』は、ベネチア国際映画祭(こくさいえいがさい)で金獅子賞(きんじししょう)を受賞(じゅしょう)した。
Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Cultural note

  • The story is read in almost every first-year high school Japanese class
  • The real gate was the 羅城門(らじょうもん), the southern gate of the Heian capital; 羅生門(らしょうもん) is the spelling of later tales and of Akutagawa
  • English "the Rashomon effect" (witnesses telling contradictory versions of an event) comes from the film; Japanese speakers rarely use the phrase
general
Added 2026.10.13 9:21 · Revised 2026.10.13 9:27
31500/31985_rashoumon