SOURCE: “The Flight to Parnassus,” in Akutagawa: An Introduction, Wayne State University Press, 1972, pp. 15–42.

In the following essay, Yu examines major themes in Akutagawa's short stories, focusing on “The Nose” as the starting point of his fiction career.

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Of Akutagawa's early writings, only a handful—translations of France and Yeats,¹ and pieces like “The Old Man” (written in 1914) and “Youths and Death” (1914)—appeared in the third New Thought. None of these writings attracted critical attention; nor did his more ambitious “Rashomon” (1915), which he managed to place in another little magazine. Even “The Nose” might have suffered the same fate but for Soseki's personal blessings. Upon reading this story in the first issue of the fourth New Thought, Soseki at once wrote a congratulatory letter to the young author: “I found your piece very interesting. Sober and serious without trying to be funny, it exudes humor, a sure sign...