Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of Japans foremost stylists - a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour. Rashomon and In a Bamboo Grove inspired Kurosawas magnificent film and depict a past in which morality is turned upside down, while tales such as the Nose, O-Gin and Loyalty paint a rich and imaginative picture of a medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns and priests, vagrants and peasants. And in later works such as Death Register, The Life of a Stupid Man and Spinning Gears, Akutagawa drew from his own life to devastating effect, revealing his intense melancholy and terror of madness in exquisitely moving impressionistic stories.