藪の中
In a Grove
A bandit, a wife and a ghost give conflicting accounts of a killing.
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About the book
This is Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's short story 'In a Grove'. After a samurai's violent death in a bamboo forest, a series of testimonies is given—by the woodcutter, the bandit, the policeman, the wife, and the dead man's spirit—but each account centers on the speaker and the key details contradict one another. The truth remains hidden, and it is precisely this that makes the work a classic on truth and subjective narration.
Cultural notes (selection)
Background a translation can’t carry: social roles, history and allusions. While reading, tap “Note” at the end of a sentence to see them all.
A policing and judicial office established in the Heian period for the capital and its surroundings. It was an extra-statutory post (ryōge no kan), responsible for patrol, arrest, and investigating wrongdoing, and also handled criminal matters and prisons in the capital. In this tale, each section of testimony is presented in the form of statements given under interrogation by the kebiishi, which forms the framework of the whole piece.
A suikan was an informal garment worn in the Heian period by lower-ranking officials and attendants, with narrow sleeves and tied with cords. Hanada is a pale blue colour. The dead man wears a suikan as an outer garment and an eboshi of the 'Miyako-buri' style; these details of dress serve as clues for readers to infer the status of the figures.
This comes from the verse in the Diamond Sutra: 'All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow; like dew and like a flash of lightning—so should they be regarded.' The priest laments the impermanence of human life using this stock Buddhist phrase.
About the author
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1 March 1892 – 24 July 1927), also known by his art name Chōkōdō Shujin, was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period who is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story". He died by suicide at the age of 35 through an overdose of barbital, and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him.
Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: 藪の中 (CC BY-SA)
How the glosses are made
Word glosses and sentence translations are generated in context by AI models (DeepSeek and Zhipu GLM), and every word is checked to have a gloss. AI can make mistakes; you can report problems from the book page.
FAQ
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This one is marked “Advanced”. Every word is glossed, so you can keep reading even with a small vocabulary.
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