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"Ryåunosuke Akutagawa is one of Japan's foremost stylists--a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty, and wild humor. 'Rashåomon' and 'In a Bamboo Grove' inspired Akira Kurosawa's 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 storie