ABSTRACT
Following in the path of Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki, writers whom he especially admired, Akutagawa Ryunosuke started his writing by rejecting the confessional self-revelation and open self-search which characterized Japan's I-novelists, including the naturalistic writers like Katai and the idealistic Shirakaba writers. The most characteristic feature of Akutagawa's short stories is the fact that they are based almost exclusively on other stories: classical tales, foreign tales, the works of other writers, and so forth. In depending on earlier literary works, Akutagawa was certainly not alone among Japanese authors; such dependence has been one of the major techniques of Japanese (and Chinese) literature. Akutagawa's "Toshishun" presents the languid, melancholy air of a decadent life, and Toshishun is portrayed as a man who, disillusioned with the pursuit of beauty and luxury, searches for the meaning of life.
