Hell Screen
Encyclopedia
is a short story
written by Japan
ese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
. It was originally published in 1918
as a serialization
in two newspapers. It was later published in a collection of Akutagawa short stories, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke zenshū.
by W.H.H. Norman in 1948, in his collection of Akutagawa short stories Hell Screen and Other Stories. Numerous variant translations have followed, including the most recent one translated by Jay Rubin
and published by Penguin Group
.
, who also employs Yoshihide’s daughter in his mansion. When Yoshihide is instructed to create a screen depicting the Buddhist hell
, he proceeds to inflict tortures upon his apprentices, for he cannot effectively paint anything he has not seen. The story climaxes when Yoshihide asks the lord to burn a beautiful lady in a carriage so he can finish the screen. The lord concedes, but, in a macabre twist, Yoshihide must watch as his daughter Yuzuki and her monkey are the ones who burn. The story ends with the magnificently horrible screen completed, and Yoshihide’s suicide.
The last story about the great achievements of the lord is of how the lord brought surgery to Japan. The lord needed a growth removed from his leg so he summoned a Chinese monk. The Chinese monk brought with him the knowledge of surgery. The narrator concludes part one by foreshadowing the rest of the story. He says the story is “…more terrible than anything I had ever witnessed—or have ever.” The very end the narrator introduces Yoshide who is the painter of Hell Screen.
Another theme is the objectivity of truth, as the narrator, a servant of the Lord of Horikawa, repeatedly ignores the physical attraction the Lord has for Yuzuki, despite overwhelming evidence. The servant even refuses to believe his own eyes when he witnesses the Lord forcing himself on Yuzuki. At the stories end, the servant proclaims:
“Word soon spread that His Lordship had burned the carriage that night in the Palace of the Melting Snows, and there seem to have been many who were highly
critical of the event. First of all came the question of Yoshihide’s daughter: why had his Lordship chosen to burn her alive? The rumor most often heard was that he
had done it out of spite for her rejection of his love. I am certain, however, that he did it to punish the twisted personality of an artist who would go so far as to burn a carriage and kill a human being to complete the painting of a screen. In fact, I overheard His Lordship saying as much himself”.
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
written by Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Ryunosuke Akutagawa
was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period in Japan. He is regarded as the "Father of the Japanese short story". He committed suicide at age of 35 through an overdose of barbital.-Early life:...
. It was originally published in 1918
1918 in literature
The year 1918 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The 2nd annual Pulitzer Prizes are awarded.* Author Hall Caine made a KBE.*Robert Graves marries Nancy Nicholson...
as a serialization
Serial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
in two newspapers. It was later published in a collection of Akutagawa short stories, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke zenshū.
Translation
Hell Screen was first translated into EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
by W.H.H. Norman in 1948, in his collection of Akutagawa short stories Hell Screen and Other Stories. Numerous variant translations have followed, including the most recent one translated by Jay Rubin
Jay Rubin
Jay Rubin is an American academic and translator. He is most notable for being one of the main translators into English of the works of the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. He has also written a guide to Japanese, Making Sense of Japanese , and a biographical literary analysis of Murakami.He has...
and published by Penguin Group
Penguin Group
The Penguin Group is a trade book publisher, the largest in the world , having overtaken Random House in 2009. The Penguin Group is the name of the incorporated division of parent Pearson PLC that oversees these publishing operations...
.
Plot overview
Hell Screen is narrated by an uninvolved servant who witnesses or hears of the events. The story of Hell Screen centers around the artist Yoshihide. Yoshihide is considered “the greatest painter in the land”, and is often commissioned to create works for the Lord of HorikawaHorikawa
Horikawa can refer to:*Emperor Horikawa, emperor of Japan.*Horikawa, Kyoto, one of main streets in Kyoto, whereupon lie the Horikawa Mansion of both Emperor Horikawa, and later, Minamoto no Yoshitsune*Hori River , known as Horikawa in Japanese...
, who also employs Yoshihide’s daughter in his mansion. When Yoshihide is instructed to create a screen depicting the Buddhist hell
Naraka (Buddhism)
Naraka नरक or Niraya निरय is the name given to one of the worlds of greatest suffering in Buddhist cosmology.Naraka is usually translated into English as "hell", "hell realm", or "purgatory"...
, he proceeds to inflict tortures upon his apprentices, for he cannot effectively paint anything he has not seen. The story climaxes when Yoshihide asks the lord to burn a beautiful lady in a carriage so he can finish the screen. The lord concedes, but, in a macabre twist, Yoshihide must watch as his daughter Yuzuki and her monkey are the ones who burn. The story ends with the magnificently horrible screen completed, and Yoshihide’s suicide.
-
- Part 1: The short story begins with the narrator who narrates the whole story. The narrator is a servant of the lord which is disclosed later in part one. Part one of the story is about the lord’s birth and great achievements as an Emperor. The lord is described as having “…innate qualities that distinguished him from ordinary human beings.” He also is described as having a self quality. Even though he is the lord of Japan he keeps in mind off of his subjects “even the lowliest of his subjects”. The narrator goes on to describe the lord’s encounters with the super natural. The Emperor encounters a “procession of goblins” that he escapes unharmed from. He also comes in contact with the ghost of the “Minister of the Left” whom he dismisses from haunting the area. After listing the qualities of the lord the narrator explains how some people believed “…their lord…[was] a reincarnation of the Buddha." To show the belief that he was a reincarnation of Buddha the narrator details another story about the lord. The lords ox hits an old man and the old man become happy that he had the good fortune to be hit my the ox since it belonged to the lord. Another story is told about a building of a bridge. When the bridge seems to be going against the “will of the local deity” the lord decides to give a human sacrifice. He gives the human sacrifice of his “favorite boy attendant”.
The last story about the great achievements of the lord is of how the lord brought surgery to Japan. The lord needed a growth removed from his leg so he summoned a Chinese monk. The Chinese monk brought with him the knowledge of surgery. The narrator concludes part one by foreshadowing the rest of the story. He says the story is “…more terrible than anything I had ever witnessed—or have ever.” The very end the narrator introduces Yoshide who is the painter of Hell Screen.
- Hell Gate Part 2: The second section of the story introduces Yoshide and his daughter who remains nameless. Yoshide is described as a great painter, but also as a very unpleasant man to look at or be around. He is described as having “unnaturally red [lips] for such an old man” and [meaner people] “used to say that he look and moved like a monkey." This leads to a creation of his nickname “monkey hide”. The daughter is described next. Her description is the in the opposite way her father is described. She is “sweet, lovely… [and] utterly unlike her father.” She lost her mother when she was young, and soon after became a lady in waiting for the lord’s daughter. The narrator goes on to tell a story about the daughter’s good nature. The Lord’s son had received a tame monkey. He named the monkey Yoshihide to make of fun of the painter. Everyone in the household enjoys the name and teases the monkey. Yoshihide’s daughter meets the monkey as it is being chased by the lord’s son. The lord’s son is chasing the monkey because the monkey stole a tangerine. Yoshihide’s daughter feels bad for the monkey since it cannot climb a post to safety because it is injured. The monkey takes to hiding in her skirt. The daughter asks the young lord to spare the monkey. On the second plea to the young lord she cites the monkey’s name as a reason why he should not beat it. She says that she does not want to “…watch ‘my father’ being punished.” This makes the young lord relent.
- Part 3: Section three starts with the description of the relationship between the monkey and Yoshihide’s daughter. The monkey and the daughter were always together. In the household people became fonder of the monkey. The monkey was teased less and the lord’s son “once flew into a rage when one of the samurai kicked the animal.” The lordship heard of his son’s outburst in favor of the monkey and requested audience with Yoshihide’s daughter. The Lordship compliments the daughter on being loyal to her father. He gifts her with an under robe and is pleased that the monkey bows when the daughter bows. The narrator at this point makes a comment on the relationship between the lord and Yoshihide’s daughter. The narrator comments that the gift given to the daughter was out of locality to her father and not that she was attractive. He reasons this by saying that the lord would not show his affection to someone so below his rank even if she is beautiful. As the monkey name Yoshihide was enjoyed more and more the painter was hated more. His reputation was seen as offal. The narrator comments that the only people who would give him a good remark were the people who only saw his art work and did not know the artist personally.
- Part 4: This section is about Yoshihide’s Character. The narrator begins by saying Yoshihide was “harsh… (When dealing) with people…no shame…Lazy and greedy.” The worst of his traits was his “insolents and arrogance.” He also disliked religion and the rituals. The text breaks from is character to give an example on how far he would discredit beliefs. He sees a woman under possession who gives him a “horrifying message”. This does not scare Yoshihide and he actually paints the woman. The narrator goes on to detail how Yoshihide is “sacrilege in his work”. When he is painting a Goddess his model is a prostitute. Then when he painted “fudo” he uses a criminal as a model. When people would warn him he might be angering the gods Yoshihide remarks “are you trying to tell me that my own Buddha and god are going to punish me?” Over this remark her losses many apprentices who fear for their afterlife if they say under his apprenticeship. After describing how he made the painting the narrator remarks on how life like Yoshihide’s paintings are. This is proven by painters who comment on how they could “hear” and “smell” his paintings. The section is left with a remark that Yoshihide has one thing that Yoshihide “displayed human tenderness to”.
- Part 5: The Narrator picks up form where he left off in section four. The person Yoshihide care about was his only daughter. The text comments that he more to his beloved daughter than he did to a temple. The Narrator also explains how Yoshihide’s daughter became to be in serve to the Lord. Yoshihide had wanted to keep his daughter to himself. Even when suitors would he would scare them off. The Narrator comments on how people began to say the Lord liked the girl because he had her in his service even though Yoshihide was opposed to it. The Narrator denies these rumors. Yoshihide went on to create a painting the lord enjoyed. The Lord said “You can have anything you want as your reward.” Yoshihide asked for his daughter back and the Lord refused. Yoshihide asking for his daughter back is caste in a bad light. It is seen that the Lord is doing Yoshihide’s daughter a great service to have her in his household and for a father to ask for he to leave was rude. Yoshihide kept presenting his Lord for his daughter and the daughter became more and more upset. The Narrator again mentions that there were rumors that his Lord’s refusal was from his fondness of the girl. Yoshihide became more and more in disfavor with the Lord, until one day he was asked to paint the Hell screen.
Themes
The work follows one of Akutagawa’s major styles: the updating of ancient tales to reflect modern psychology. One major psychological theme is artistic obsession, as Makoto Ueda puts it: “For Akutagawa the dilemma was insoluble: if the artist chooses to place his art ahead of his life, in the end he must suffer the destruction of his life”. The story is also an examination of Akutagawa's own devotion to his work.Another theme is the objectivity of truth, as the narrator, a servant of the Lord of Horikawa, repeatedly ignores the physical attraction the Lord has for Yuzuki, despite overwhelming evidence. The servant even refuses to believe his own eyes when he witnesses the Lord forcing himself on Yuzuki. At the stories end, the servant proclaims:
“Word soon spread that His Lordship had burned the carriage that night in the Palace of the Melting Snows, and there seem to have been many who were highly
critical of the event. First of all came the question of Yoshihide’s daughter: why had his Lordship chosen to burn her alive? The rumor most often heard was that he
had done it out of spite for her rejection of his love. I am certain, however, that he did it to punish the twisted personality of an artist who would go so far as to burn a carriage and kill a human being to complete the painting of a screen. In fact, I overheard His Lordship saying as much himself”.
Adaptations
Multiple film productions based on Hell Screen have been produced, including:- Portrait of HellPortrait of Hellis a Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Shiro Toyoda and starring Tatsuya Nakadai and Kinnosuke Nakamura. It is based on the 1918 short story Hell Screen by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.-Plot summary:...
, a 1969 movie produced by TohoTohois a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group... - A 1962 NHKNHKNHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
broadcast television adaptation - 2009 Episode 12 of the Aoi BungakuAoi Bungakuis a twelve episodes anime series featuring adaptations inspired by six short stories from Japanese literature. The six stories are adapted from classic Japanese tales.-Stories Adapted:...
animated series directed by Atsuko IshizukaAtsuko Ishizukais a Japanese animator and director at Madhouse, one of the leading animation production companies in the world. She was born on September 30, 1981 and has been with Madhouse since 2004.-Personal history:...