In A Grove

Though it may not seem like it at first, “In a Grove” contains all the trappings of a classic murder mystery: a thorough (albeit silent) detective, a (possible) murder used to cover up another crime, multiple suspects with varying motives, and unreliable narrators. However, in traditional mysteries, catching a character in a lie or figuring out why a detail doesn’t make sense leads the detective to the truth. This is not the case with Akutagawa’s story. All three accounts of the murder seem truthful and plausible, but they are mutually exclusive, so it is impossible to determine which of the three speakers is lying. If Tajomaru will be hanged for the murder either way, why does he bother to concoct the story of a valorous duel? If Masago is trying to unburden herself in a private confession to a priest, why would she add exculpatory explanations that clear her of wrongdoing? Most importantly, what would Takehiro have to gain from lying now that he’s dead? The story suggests that we simply can’t know the answer, making it an experiment in the mystery genre.

The purposefully unsolvable nature of the mystery aims to leave readers uneasy. When adapting the story into the film Rashomon (named for another of Akutagawa’s stories, but using the plot and characters from “In a Grove”), the acclaimed filmmaker Akira Kurosawa adds a fourth witness: a woodcutter whose description of the murder portrays all three main characters in an embarrassing or shameful light. His account reads as truthful when compared to the self-aggrandizing first-person accounts. Most authors who imitate Akutagawa’s structure retain this sort of resolution. Akutagawa denies readers this closure in favor of lingering doubt—not least regarding whether justice has been appropriately served.

Although traditional mystery writers typically shun this approach, Akutagawa has left his mark on the genre. Early detective fiction, such as Edgar Allen Poe’s stories about C. Auguste Dupin ("The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Purloined Letter"), tends to feature elaborate puzzles; however, Akutagawa’s contemporaries shifted to a focus on psychological realism. In her play The Spider’s Web, named after another of Akutagawa’s short stories, Agatha Christie has her sleuth nod to Akutagawa’s innovative point that multiple accounts of the same story seldom agree: “[I]f three people were to agree exactly, I should regard it as suspicious. Very suspicious indeed.”