{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]],"date-time":"2026-04-30T16:18:10Z","timestamp":1777565890683,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"Scientific Scholar","content-domain":{"domain":["nmji.in"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["NMJI"],"abstract":"\nBackground<\/jats:title>\n.<\/jats:bold> To mark the 130th birth anniversary of Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892\u20131927), I revisit his suicide (as recorded by his hand) in comparison to that of his junior contemporaries, who also chose a similar mode of death.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n\nData sources<\/jats:title>\n.<\/jats:bold> Two works of Akutagawa, namely Tenkibo<\/jats:italic> (1926: Death Register<\/jats:italic>) and Aru Ahono Issho<\/jats:italic> (1927: The Life of a Stupid Man<\/jats:italic>) in English translation of Jay Rubin were used as the main sources, in addition to published literature about his creativity.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n\nResults<\/jats:title>\n.<\/jats:bold> In his final work, The Life of a Stupid Man<\/jats:italic>, completed in the penultimate month before suicide, 7 among the 51 brief descriptions, Akutagawa had described his thoughts on illness and death, in addition to visiting his biological mother in a lunatic asylum, and studying a cadaver for his famous short story \u2018Rashomon\u2019. These descriptions offer a fascinating perspective on Akutagawa\u2019s state of mind, before his suicide. Akutagawa\u2019s suicide is also compared with the suicides of five other renowned Japanese writers (Osamu Dazai, Yasunari Kawabata, Misuzu Kaneko, Yukio Mishima and Juzo Itami).<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n\nConclusion<\/jats:title>\n.<\/jats:bold> Before his suicide, doctors offered Akutagawa various diagnoses: \u2018insomnia, gastric hyperacidity, gastric atony, dry pleurisy, neurasthenia, chronic conjunctivitis, brain fatigue\u2019. Though it is uncertain, what percentage of hereditary factor(s) played a role, why the practitioners of the medical profession in 1920s Japan failed to save the life of this creative individual still remains a question.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.25259\/nmji_389_22","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,27]],"date-time":"2023-12-27T09:53:58Z","timestamp":1703670838000},"page":"117-123","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.25259\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Suicides of elite Japanese writers: The case of Ryunosuke Akutagawa"],"prefix":"10.25259","volume":"36","author":[{"given":"SACHI SRI","family":"KANTHA","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"10894","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"10.25259\/NMJI_389_22\/ref-1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"22","DOI":"10.1192\/bjp.165.1.22","article-title":"Creativity and psychopathology: A study of 291 world famous men","volume":"165","author":"Post","year":"1994","journal-title":"Br J Psychiatry"},{"key":"10.25259\/NMJI_389_22\/ref-2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"291","DOI":"10.2466\/pr0.1999.84.1.291","article-title":"Suicide among eminent artists","volume":"84","author":"Preti","year":"1999","journal-title":"Psychol Reports"},{"key":"10.25259\/NMJI_389_22\/ref-4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1017\/S0026749X00000287","article-title":"Mishima Yukio and his suicide","volume":"6","author":"Yamanouchi","year":"1972","journal-title":"Mod Asian Stud"},{"key":"10.25259\/NMJI_389_22\/ref-5","first-page":"50","article-title":"Mishima's suicide: A psycho-cultural analysis","volume":"16","author":"Kristeller","year":"1973","journal-title":"Psychologia"},{"key":"10.25259\/NMJI_389_22\/ref-6","first-page":"55","article-title":"Lost samurai-the withered soul of postwar Japan","author":"Stokes","year":"1985","journal-title":"Harper's Magazine"},{"key":"10.25259\/NMJI_389_22\/ref-7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"619","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1440-1819.1987.tb00418.x","article-title":"The narcissism and death of Yukio Mishima-From the object relational point of view","volume":"41","author":"Ushijima","year":"1987","journal-title":"Jpn J Psychiat Neurol"},{"key":"10.25259\/NMJI_389_22\/ref-8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"85","DOI":"10.1080\/09697250903407583","article-title":"A devil of a job. 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