芥川龍之介 - 鼻 Akutagawa's Hana

Akutagawa Ryūnosuke wrote over 150 short stories in his short life (died at 35). Kurosawa based his famous movie, Rashōmon (羅生門) on Akutagawa's Rashōmon and In a Grove (藪の中 yabu no naka) another short story written in 1921.

This story, The Nose (鼻 hana), was composed in 1916 and is about a monk with a very large nose (hence the title). The story addresses jealousy, egoism, and the making fun of others all with a hint of humor here and there. Natsume Sōseki (夏目漱石) gave the story high praise.

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The short story is complete here broken down into eight pages for ease of reading. Each page has a MP3 file for that section. You can also download and print out the PDF for each section for printing and studying offline.

I hope to eventually add a vocabulary list for each section, but it will have to wait. (Unless someone would like to volunteer?! :) )