Asakusa Park: A Collection of Short Stories

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Twenty-six stories, mostly appearing in English for the first time, from the writer Japan lost at thirty-five. A child sees fantastical worlds no adult can perceive. Frogs debate philosophy. The leader of the Forty-Seven Rōnin passes a single, ordinary day. A recurring character named Yasukichi Horikawa — believed to be Akutagawa's alter ego — drifts through observations that blur the line between fiction and diary. This collection includes Kan Kikuchi's memorial essay on his friend's death and the suicide note Akutagawa sent him — rare documents that frame these stories as both literature and testament. The range is extraordinary: humor, darkness, folklore, and quiet domestic detail. Asakusa Park is the Akutagawa collection for readers who already know "Rashōmon" and want to see the rest of the mind behind it.