Akutagawa's "In a Grove" once had a different title and ending

"The truth is in the grove" is a Japanese saying for a mystery nobody can solve. It comes from Ryunosuke Akutagawa's short story "Yabu no Naka" ("In a Grove"). Now it turns out the story started life with a different title and a different ending.

What happened?

Tokyo's Kita ward announced on 12 November that it has received a donation of a 44-page manuscript of the story. The owner's side had kept it for generations. It still carries the marks of Akutagawa's revisions.

The first title, written in pen like the main text, was "Aru otoko no shigai" ("A man's corpse"). He changed it to "Aru onna no himitsu" ("A woman's secret"). Then he crossed that out too. In the end, "Yabu no Naka" was added in brush, along with his signature.

The ending changed as well. The published story, which appeared in the magazine Shinchō in January 1922, has seven chapters. Each is told by someone involved in the death of a man found in a grove: a bandit, the man's wife and his spirit, among others. Their accounts contradict each other.

The last page of the manuscript, though, begins an eighth chapter from a different point of view. Its title was "A dialogue between the Uji Dainagon and a police official". Akutagawa struck it out with a brush. That is why the story ends with the truth still unknown.

Why does it matter?

This story is best known today as the main source for Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon, which later won the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival. And its ending is exactly what gave Japanese the phrase for an unsolvable puzzle.

An expert who heard about the manuscript began investigating in 2025, working with the descendants of the people who had kept it. The research was compiled by Professor Tatsuya Shoji of Yokohama City University.

He said that manuscripts sent to publishers are often thrown away. In his words, it is "miraculous" that this one survived 104 years.

Why Kita ward?

The owner's side asked for the manuscript to go to Kita ward. That is where Tabata is, the Tokyo neighbourhood where Akutagawa spent his last years. Akutagawa died in 1927.