Akutagawa publishes "Yabu no Naka" (In a Grove) in Shinchō in 1922

Ryunosuke Akutagawa, one of the best-known writers of Taishō-era Japan (1912–1926), published the short story "Yabu no Naka" (In a Grove) in the January 1922 issue of the literary magazine Shinchō.

The story is built around the death of a samurai in a bamboo grove. Several witnesses and participants give testimony, and their accounts contradict one another. The text never reveals which version is true, leaving the reader with an unresolved question about truth and human self-justification.

Akutagawa drew on medieval Japanese tale literature, notably a story in the Konjaku Monogatarishū, a collection of tales from the late Heian period. He recast it with a modern, psychological approach. The work became one of his most celebrated stories and is widely read in Japan and abroad.

Its best-known adaptation is Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashōmon, which borrowed the structure of conflicting testimonies and its title from another Akutagawa story. The 1922 publication is the reference point for later discussion of how the text was written and revised.