If there is a desire to understand the Japanese soul and mentality - you need to read a little prose by Akutagawa Ryunoske .. Read slowly and thoughtfully and re-read again and again, capturing hints and subtexts and discovering hidden depths of meanings under the clean surface. This collection includes works of different years - short stories and very short, in Japanese laconic stories and miniatures, which imply (and, accordingly, are read) much more than written. Serious and Ironic (CM) but invariably elegant stylizations for medieval prose, in which Akutagawa still has no equal among Japanese writers sad and ironic tales and parables and texts in a more Europeanized genre of psychological realism invariably refracted by the author from a completely national angle…