Vince+Knapp+-+The+Nose

. In Ryonosuke Akutagawa’s //“The Nose,”// a Japanese Buddhist priest, Zenchi Naigu is faced with a problem with his personal appearance. His nose curves down and hangs vertical, 6 inches below his chin. His character is very ironic, in that he worships a god in a religion that encourages a lifestyle carefree of self-consciousness, but urges self-control. Zenchi tries many methods to reduce the size of his nose until he finds what he feels is a solution and learns a lesson towards furthering the understanding of his religion. Specific the story, the setting – Japan – is one of the 3 major countries that practice Buddhism. He Zenchi is surrounded by many members of the Buddhist faith and, in theory, should all have the same belief that one’s outward appearance is not to be decided by mortal judgement. Zenchi feels that he is being judged by all that surround him; anyone that visits and pays respects to the gods in his temple. Contrary, no one around him judges him as much as he thinks. Were the setting different, Zenchi would not even be able to take up residence in such a place outside of an area of Buddhist-faith due to fact that those ill-minded outside of the Buddhist faith would be more likely to be open with their disagreement with the outward appearance of others. Another tool used in this story is symbolism. Many of the components of this story are particularly key symbols, such as Zenchi’s status as a Buddhist priest, his paranoia/self-consciousness, or even his nose itself. Believing in Buddhism means Zenchi also believe in the wheel of reincarnation. Perhaps Zenchi’s nose is punishment for an error in one of his past lives. No matter how much Zenchi’s prays to the gods for a way to solve the problem of his nose, only Zenchi sees it as a problem. Simply by relinquishing the belief that his nose is a problem does he eliminate the problem altogether. However, the book was written to show that Zenchi must learn that through true experience. The most important tool of this story is point-of-view. Due to the fact that Zenchi is paranoid/self-conscious, he is the only one judging himself. If this story were to be told by one of the temple pages, or perhaps a layman visiting the temple, mention of Zenchi during their time at the temple would yield pity instead of judgment. Were this story told by one of the gods mentioned in the story, such as Fugen, goddess of wisdom, the theme would remain the same, and the lesson learned would remain the same, but the character would be portrayed in a manner that shows all mortals with equal flaws and advantages. Zenchi and his nose would be equal to any other character. In summation, the lesson of this story is that one should always be consistent with their beliefs. Regardless of those beliefs being religious, spiritual, or logical, having a consistent faith in whatever your beliefs may be is better than factoring out what may compromise your beliefs. Zenchi’s nose made him self-conscious, and as a Buddhist, his true feelings shouldn’t implode on himself like that. He shouldn’t have wanted to get rid of his long nose just because he thought it brought on the judgment of others, thus bringing on the breaking of the Buddhist faith by others.



At 21, Akutagawa entered the Imperial University of Tokyo and majored in English Literature. with a concentration in the works of British poet-artist William Morris. Two years before graduating, Akutagawa joined Kikuchi Kan and Kume Masao in founding a literary journal, "Shin Shicho," in which he published his translations of Anatole France and John Keats. In his early twenties, Akutagawa produced "Rashomon" in 1915, a novella set on a barren, war-torn landscape in twelfth-century Kyoto. In 1951, Rashomon won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, directed by AKira Kurosawa. He taught English for a year at a Naval Engineering College in Yokosuka. He wrote other works such as "Niwa," "I," "Hell Screen," "In The Grove," "A Fool's Life," and "Cogwheels."