Nipponica

When you pick up a Japanese text written before 1945, the language used in it will likely look different to what you’re used to, and that’s the Japanese you’ll need to tackle in order to read Akutagawa, who is considered by many to be the greatest writer in Japanese history. He even has a literary prize named after him — the 171st 芥川龍之介賞 (Akutagawa Ryūnosuke-shō) was jointly awarded Wednesday to Sanzo K. Matsunaga and Aki Asahina for their works "Bari Sanko" and "Sanshouo no Shijuku-nichi," respectively.

To be able to read this work, it will first be necessary to understand the differences between prewar and postwar literature. One major difference is the aforementioned use of 旧漢字 — however, modern editions of books will always replace these old characters with their modern equivalents. For example, in an old edition of “Kappa,” the “並” in 人並 (hitonami, ordinary) may have been its 旧漢字 equivalent, “竝.” Fortunately, there is no need to have to read these old characters.

Interesting story about the evolution of written Japanese and one of the nation's most treasured authors.