The Nose (Akutagawa short story)

"The Nose"
Author	Akutagawa Ryūnosuke
Original title	"Hana"
Translator	Ivan Morris, Jay Rubin
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Genre(s)	Short story
Published in	The Tokyo Imperial University student magazine Shinshichō
Media type	Print (Periodical and Paperback
Publication date	January 1916
Preceded by	"Rashōmon"

"The Nose" (鼻, Hana) is a satirical short story by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke based on a thirteenth-century Japanese tale from the Uji Shūi Monogatari. "The Nose" was Akutagawa’s second short story, written not long after "Rashōmon". It was first published in January 1916 in the Tokyo Imperial University student magazine Shinshichō and later published in other magazines and various Akutagawa anthologies. The story is mainly a commentary on vanity and religion, in a style and theme typical to Akutagawa’s work.

Multiple translators have published "The Nose" in English, the most recent by Jay Rubin and published by Penguin Group.

Zenchi Naigu, a Heian period Buddhist priest, is more concerned with diminishing his overly long, dangling nose than he is with studying and teaching the sūtras. He pretends to ignore his nose in fear it will be mentioned, and studies religious texts in a desperate attempt to find a person with a nose like his. When in private, he constantly checks his nose in a mirror, hoping for even the smallest amount of shrinkage.

One autumn, a disciple reveals he has learned a new technique to shrink noses from a friend, a Chinese doctor who has become a high-ranking priest at the Chōrakuji temple in Kyoto. At first, Naigu feigns disinterest, to appeal to the misconception that he is unconcerned with his nose, but eventually “gives in” to his disciple’s insisting. The disciple first boils the nose, then stomps on it, finally removing the beads of fat the treatment extracts from the nose. To Naigu’s satisfaction, the nose, once dangling past his chin, is now the size of a typical hooked nose.

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