Rashomon Reflection Paper

Taking into account all the angles and sides of the story from different people who were vital in the construction of the real picture regarding the occurrences in the story In A Grove by Ryonosuke Akutagawa, in my own perspective, it is Masago whose story has come to be known as the most valid and prominently reasonable explanation behind what events had transpired in the incident. The relevance of her role in the phase of solving the crime serves a great purpose since she is one of the three who were involved in the crime and yet came out alive and is still in the right track of mind.

The rationale behind Masago, the wife of Takehiko, being the one with the most plausible side of story is that she is relatively on the right track of how things went compared to that of the two men she got involved in. Supporting this, somehow, Tajomaru’s take on his explanation seemed most likely to be a version of the story which was basically something that had been concocted in order for him to come out as someone with honor despite the fact that he didn’t come out victoriously. And on the other hand, Takehiko’s explanation might actually be reliable for the fact that he is the victim and there would no longer be any point for him to lie but his side was only heard in the form of a medium which doesn’t give us that much of an assurance since there are possibilities that it cannot be Takehiko’s spirit that had entered the medium.

Moreover, the decency behind the Masago’s version is that it is what the expected thing to happen is most likely. She hadn’t had the desire to make her husband suffer with her mistake for the rest of their marriage so she decided to kill him instead rather than let Tajomaru win and bring home the bacon. Lastly, she also as the wife wouldn’t in any way lie anymore for anyone’s sake for presumably, it is her justice as a violated woman which she is also fighting for. Here, we can understand that the story of Masago creates a picture of reasonability behind accomplishment of justice.