The Image Of Saint In Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s Works

Affected by the surrounding environment, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, a Japanese novelist of TaishoPeriod, had developed a strong interest in Christianity with the love of art, and created about35pieces ofKirishitanmono, which relates to the theme of Saint have more than10. It’s visible that AkutagawaRyunosuke had put much focus on the subject of Saint. From the studies of The Old Madman in the middleschool, to The Man from the West in his old age, Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s works about the theme of "Saint"have become a system. By creating a series of images about "Saint", the author expressed his complexperception about the Christian religion and culture: yearning, doubt, criticism and confusion, but also wrotehis deep understanding and the unique cognitive of the social reality, the truth of art, and the life. Inaddition, during the period of rapid social transformation in Japan, Christian culture flooded in. Foreignreligious culture and native culture emerged exchanges, collisions and fusions. Infiltration in thisbackground, the Saint in Akutagawa’s works had also been branded with the mark of the conflict andblending of the east-west culture.Based on the text, the author tries to definite the "Saint" in the Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s works, anddivided them into the following four categories. First, the traditional Saint of the West. No matter based onthe Saint Stories of the western canon, or had new transformation based on the traditional stories,Akutagawa continued the frame of the traditional Western Saint Stories to shape the characters. Second,Saint of Japan. Based on the influence of the traditional Saint Stories, Akutagawa created the “Saint”combining the local culture of Japan. They are local Saint developed in Japan. Third, Saint of the mixculture. Akutagawa grasped the situation of the time, shaping a series of Saint who took the nature ofcultural hybridists in themselves—both the characteristics of western culture and the local culture of Japan.Through them we can know the mixture and blend of the Japanese culture and Western religious culture.Forth, the Foolishnesses for Christ. The Foolishness for Christ in Akutagawa’s works had devout Christianfaith, some were dull in nature but pure in heart, they finally reached the feat or the miracle of life by thebelief or faith in them, and some even martyred to maintain their faith.Affected by western traditional stories of Saint and culture, the "Saint" of Akutagawa’s works inherited the traditional Western "Saint", but also had innovation. Writing upon Western Saint Stories whichlater work is based, Akutagawa sometimes shaped characters in the framework of the traditional WesternSaint Stories, including the martyr images and Saint in the Bible. However, the traditional Western Saintare almost formulaic characters, whose bodies are overflowing with sacred aura. While, Akutagawarestored the Saint in the secular environment, which embodied more of the author’s deep thought of thehuman nature, reality, art and life. Here, the author tries to discuss from the flowing three aspects. First ofall, this kind of theme expressed his perspective of Christianity, the western culture and society. The authoradmired the believers’ devout faith, but also exposed the different social and cultural differences, conflictsand confrontation, highlighting an Oriental scholar’s dialectic and complex cognition. The second is aseries of hybrid "Saint" were shaped in his papers. Due to the heterogeneous culture coming in at thebeginning, the Japanese audiences’ cognition of heterogeneous religion was ambiguous. Sometimes theyeven explain the western religious culture with the native religious culture. So that, both the heterogeneousculture and the native culture are co-presence at the time of the heterogeneous culture come in. SoAkutagawa quickly grasped the conditions of the age, creating a number of saints the Christian faith andthe local culture of Japan coexist in. It expressed his understanding of hybridists, conflicts andcommunication between different cultures. Finally, Akutagawa also took the theme to express the image ofSaint in his mind. The Man from the West and The Man from the West, Continued build the images of thevirgin, John the Baptist and so on in his mind. He put new factors and ethos in the Saint from the point of aJapanese scholar, writing the Saint in his mind. It conveys the understanding of Christianity of himself atthe same time.Finally, the author discusses the unique Saint in Akutagawa’s works——“the holy fools” or “theFoolishnesses for Christ”. Because his strong interest of the western culture, through creatively absorptionand utilization of the "the holy fools" in the western culture, Akutagawa created a series of "holy fools"with his creative style. In the field of comparative literature, the author tries to explore the Akutagawa’s"holy fools", through the use of impact study, cultural filtering, misreading and mutation of variation theory,to discover the special meaning of the image series—from the influence of religion to the martyrdom of art.Akutagawa had great interests in Christianity and Christians who have strong Christian Faith, especially themartyrs. But it is not for the purpose of religious belief, but for the purpose of art. That is, Akutagawa was not going to pursue his belief in God, but the belief in Art (Doctrine). His supreme faith of art is similar tothe Saint’s piety belief of religion. The Saint have faith in Jesus Christ, pursuing the holy beauty, even atthe expense of martyrdom. Akutagawa pursued the love without selfish, including the goodness and beautyof humanity, also including the art supremacy. Finally, he didn’t reach the dream and select death. BothAkutagawa and the Saint pursued the supremacy or the belief at the expense of life. Thus, Akutagawa’scognition, behavior and psychological desire of the Saint pursuing of holiness expressed the scholars’aspire for “holiness” in the Oriental Culture——pursuing the holy and beautiful realm all the life.