Known as the title of Akira Kurosawa’s film in 1950, Rashomon (羅生門) was the legendary gate in Kyoto. Here’s how it looks now.
What’s Rashomon
A Rashomon poster.
Rashomon (羅生門) is a Japanese film directed and written by Akira Kurosawa (黒澤明). It’s about a crime described from multiple perspectives. With the specific filming technique, which was later called “the Rashomon effect,” the film won the Golden Lion in 1951.
Rashomon, where three men talked about the crime in the film, was the gate at the southern end of Heian-kyo (平安京: peaceful Kyoto). Kyoto was the capital of Japan between 794 and 1869. Now, Rashomon is also called Rajomon (羅城門) which causes minor confusion when accessing in the 2000s.
A bus stop says “Rajomon (羅城門).”
Rashomon in Kyoto
There’s no gate at Rashomon. Instead, there is an obelisk and some captions that explain what Rashomon was about. Thus, “Ruins of Rajomon Gate” by Google.
Rashomon, Ruins of Rajomon Gate, is now a park. No crime on sight, no men talking about it, just local passengers coming and going by the obelisk. I heard cars going by from a street facing the park. SO PEACEFUL.
The obelisk surrounded by a fence.
Says “please don’t feed pigeons!!”
A caption about Rashomon on another side of the fence.
In the last scene of the film Rashomon, a man finds a baby (and robs the baby) at Rashomon. Another man tries to take the baby home. And the third man, a monk, doubts that the other man would kidnap the baby. All that doesn’t sound peaceful for Heian-kyo, the peaceful Kyoto.
Now, Heian-kyo is long gone. Rashomon is ironically peaceful.
Rashomon in 2023.
Rashomon (羅生門) | Address: 54 Karahashi Rajomoncho, Minami Ward, Kyoto, 〒601-8453, Japan
