About Mr. Inukai
This brief critical sketch by Ryunosuke Akutagawa offers a compact but vivid portrait of the writer Inukai through both his literary style and his personal presence. Akutagawa praises the careful craftsmanship of Inukai’s fiction, while also noting that such extreme precision can weaken a work’s suggestive power. More strikingly, he identifies in Inukai’s writing a uniquely soft and graceful beauty, comparing it to a young willow. The piece then turns unexpectedly intimate: Akutagawa recalls meeting Inukai at work and being struck by an expression on his face that seemed deeply sensual and revealing. In just a few paragraphs, the essay combines literary criticism, personal impression, and psychological intuition in Akutagawa’s characteristically sharp, elegant prose.
I believe I have read most of Mr. Inukai’s work. And every piece of his that I have read has shown no trace of carelessness. All of them are finished with meticulous attention. If one were to point out a fault, it would perhaps be that, being a little too meticulous, they are apt to lack the power of suggestion.
And then, every one of Mr. Inukai’s works possesses a soft beauty. This kind of gentle beauty is not easily found in other writers. In it I sense something like a single young willow tree.
Once, I happened to meet Mr. Inukai when he was in the midst of his work. The expression on his face at that time was, if this is not too rude, like that of a man after being with a woman. Whenever I think of Mr. Inukai, I invariably remember that face. At the same time, I also feel that it is no accident that his works are all so exquisitely and painstakingly made.