”Tobacco and the Devil” (Japanese Title: ”Tabako to Akuma”) is the first of Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's ”Kirishitan” stories, stories that treat the theme of Christianity, and it is also the work of his earlier period. The story was first published on Nov. 1916, in the fourth issue of the literary journal, New Currents of Thought (Japanese title: Shinshicho), under the title ”Tobacco.” The next year, the story was collected in the book, Tobacco and the Devil, which was published on Nov. 1917. Akutagawa was a fluent writer, famous for his short stories. It would not be an exaggeration to name ”Tobacco and the Devil” as one of his best. Akutagawa was a master of Japanese language; therefore, he was able to create short but beautiful, and easy-to-read stories such as ”The Spider's Thread” (Japanese Title: ”Kumo no Ito”) and ”Tobacco and the Devil.”In his literary works, Akutagawa explained what he perceived as ”contradictory coexistence” through reinforcing opposing views such as good and evil, right and wrong, success and failure, gain and loss, victory and defeat, and so on. These views could be the simple conclusions of his stories, which were arranged by Akutagawa with the use of his writing techniques or plot manipulation. However, there is this suspicion that somehow Akutagawa did not mean to just please his readers by presenting clichés and hackneyed ideas such as ”the misfortune may be a blessing in disguise” or ”you win some and lose some.” There must be issues for us to discuss and problems for us to explore; otherwise, ”Tobacco and the Devil” would not be considered as the first and the representative work of Akutagawa's Kirishitan stories.What problems with Christianity (representing the western culture) and its being introduced to Japan were presented in the text? What did Akutagawa want to discuss through his Kirishitan stories? This research paper will first discuss how the western culture had been imported to Japan and how it has been evolved over the years; after the introduction to the historical background, the paper will offer further analysis of ”Tobacco and the Devil.”
