Which Ryūnosuke Akutagawa story provides the main plot of Rashomon?

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s “In a Grove” provides the main plot and characters for Rashomon.

The story concerns the conflicting accounts surrounding the murder of a samurai and the assault of his wife in a forest. Kurosawa’s film preserves this central structure by presenting testimony from the bandit, the wife, a woodcutter, a monk, and the dead samurai speaking through a medium.

The film’s title and its framing setting, however, come from a different Akutagawa story: “Rashōmon.” That story centers on the ruined Rashōmon gate in Kyoto. Kurosawa and screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto combined the two works, using “In a Grove” for the mystery and “Rashōmon” for the atmospheric opening and closing framework.

This combination explains why the film is sometimes mistakenly described as a direct adaptation of “Rashōmon” alone. The more precise answer is that “In a Grove” supplies the main narrative, while “Rashōmon” contributes the title and framing device.