Who Killed Yoshihide's Daughter?

Japanese writer Akutagawa (1892-1927)

In Akutagawa's story "Hell Screen," Lord Horikawa commissions the artist Yoshihide to paint scenes of hell on a screen. Yoshihide says, "in the center of the screen, falling from the sky, I want to paint an aristocrat's carriage, its cabin woven of the finest split palm leaf... In the carriage, a voluptuous noblewoman writhes in agony, her long black hair tossing in the ferocious flames."

Yoshihide says he cannot visualize the burning cabin, and asks the Lord to have his men set a carriage on fire.  Horikawa assents to this request.  "I'll burn a carriage for you, and I'll have a voluptuous woman inside it, dressed in a noblewoman's robes. She will die writhing with agony in flames and black smoke -- I have to salute you, Yoshihide. Who could have thought of such a thing but the greatest painter in the land?"

On the designated evening, Yoshihide sees his own daughter in the carriage.  Yoshihide attempts to extricate her, but a samurai of the Lord stops him.  The cabin is set ablaze, the daughter dies a horrible death.

One of our participants on the evening of August 27th pointed out the monkey apparently tries to rescue the woman ("some black thing shot from the palace roof into the blazing carriage"), but is burned himself.  An amazing flourish by the author, and one that confirms the monkey is the most sympathetic character in the story.

Although Yoshihide may have overly striven to achieve realism in his art, the one truly responsible for the daughter's death is Lord Horikawa.