Examples Of Absolute Truth In Rashomon

Kelsey Noah
Period 6
Senior Seminar
Absolute Truth in Rashomon In the film, Rashomon by Kurosawa, a samurai's murder is told in different ways by the bandit Tajomaru, the samurai's wife, the samurai speaking through a medium, and a woodcutter, who each witnessed the murder and, apart from the woodcutter, claim to be the killer. These circumstances in the film bring up the question of whether truth is absolute or if it is subjective. Roger Ebert holds the belief that truth is subjective and depends on what a person believes. At first glance the film appears to support this Ebert's view, however once the content of the film is examined, the opposite is shown to be true. Through the similarities in the accounts given by the witnesses,
The similarities between the stories told by the different witnesses show that there is an absolute truth. The stories of both the bandit and the woodcutter include a sword fight between the bandit and the samurai, ending with the samurai being killed in the same location and in the same way. The samurai and the wife each tell different stories, but the similarities between the other two accounts show that is likely what really happened. The stories may have been embellished some, for example the bandit says he remembers exactly how many times they crossed swords, but the base story is consistent in each. Another similar element between the stories is that in the bandit's, the samurai's and the woodcutter's accounts, it is the wife who encourages them to fight for her. They are lying in other areas of their stories because their reactions from the wife's request differ, but the wife provoking the fight can probably be taken as truth. The wife is the only one who tells that part of the story differently, which brings into question the reliability of the content in the rest
The motive bandit has for lying is to maintain his reputation. Tajomaru is a notorious bandit so he knows he is already in trouble even if he was not the one to kill the samurai. If he admits to killing the samurai then everyone knows that he is strong enough to defeat a samurai in a fight, which would increase his reputation. However, Tajomaru believing that he has no hope of getting out is also what makes him one of the most believable witnesses. Other than maintaining his reputation, Tajomaru has no other reason to lie since he will not be released even if he is innocent of killing the samurai. The wife also has reason to lie about what happened so that no one will know that she chose the bandit over her husband after she was raped. If she lies and says that she remained loyal to her husband but he hated her, it makes it seem less her fault and people might pity her. Also, she says that she was holding the knife when she passed out and fell on top of her husband, and when she woke up he was dead. This version of events would remove some of the blame from her because her husband's death could be seen as an accident. The final witness to give his testimony at the trial is the samurai who's motivation to lie is to save face. In his account he does not lose a fight to the bandit, and he commits suicide which is considered brave if a samurai has been shamed. He likely