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Maiko Yoshida
Senior Seminar Period 5
November 13, 2011
Rashomon and Perception
People perceive everything by using five senses which are sight, smell, sound,
taste and touch. The film of Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa shows how people perceive
same event differently. The movie opens with a woodcutter, a priest and a peasant
talking at Rashomon gate. In the beginning, the woodcutter keeps saying “ I just don’t
understand” because there are four different eye witness testimonies of the same event.
The only thing we are sure is that a samurai is killed by someone. A bandit, a wife and a
Samurai who get killed, all say to be the murder and it makes this event confused. This
film brings how we see things differently and how it is caused to our perception.
Actually, many people also experience like each person gives equivocal accounts of
same events. Errol Morris, who is an absolutist, believes that there is only one absolute
truth and truth should be objective. On the other hand, Roger Ebert, who is a relativist,
believes that there are multiple truths depend on person because each person has
different perception. Even though we cannot prove whether Morris or Ebert’s opinion is
correct and some people say that there is Morris’ aspect in this film, I think Ebert’s
theory better fits with this movie, Rashomon.
Morris thinks that there is an absolute truth with everyone’s agreement. He
says, “I do not believe that truth is subjective. Just thinking something does not make it
so” in his interview (Morris). He has same idea as Plato. Plato’s view of society is also

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that an absolute truth exists. In the other words, there is only one truth, so everyone
except one person is lying or hiding the truth for their own benefit. For example, if the
woodcutter’s story is an absolute truth, it can be said that the wife is hiding the truth and
making the story because she has to prove her innocence and modesty that she does not
have sex with the bandit but just get raped. However, according to Ebert, he thinks
“although the stories are in radical disagreement, it is unlike any of the original
participants are lying for their own advantage, since each claims to be the murderer”
(Ebert), so it can be said that they are just telling what they perceive.
Ebert states that there are multiple truths, so each person’s claim to be the
murder is true because each person has different perception and I think his theory is
more suitable than Morris’ theory in the case of Rashomon. His position with regard to
truth and reality is that people should always be critical of what we are thinking of
because reality is subjective and truth is relative based on human interpretation and each
mental map. According to Ebert’s view about Kurosawa’s film “Rashomon”, he states
that from this film, people should not even believe 100% about something have seen.
To support his view, he talks about the flashbacks. He says that they are “true because
each eyewitness tells what he thought he saw”, but the flashbacks are also false because
people are “never honest with themselves about themselves and they cannot talk about
themselves without embellishing.” (Ebert). Due to this, it is almost impossible to
completely believe what we have seen because we perceive the event differently and
when we tell about it, what we say cannot catch everything which we see. Therefore,
our eyewitness explanation is never complete and never accurate. Also, he says

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“flashbacks that do not agree with any objective truth” so the truth is subjective for each
individual.
Moreover, in his article, Ebert talks about perception because each eyewitness
has his or her own perception about what happens, so each participant claims different
ways. The viewer also has his own perception about what he sees in the film, so
perspective is very important in this film. Because each person has each perception,
motive can be strong evidence to state the reason why someone kills the samurai. And
that is also the reason why all characters and audience cannot understand which is the
correct perspective about who is the real killer. For example, the bandit has motive to
kill the samurai because he wants to have the wife. The wife also has motive to kill the
samurai because the samurai sees the scene that she gets raped by the bandit. In case of
the samurai, she has motive to kill himself too because the wife runs away with the
bandit. Each person has own motive and it makes him or her believe what happens, so
each person has different truth. Then, Evert also talks about emotion because he thought
Kurosawa’s style for character’s speaking was so strong and facial expressions, too. But
he said emotion is very important in Rashomon and accurate emotion is very difficult to
express, so Kurosawa exaggerate each actor’s emotion to create the stronger impact,
and this emotion also influences perspective because they influence each other very
much.
In conclusion, Ebert’s theory, the truth is subjective and is based on people’s
different view of the truth better fits with this film than Morris’ theory, there is an
absolute truth. Because each person has different mental map, his or her own

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interpretation is varied so everyone’s truth is also different each other. Since all
witnesses have no reason to hide the truth because everyone says to be a murder, it can
be assumed that every eyewitness truthfully tells what is happened, so we can hardly
know who the murder is. Rashomon demonstrates that people cannot perceive things
without bias, so that makes world confused. That is why we usually misunderstand or
cause problem between people.
Work Cited
Ebert, Roger “Rashomon (1950)” rogerebert.com. n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.
Morris, Errol “Errol Morris (Filmmaker)” The Believer. n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2011.