1. November 17, 2011
Tomohiro Urakami P.4
Rashomon Essay
Perception is the awareness of things through our five senses; sight, smell,
sound, touch and taste. Visual, which lead to interpretation and feeling are the two biggest
elements, which are strongly associated or involved with truth. Those five senses connect
us with the world, which enable us to interpret the way we see things. However, our
perception is unique because we see things differently from the others. A Japanese film,
Rashomon, by Kurosawa brings discussion of “Reality vs. Perception.”Roger Ebert states
that since our perception areunique, we see things differently and thus multiple truths
about the same event are accepted, which make truth subjective. On the other hand, Errol
Morris is an absolutist who thinks that there is only one absolute truth. When dealing with
the situation of Rashomon, Roger Ebert’s idea of subjective reality or truth fits better than
Morris’s idea of absolute truth because the flexibility of Ebert’s viewpoint enables us to
seek out the truth.
In film, Rashomon, four witnesses give their stories about a murder of samurai.
Although all four testified that Tajomaru, the bandit murdered samurai, they told different
stories of what they saw before the samurai was murdered. It is hard to tell which one is
telling the truth. The dead samurai’s testimony seems to be the most reliable because he
does not have any reasons to tell lie, but his testimony becomes less reliable after the
woodcutter testified and we find out that dead samurai told a lie in order to maintain his
self-esteem. Thus, woodcutter seems to be the mot reliable because he told the story of
murder in third person point of view, but his testimony again becomes less reliable when
we find out that he has stolen a dagger, but he does not tell this story when he testified.
This movie eventually ends without finding out who was right.
Although the four testimonies do not match at all, Morris would argue that only
one of four witnesses are telling the truth and three of them are lying since there is only
one absolute truth. In the interview, Morris states that “[Rashomon is] not a movie but the
subjectivity of truth” and thus all four witnesses are guilty of changing the truth in their
testimonies (Morris). This idea is the same as Plato’s that knowledge is justified truth thus
truth is absolute. Morris would refer his idea with scientific realism. Scientific realism
defines that the world exists as an independent reality, but it is very different from the way
we perceive it (de Lagemaat). By referring to this theory, Morris would say that only one
of four witnesses is true and others are misinterpreted because truth is independent and

2. November 17, 2011
Tomohiro Urakami P.4
absolute. However, Morris’s view can only explain limited elementsof Rashomon
because it is difficult to find the “absolute truth” in Rashomon due to the lack of strong
evidence to support their testimonies.
Roger Ebert’s view would fit to Rashomon’s situation better because Ebert
would say that four testimonies are depicting their mental maps, which are created by
different perception.The four testimonies in Rashomon depict their mental map, which
shows that all four perceived the murder differently from others (de Lagemaat). Ebert
would argue that all four are accepted as the truth because the truth is relative and based
on people perception. Thus, even multiple people are telling the story about the same
event, they would tell the story differently because they have different eyes, which give
different perception. This is depicted in the example of“The Allegory of the Cave.” When
people visit the cave, this cave does not have any significant meaning for them, butfor
those who are chained in the cave, cave is their world. This example of cave shows the
differentiation in people’s perception.
Ebert’s viewpoint makes it easier to seek the truth inRashomon’s situation.
Since there are not many physical evidences in this murder that can illustrate the whole
picture of the murder, Ebert would rely on motives as justification to find out the truth.
Nevertheless, Morris would not rely on motives because truth is absolute ergo he does not
consider it as evidence. In Rashomon, woodcutter has no motive to tell a lie when he
testifies because he is not involved with the murder. Although he has stolen the dagger
and he is hiding this fact from the others, his story seems logical and his position in this
film makes himthe most reliable than other three. Ergoaccording to Ebert’s viewpoint, it
could be assumed that woodcutter is telling the truth because he has no motive to tell a lie.
As a result, although Morris’s absolute truth theory could be applied to
Rashomon that only one of four is telling the truth and other three are not since truth is
absolute, Ebert’s viewpoint fits better and explain the film Rashomon better due to his
theory’s flexibility and acceptance of multiple truths. People see things differently due to
their perception and the limit of information. Truth is according to people’s perception,
which makes it subjective and relative to the perception. Therefore, in order to understand
this film, we need to be aware of even minor aspects shown in the film. When we are
aware of both major and minor aspects of this film, it becomes possible to assume the
truth or truths according to Ebert’s idea.