1. Geun Ho Lee
Senior Seminar Period 4
November 13, 2011
Mr. Clover
Rashomon Essay
Rashomon is a film directed by Akira Kurosawa directed in 1950. Unlike its
precedents, it has opened up a new topic to be discussed through films: perception. The
concept of perception is the process of humans in understanding the environment around
them through interpretation using their five basic senses, the sight, sound, smell, touch, and
taste. Kurosawa, in particular, points out how perception can cause conflicts among humans
through his film. In his film, a crime, in which a samurai was killed, occurred in a forest, and
there are four witnesses to the crime. None of the characters agree on what happened. The
bandit, Tajomaru, claims that he killed the samurai because he wanted the samurai’s wife that
after he raped her, he fought against the samurai on the request of the wife to decide who
really wins the wife. The samurai’s wife claims that after Tajomaru has raped her, he left the
scene. And out of the guilt in being raped by a man other than her husband, she says that she
pleaded the samurai to kill her. However, the samurai ignored her and out of rage, the wife
kills the samurai. According to the samurai, who is brought to testimonial through spiritual
medium, he has committed a suicide after Tajomaru raped the wife. Lastly, the woodcutter
testifies that the samurai was killed by Tajomaru after the wife taunted the two men to fight to
settle her for the winner. These four different testimonies of four different witnesses to the
crime bring out arguments of truth and reality that can be seen from the critics Errol Morris
and Roger Ebert. In regard to these arguments, Morris concludes that there is one absolute
truth and an objective reality to this crime, whereas Ebert believes that truth and reality are
subjective hence are relative to individuals. Simply put, Morris states that there is one truth
that exists regardless of perception differences, while Ebert states that truth and reality is
solely dependent on perception. Although both views are supported by the film, Ebert’s idea
of subjective truth corresponds better with Rashomon than Morris’ idea of one absolute truth,

2. Geun Ho Lee
Senior Seminar Period 4
November 13, 2011
Mr. Clover
because Kurosawa’s primary focus in this film is to convey the importance of understanding
perception differences.
Errol Morris claims that there is only one truth to who killed the samurai in the forest,
regardless of the different accounts of the four witnesses of the crime scene. He clearly points
out his view on the idea “that truth is up for grabs, or that truth is subjective” is “foolish and
unappetizing” idea (Interview with Errol Morris). He further comments on the film by saying
that “the claim that everybody sees the world differently is not a claim that there’s no reality.
It’s a different kind of claim” (Interview with Errol Morris). From this, it is very evident that
Morris believes that there is one truth and reality whether people see them or not. This relates
to the theory of selective perception, which states that people intuitively filter out information
that they do not wish to perceive from the reality. Then, he goes on to comment that “it is
pretty damn clear” what really happened at the end, implying that the audiences know what
happened, because it is absolutely true that the samurai was killed, so they know that there is
a killer (Interview with Errol Morris). So, Morris claims that the absolute truth provides
knowledge in Rashomon.
However, Roger Ebert and Akira Kurosawa believe otherwise. They claim that truth
and reality are subjective, as the four witnesses of the murder demonstrate four different
truths of the reality they have perceived. They argue that such differences in the truths from
each of the witnesses are the main focus of the film, not searching for the absolute truth. In
other words, Ebert and Kurosawa state that Rashomon is about recognizing and
understanding differences in perception. According to relativism, these differences in
perception originate from an individual’s unique experiences, cultural and religious
backgrounds, ethical values, and other factors that affect his or her perspective. Perspective is,
by definition, subjective mindset, which can be rephrased as the way a person perceives
reality. So, truths of the reality are subjective, as Ebert argues, because they are based on

3. Geun Ho Lee
Senior Seminar Period 4
November 13, 2011
Mr. Clover
subjective mindset that will create differences in perception from an individual to another.
To understand the differences in perspective in more depth, Roger Ebert implies that
ethical decisions must be considered. As it was mentioned already, subjective truth that Ebert
supports depend on the differences in perspectives of individuals. One of the factors that
affect one’s perspective is ethical values. For this particular case, the ethical values in the
motives to kill the samurai have to be considered to make more apt analyses on these
accounts. From what has been told by the characters in the film, each character had motive to
kill the samurai. Based on Plato’s equation, “K = JTB”, where K stands for knowledge and J
stands for justification, T stands for truth, and B for belief, Ebert comments that having
subjective truth, which satisfies for T in the equation, is not enough to gain knowledge, hence
really not understanding what and why the crime happened. So, in order to really understand
the film, the audiences should concentrate on assessing the motives of each witness. This
claim by Ebert correlates well with Kurosawa’s focus on the differences in perception that are
evident in the four different accounts to the crime scene and the importance of ethical issues
such as motive in understanding the differences.
In short, the film Rashomon displays four contradicting accounts to one incident, of
which Errol Morris and Roger Ebert interpret differently. The existence of one truth to who
the killer of the samurai is, it could be argued that Morris’s view of one absolute truth relates
well to the film. However, Akira Kurosawa’s, the director, intent to convey the idea of the
importance of understanding the roots to differences in perception and the importance of
ethical values in that understanding corresponds better with Ebert’s claim of subjective truth.

4. Geun Ho Lee
Senior Seminar Period 4
November 13, 2011
Mr. Clover
Works Cited
"Interview with Errol Morris." The Believer. The Believer, Apr. 2004. Web. 12 Oct. 2011.
<http://www.believermag.com/issues/200404/?read=interview_morris>.