Akutagawa's story of a lotus pond in Paradise, a robber at the bottom of Hell, and a rescue line as thin as silk.
Need an easier version? Read this story at A2/B1 level →
Ten words unlock the story. Work through the four activities — say your answer out loud before you reveal it.
Three words from the story: sinner · dangle · swarm. Say the right word, then reveal.
Akutagawa's story, retold here in English and lightly shortened. Read each part. After it, there's a quick comprehension check (try the questions from memory first), then one thing to discuss.
One day the Buddha was walking by himself along the edge of the lotus pond in Paradise. The lotus flowers in the pond were all as white as pearls, and from their golden centres there rose, without end, a perfume more wonderful than words can describe. It was morning in Paradise.
At last the Buddha stopped at the edge of the pond and, through a gap between the leaves that covered the water, looked down at what lay below. For under the lotus pond of Paradise lies the very bottom of Hell, and through the crystal-clear water the River of Three Ways and the Mountain of Needles could be seen as plainly as if through a glass.
There, at the bottom of Hell, among the other sinners, the Buddha's eye fell on a man called Kandata. He had been a great robber who had murdered, set houses on fire and done every kind of evil. And yet he had done one good deed. Once, walking through a deep forest, he had seen a little spider crawling by the side of the path. He had lifted his foot to crush it, then stopped himself. "No," he had thought, "small as it is, it has a life too. It would be a pity to take it for nothing." And he had let the spider go on its way.
As he looked down into Hell, the Buddha remembered this. If it were possible, he thought, he would like to save the man in return for that single kindness. Just then, on a jade-green lotus leaf beside him, a spider of Paradise was spinning a beautiful silver thread. The Buddha took the thread gently in his hand, and let it down, straight through the gap between the white lotus flowers, far, far down into the depths of Hell.
1. How can the Buddha see Hell from Paradise?
2. What was Kandata's one good deed, and how does the Buddha decide to reward it?
1. Hell lies directly under the lotus pond, and the water is so clear that he can look down through it.
2. He spared a little spider instead of crushing it. The Buddha lowers a spider's silver thread into Hell to give him a way out.
At the bottom of Hell, in the Pool of Blood, Kandata was floating up and sinking down with the other sinners. It was pitch dark everywhere, and the only thing that glittered in the darkness was the needles of the terrible mountain. The silence was like the silence of the grave; the only sound was the faint sighing of the sinners, who were too exhausted even to cry. Anyone who has fallen this far has been so worn out by the tortures of Hell that he no longer has the strength to weep. So even Kandata, great robber that he was, could do nothing but choke on the blood and struggle there like a dying frog.
But then, lifting his head by chance, Kandata saw a slender silver thread sliding down towards him out of the far-off sky, shining faintly, as if afraid that someone might see it. He clapped his hands with joy. If he held on to this thread and climbed it, he would surely get out of Hell. Perhaps he could even climb into Paradise itself. Then he would never again be driven up the Mountain of Needles, or pushed down into the Pool of Blood.
He took hold of the thread at once and began to climb with all his strength. As a former robber, he was used to this kind of thing. But the distance between Hell and Paradise is thousands of miles, and at last even Kandata was so tired that he could not climb another inch. He stopped to rest himself and, dangling from the thread, looked down.
1. Describe Hell as Akutagawa shows it: what can Kandata see and hear?
2. Why does Kandata stop climbing?
1. Total darkness, a pool of blood, the glittering needles of the mountain, and silence broken only by the faint sighs of exhausted sinners.
2. Because the distance is enormous and he is too tired to go further, so he rests and looks down.
The Pool of Blood was now hidden in the darkness far below. If he kept going, it might be easier than he had feared to get out of Hell. "I've done it! I've done it!" he laughed. But then he saw that, below him on the thread, countless sinners were climbing up after him, like a line of ants, higher and higher, as if they too had forgotten everything else.
Kandata was so frightened and amazed that for a moment he simply hung there with his mouth open. How could this slender thread, which seemed ready to break even under him, hold the weight of so many? If it broke now, even he would fall back into Hell. And still the sinners came swarming up out of the dark in their hundreds and thousands. So Kandata shouted in a great voice: "Hey, you sinners! This thread is mine! Who gave you permission to climb it? Get down! Get down!"
At that very moment the thread, which until then had held perfectly, broke with a snap — exactly at the point where Kandata was hanging. Spinning round and round like a top, he fell headlong, down and down into the darkness.
Standing at the edge of the lotus pond, the Buddha had watched it all. When Kandata had sunk like a stone to the bottom of the Pool of Blood, the Buddha's face became sorrowful, and he walked on again. But the lotus flowers of Paradise were not troubled at all. Their white petals swayed round his feet, and from their golden centres a wonderful perfume rose without end. In Paradise, it was nearly noon.
1. What does Kandata see below him, and what does he shout?
2. Where exactly does the thread break, and how does the Buddha react?
1. Thousands of sinners climbing up the thread after him. He shouts that the thread is his and orders them to get down.
2. Exactly at the point where Kandata is hanging — just above his hands. The Buddha looks sorrowful and walks on; the lotus flowers are not troubled at all.
The whole story turns on one question: does Kandata think of himself, or of others? English grammar makes the same distinction — and learners often get it subtly wrong.
Write a reflexive pronoun or an object pronoun (him, you…) — or write – if no word is needed.
1. After the climb, Kandata couldn't relax : he kept worrying about the thread.
2. He had to pull up, inch by inch.
3. He looked down below and saw thousands of sinners.
1. – (relax is not reflexive in English) 2. himself 3. him (after a preposition of place — not himself)
Choose the one that fits the meaning.
1. In Hell, the sinners were too tired even to speak to .
2. Kandata and the spider never saw again.
3. If the sinners had thought less about , the thread might have held.
1. each other 2. each other 3. themselves
Write a reflexive pronoun, each other, an object pronoun (him, them…), or –. Then read it aloud slowly, as the Buddha.
"I gave him a chance , with my own hands. He could have helped the others; instead he looked down at the people below and saw only enemies. If they had helped — one holding the thread steady for the next — they might all have climbed out together. But he thought only of . He wanted Paradise all by . Well, he must blame . And yet I cannot feel happy about it, and I cannot enjoy this morning as I did."
myself (emphatic) · him (place) · each other · himself · himself · himself · – (feel is not reflexive) · myself
The grammar of the story in one paragraph: each other would have saved them; himself destroyed them all.
Hold on to these structures — in the Speak tab you'll narrate the climb and argue about whether Kandata deserved to fall.
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892–1927) is often called the father of the modern Japanese short story; Japan's most important literary prize is named after him, and two of his stories became Kurosawa's film Rashomon. "The Spider's Thread" (Kumo no Ito) appeared in 1918 in Akai Tori ("The Red Bird"), a new magazine of literature for children. Akutagawa's source was probably a tale called "The Spider-Web" in Karma (1894), a book of Buddhist-style stories by the American writer Paul Carus. There is a striking parallel in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov too: a wicked woman is offered an onion to pull her out of the lake of fire, and fails for exactly the same reason.
This is the heart of the lesson — do all of it out loud. The timer is there to keep you going: fill the time with detail rather than racing through it.
Tell The Spider's Thread as if to someone who has never read it — slowly and calmly, like Akutagawa. Move through the arc: morning in Paradise, the lotus pond → the view into Hell → Kandata and the spared spider → the silver thread → the climb → the rest and the look down → the swarm of sinners → "This thread is mine!" → the snap → the Buddha walks on; nearly noon.
Use at least three different reflexive or emphatic forms, each other once, and at least five key words (slender, wicked, compassionate, sinner, dangle, swarm, selfish, exhausted, spare, sorrowful).
Build an argument. One view: Kandata showed his true nature at the decisive moment, and the fall was just. Another: any terrified human being clinging to a thread above Hell would have panicked; the test was cruel, and the Buddha's sorrow is an admission of that. Take a side, give three reasons, deal with the strongest objection, and say what you think Akutagawa believed.
Then argue the opposite for one minute — the harder direction is where the language comes from.
The story asks whether we save ourselves or each other. Take that into today's world.
Stuck for an idea? Pick one of these and run with it: