Akutagawa's influences for this story may have come from several different sources:[7][8]
- A story from the classic Japanese collection "Konjaku Monogatarishū": In the 23rd story of the 29th volume—"The Tale of The Bound Man Who Was Accompanying His Wife to Tanba"—a man is tied to a tree in a bamboo grove and forced to watch helplessly as his wife gets raped by a young thief, who has stolen all of their belongings.
- "The Moonlit Road" by Ambrose Bierce: a short story about the murder of a woman, as told by her husband and herself (through a medium), and introduced by their son.
- "The Ring and the Book" by Robert Browning: a narrative poem based on the true story about a murder told 12 different ways.
