mystery due to conflicting accounts; unknown truth; in a grove (literal)
Idiomatic phrase from Akutagawa Ryūnosuke's short story 'In a Grove' (藪の中). Used when conflicting testimonies make the truth unknowable. The literal meaning 'in a grove' is rarely used outside the title.
This case is truly a mystery with conflicting accounts.
The witnesses' stories contradict each other; the truth is unknown.
Standard kanji spelling; the phrase is widely recognized from Akutagawa's story.
Variant kanji form using 薮 instead of 藪; less common but still encountered.
From the title of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's 1922 short story '藪の中' (In a Grove), in which multiple characters give contradictory accounts of a crime, leaving the truth unknowable. The phrase became an idiom for situations where conflicting testimonies obscure the facts.