Osamu Dazai
Shūji Tsushima, known by his pen name Osamu Dazai, was a Japanese novelist and author. A number of his most popular works, such as The Setting Sun and No Longer Human, are considered modern classics.
His influences include Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Murasaki Shikibu and Fyodor Dostoevsky. His last book, No Longer Human, is his most popular work outside of Japan.
Another pseudonym he used was Shunpei Kuroki, for the book Illusion of the Cliffs.
Early life
Shūji Tsushima was born on June 19, 1909, the eighth surviving child of a wealthy landowner and politician in Kanagi, located at the northern tip of the Tōhoku Region, in Aomori Prefecture. He was the tenth of the eleven children born to his parents. At the time of his birth, the huge, newly completed Tsushima mansion, where he spent his early years, was home to some thirty family members. The Tsushima family was of obscure peasant origins. Dazai's great-grandfather built up the family's wealth as a moneylender, and his son increased it further. They quickly rose in power and, after some time, became highly respected across the region.Dazai's father, Gen'emon, was a younger son of the Matsuki family, which, due to "its exceedingly 'feudal' tradition," had no use for sons other than the eldest son and heir. As a result, Gen'emon was adopted into the Tsushima family to marry the eldest daughter, Tane. He became involved in politics due to his position as one of the four wealthiest landowners in the prefecture, and was offered membership of the House of Peers. This caused Dazai's father to be absent during much of his early childhood. As his mother, Tane, was ill, Dazai was brought up mostly by the family's servants and his aunt Kiye.
Education and literary beginnings
In 1916, Dazai began his education at Kanagi Elementary. On March 4, 1923, his father Gen'emon died from lung cancer. A month later, in April, Dazai moved to Aomori Junior High School, followed in 1927 by Hirosaki Higher School, a university preparatory school. He developed an interest in the culture of the Edo period and began studying gidayū, a form of chanted narration used in bunraku. Around 1928, Dazai edited a series of student publications and contributed some of his own works. He also published a magazine called Saibō Bungei with his friends, and subsequently became a staff member of the college's newspaper.Dazai's success in writing was brought to a halt when his idol, the writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, committed suicide in 1927 at 35 years old. Dazai started to neglect his studies, and spent the majority of his allowance on clothes, alcohol, and prostitutes. He also dabbled in Marxism, which at the time was heavily suppressed by the government.
On the night of December 10, 1929, Dazai made his first suicide attempt, but survived and was able to graduate the following year. In 1930, he enrolled in the French literature department of Tokyo Imperial University, but promptly stopped studying again. In October, he ran away with a geisha named and was formally disowned by his family.
Nine days after he was expelled from Tokyo Imperial University, Dazai attempted suicide by drowning off a beach in Kamakura with a 19-year-old bar hostess named. Tanabe died, but Dazai lived. He was rescued by the crew of a fishing boat, and was charged as an accomplice in Tanabe's death. Shocked by the events, Dazai's family intervened to stop the police investigation. His allowance was reinstated, and he was released without any charges. In December, he recovered at Ikarigaseki and married Hatsuyo there.
Leftist movement
In 1929, when the principal of Hirosaki Higher School was found to have misappropriated public funds, the students, under the leadership of Ueda Shigehiko, leader of the Social Science Study Group, staged a five-day strike, which resulted in the principal's resignation and no disciplinary action against the students. Dazai hardly participated in the strike, but in imitation of the Japanese proletarian literature of the time, he summarized the incident in a novel called Student Group and read it to Ueda. The Tsushima family was wary of Dazai's leftist activities. On January 16 of the following year, the Special High Police arrested Ueda and nine other students of the Hiroko Institute of Social Studies, who were working as activists for Seigen Tanaka's Communist Party.In college, Dazai met activist Eizo Kudo, and made a monthly financial contribution of ten yen to the Japanese Communist Party. He was expelled from his family after his marriage to Hatsuyo Oyama in order to prevent any association of his illegal activities with his brother Bunji, who was a politician. After his marriage, Dazai was ordered to hide his sympathies and moved repeatedly. In July 1932, Bunji tracked him down, and had him turn himself in at the Aomori Police Station. In December, Dazai signed and sealed a pledge at the Aomori Prosecutor's Office to completely withdraw from leftist activities.
Early literary career
Dazai kept his promise and settled down. He managed to obtain the assistance of Masuji Ibuse, an established writer whose connections helped him get his works published and establish his reputation. The next few years were productive for Dazai. He wrote at a feverish pace and used the pen name "Osamu Dazai" for the first time in a short story called "Ressha", published in 1933. This story was his first experiment with the I-novel form that later became his trademark.In 1935 it started to become clear to Dazai that he would not graduate. He also failed to obtain a job at a Tokyo newspaper. He finished The Final Years, which was intended to be his farewell to the world, and tried to hang himself on March 19, 1935, failing yet again. Less than three weeks later, he developed acute appendicitis and was hospitalized. In the hospital, he became addicted to Pavinal, a morphine-based painkiller. After fighting the addiction for a year, in October 1936 he was taken to a mental institution, locked in a room and forced to quit cold turkey.
The treatment lasted over a month.
During this time Dazai's wife Hatsuyo committed adultery with his best friend Zenshirō Kodate. This eventually came to light, and Dazai attempted to commit shinjū with his wife. They both took sleeping pills, but neither died. Soon after, Dazai divorced Hatsuyo. He quickly remarried, this time to a middle school teacher named. Their first daughter, Sonoko, was born in June 1941.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Dazai wrote a number of novels and short stories that are autobiographical in nature. His first story, Gyofukuki, is a grim fantasy involving suicide. Other stories written during this period include Dōke no hana, Gyakkō, Kyōgen no kami, an epistolary novel called Kyokō no Haru and the stories in the collection Bannen, which describe his sense of personal isolation and his debauchery.
Wartime years
Japan widened the Pacific War by attacking the United States in December 1941, but Dazai was excused from the draft because of his chronic chest problems, as he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The censors became more reluctant to accept his work, but he managed to publish anyway. A number of the stories that he published during the war are retellings of stories by Ihara Saikaku. Dazai's wartime works include Udaijin Sanetomo, Tsugaru, Pandora no Hako, and Otogizōshi in which he retells a number of Japanese fairy tales.Dazai's house was burned down twice in the American bombing of Tokyo, but his family escaped unscathed and gained a son, Masaki, who was born in 1944. His third child, his daughter Satoko, who later became a writer under the pseudonym Yūko Tsushima, was born in May 1947.
Postwar career
In the immediate postwar period, Dazai reached the height of his popularity. He depicted a dissolute life in postwar Tokyo in Viyon no Tsuma, depicting the wife of a poet who had abandoned her and her continuing will to live through hardships.In 1946, Dazai published a controversial memoir, Kuno no Nenkan, in which he describes the immediate aftermath of Japan's defeat and seeks to encapsulate how the Japanese felt at the time. Dazai reaffirmed his loyalty to Hirohito, the Emperor of Japan, and his son Akihito. However, Dazai also expressed his Communist beliefs in this memoir. Dazai also wrote Jugonenkan, another autobiographical piece.
On December 14, 1946, a group of writers that included Dazai was joined by Yukio Mishima for dinner at a restaurant. The latter recalled that on that occasion, he gave vent to his dislike of Dazai. According to a later statement by Mishima:
The disgust in which I hold Dazai's literature is in some way ferocious. First, I dislike his face. Second, I dislike his rustic preference for urban sophistication. Third, I dislike the fact that he played roles that were not appropriate for him.
Other participants at the dinner could not remember if events occurred as Mishima described. They did report that he did not enjoy Dazai's "clowning" and that he and Dazai had a dispute about Ōgai Mori, a writer whom Mishima admired.
In July 1947, Dazai's novel Shayo was published. It depicts the decline of the Japanese nobility after the war. It was partly based on the diary of, an admirer of Dazai's work who first met him in 1941. The pair had a daughter, the writer in 1947.
A heavy drinker, Dazai became an alcoholic and his health deteriorated rapidly. At this time he met, a beautician whose husband had been killed in the war after just ten days of marriage. Dazai abandoned his wife and children and moved in with Tomie.
Dazai began writing his novel No Longer Human at the onsen in Atami. He then moved to Ōmiya with Tomie and stayed there until mid-May 1948, finishing his novel. A quasi-autobiography, it depicts a self-destructive young man who believes that he is disqualified from being human. The book has been translated into several languages.
In the spring of 1948, Dazai worked on Goodbye, a novella scheduled to be serialized in the Asahi Shimbun. It was never finished.
Death
On June 13, 1948, Dazai and Tomie drowned themselves in the rain-swollen Tamagawa Aqueduct, near his house. Their bodies were not discovered until six days later, on June 19, which would have been his 39th birthday. His grave is at the temple of Zenrin-ji, in Mitaka, Tokyo.At the time, there was a lot of speculation about the incident. Keikichi Nakahata, a kimono merchant who frequented the young Tsushima family, was shown the scene of the suicide by a detective from Mitaka police station. He speculated that "Dazai was asked to die, and he simply agreed, but just before his death, he suddenly felt an obsession with life."
Works
| Japanese title | English title | Published | Translator |
| ア、秋 | A. Autumn | 1939 | |
| 愛と美について | About Love and Beauty | 1939 | |
| 老ハイデルベルヒ | Alt-Heidelberg | 1940 | |
| 雨の玉川心中 | Rain at Tamagawa - Double Suicide | ||
| 兄たち | My Older Brothers | 1940 | McCarthy; O'Brien |
| 青森 | Aomori | 1941 | |
| 或る忠告 | Advice | 1942 | |
| 朝 | Morning | 1947 | Brudnoy and Yumi |
| あさましきもの | Something Regrettable | 1937 | |
| 新しい形の個人主義 | A New Form of Individualism | 1980 | |
| 「晩年」と「女生徒」 | "The Last Years" and "Schoolgirl" | 1948 | |
| 「晩年」に就いて | About "The Final Years“ | 1936 | |
| 美男子と煙草 | Handsome Devils and Cigarettes | 1948 | McCarthy |
| 美少女 | A Little Beauty | 1939 | McCarthy |
| 眉山 | Bizan | 1948 | |
| チャンス | Chance | 1946 | |
| 父 | The Father | 1947 | Brudnoy and Yumi |
| 小さいアルバム | The Little Album | 1942 | |
| 畜犬談 —伊馬鵜平君に与える— | Canis familiaris | 1939 | McCarthy |
| 竹青 | Blue Bamboo | 1945 | McCarthy |
| 地球図 | Chikyūzu | 1935 | |
| 千代女 | Chiyojo | 1941 | Dunlop |
| 地図 | The Map | 1925 | |
| 大恩は語らず | A Great Favour is Not Expressed | 1954 | |
| 断崖の錯覚 | Illusion of the Cliffs | 1934 | |
| 檀君の近業について | About the Latest Works by Dan-kun | 1937 | |
| 男女同権 | Gender Equality | 1946 | |
| 誰 | Who | 1941 | |
| 誰も知らぬ | Nobody Knows | 1940 | |
| ダス・ゲマイネ | Das Gemeine | 1935 | O'Brien |
| デカダン抗議 | Decadent Protest | 1939 | |
| 貪婪禍 | The Scourge of Greed | 1940 | |
| 道化の華 | The Flowers of Buffoonery | 1935 | |
| 炎天汗談 | Bottomless Hell | 1942 | |
| フォスフォレッスセンス | The Pitiable Mosquitoes | 1947 | |
| 富嶽百景 | 1939 | McCarthy | |
| 富士に就いて | About Mount Fuji | 1938 | |
| 服装に就いて | About Clothing | 1941 | O'Brien |
| 不審庵 | Doubtful Retreat | 1943 | |
| 冬の花火 | Winter Fireworks | 1946 | |
| 玩具 | Toys | 1935 | O'Brien |
| 芸術ぎらい | Dislike of Art | 1944 | |
| 義務 | Duty | 1940 | |
| 五所川原 | Goshogawara | 1941 | |
| グッド・バイ | Goodbye | 1948 | Marshall |
| 逆行 | Losing Ground | 1935 | |
| 魚服記 | Metamorphosis | 1933 | O'Brien |
| 魚服記に就て | About the Story of Fish and Clothing | 1933 | |
| 葉 | Leaves | 1934 | Gangloff |
| 母 | Mother | 1947 | Brudnoy and Yumi |
| 八十八夜 | The 88th Day | 1939 | |
| 恥 | Shame | 1942 | Dunlop |
| 薄明 | Early Light | 1946 | McCarthy |
| 花火 | Fireworks | 1929 | |
| 花吹雪 | Falling Blossoms | 1944 | |
| 犯人 | The Criminal | 1948 | |
| 春 | Spring | 1980 | |
| 春の枯葉 | Dry Leaves in Spring | 1946 | |
| 春の盗賊 | A Burglar in Spring | 1940 | |
| 春夫と旅行できなかつた話 | The Story of How I Couldn't Travel with Haruo | ||
| 走ラヌ名馬 | The Unrunning Thoroughbred | 1980 | |
| 走れメロス | Run, Melos! | 1940 | McCarthy; O'Brien |
| 葉桜と魔笛 | Cherry Blossoms and the Magic Flute | 1939 | |
| 碧眼托鉢 | The Blue-eyed Pilgrim | 1936 | |
| 返事 | Reply | 1980 | |
| 皮膚と心 | Skin and Heart | 1939 | |
| 火の鳥 | The Phoenix | 1939 | |
| 一つの約束 | One Promise | 1944 | |
| 一問一答 | Questions and Answers | 1942 | |
| 陰火 | Inka | 1936 | |
| 田舎者 | The Country Bumpkin | 1980 | |
| 一歩前進二歩退却 | One Step Forward, Two Steps Back | 1938 | |
| 弱者の糧 | Food for the Weak | 1980 | |
| 人物に就いて | About Characters | 1936 | |
| 自作を語る | Talking About My Work | 1980 | |
| 自信の無さ | Lack of Confidence | 1940 | |
| 女類 | Women | 1948 | |
| 女生徒 | Schoolgirl | 1939 | Powell |
| 十五年間 | For Fifteen Years | 1946 | |
| 十二月八日 | December 8th | 1942 | |
| 純真 | Innocence | 1980 | |
| 貨幣 | Currency | 1946 | O'Brien |
| 佳日 | Happy Day | 1944 | |
| 駈込み訴え | Heed My Plea | 1940 | O'Brien |
| かくめい | Revolution | 1948 | |
| 鴎 | Seagull | 1940 | |
| 【関連作品】 | Related Works | ||
| 彼は昔の彼ならず | He Is Not the Man He Used to Be | 1934 | |
| 花燭 | Wedding Torches | 1939 | |
| かすかな声 | A Faint Voice | 1940 | |
| 家庭の幸福 | Domestic Happiness | 1939 | |
| 川端康成へ | To Yasunari Kawabata | 1935 | |
| 革財布 | Leather Wallet | ||
| 風の便り | News on the Wind | 1941 | |
| 喝采 | Applause | 1936 | |
| 帰去来 | Going Home | 1943 | Lyons |
| 金錢の話 | A Story About Money | 1943 | |
| 禁酒の心 | The Heart of a Teetotaller | 1943 | |
| きりぎりす | Cricket | 1940 | |
| 校長三代 | Three Generations of Principals | 1939 | |
| 乞食学生 | The Beggar Student | 1940 | Sam Bett |
| 心の王者 | The King of the Heart | 1940 | |
| 故郷 | Homecoming | 1943 | O'Brien |
| このごろ | Lately | 1940 | |
| 困惑の弁 | A Plea of Confusion | ||
| 古典風 | In Classical Style | 1940 | |
| 古典竜頭蛇尾 | Classical Dragon Head and Snake Tail | 1936 | |
| 九月十月十一月 | September, October, November | 1938 | |
| 國技館 | National Sumo Arena | 1940 | |
| 苦悩の年鑑 | Almanac of Pain | 1946 | Lyons |
| 黒石の人たち | The People of Kuroishi | ||
| 狂言の神 | The God of Farce | 1936 | |
| 虚構の春 | False Spring | 1936 | |
| 饗応夫人 | The Hospitable Lady | 1948 | |
| 郷愁 | Nostalgia | ||
| 満願 | Complete Satisfaction | 1938 | Brudnoy and Kazuko; McCarthy |
| 待つ | Waiting | 1942 | Brudnoy and Kazuko; Turvill; O'Brien |
| 女神 | The Goddess | 1947 | |
| めくら草紙 | The Blind Scroll | 1936 | |
| メリイクリスマス | Merry Christmas | 1947 | McCarthy |
| 雌に就いて | Female | 1947 | McCarthy |
| 未帰還の友に | To an Unreturned Friend | 1944 | |
| みみずく通信 | The Owl Newspaper | 1941 | |
| 男女川と羽左衛門 | The River and Uzaemon | 1935 | |
| 盲人独笑 | The Blind Man's Laughter | ||
| 文盲自嘲 | The Illiterate's Laughter | ||
| 悶悶日記 | Tormented Diary | ||
| もの思う葦 | A Thinking Reed | ||
| 無題 | Untitled | ||
| 無趣味 | Lack of Interest | ||
| 二十世紀旗手 | A Standard-bearer of the Twentieth Century | 1937 | |
| 「人間キリスト記」その他 | "Reports on Christ" and Others | 1940 | |
| 人間失格 | No Longer Human | 1948 | Keene; Gibeau; Carpenter |
| 庭 | The Garden | 1946 | McCarthy |
| 如是我聞 | Thus Have I Heard | 1948 | |
| 女人訓戒 | Advice for Women | ||
| 女人創造 | Woman's Creation | ||
| 織田君の死 | The Death of Oda-kun | ||
| 緒方氏を殺した者 | The Murderer of Mr. Ogata | 1937 | |
| 黄金風景 | Golden Landscape | 1941 | Dunlop; McCarthy |
| 思ひ出 | Memories | 1933 | Dunlop; Lyons; O'Brien |
| 同じ星 | The Same Star | ||
| 女の決闘 | Women's Duel | 1940 | |
| おさん | Osan | 1947 | O'Brien |
| おしゃれ童子 | The Stylish Child | 1939 | |
| 黄村先生言行録 | Mr. Oson's Records | 1943 | |
| 桜桃 | Cherries | 1948 | McCarthy |
| お伽草紙 | Fairy Tales | 1945 | O'Brien |
| 音に就いて | About Sound | 1942 | |
| 親という二字 | The Word "Parents" | ||
| パウロの混乱 | Paul's Confusion | ||
| パンドラの匣 | Pandora's Box | 1945 | |
| 懶惰の歌留多 | The Lazy Game of Cards | 1939 | |
| ラロシフコー | La Rochefoucauld | 1935 | |
| 令嬢アユ | Miss Ayu | 1934 | |
| 列車 | The Train | 1933 | McCarthy |
| リイズ | Liz | 1940 | |
| 六月十九日 | June 19th | 1946 | |
| ロマネスク | Romanesque | 1934 | |
| ろまん燈籠 | The Romantic Lantern | 1947 | |
| 律子と貞子 | Ritsuko and Sadako | 1942 | |
| 佐渡 | Sado | 1941 | |
| 砂子屋 | The Sandman | 1941 | |
| 最後の太閤 | The Last Taikō | 1945 | |
| 酒ぎらい | The Teetotaler | 1935 | |
| 酒の追憶 | Memories of Alcohol | 1940 | |
| 作家の手帖 | The Writer's Notebook | 1946 | |
| 作家の像 | The Writer's Portrait | 1943 | |
| 三月三十日 | March 30th | 1943 | |
| 散華 | Fallen Flowers | 1945 | Swann |
| 猿ヶ島 | The Monkey Island | 1935 | O'Brien |
| 猿面冠者 | The Monkey-faced Man | 1942 | |
| 正義と微笑 | Righteousness and Smiles | 1942 | |
| 清貧譚 | The Story of Poverty | 1936 | |
| 政治家と家庭 | The Politician and the Family | 1943 | |
| 世界的 | Worldly | 1935 | |
| 惜別 | Regretful Parting | 1945 | |
| 赤心 | Sincerity | 1941 | |
| 先生三人 | Three Teachers | 1939 | |
| 斜陽 | The Setting Sun | 1947 | Keene |
| 思案の敗北 | The Defeat of Deliberation | 1936 | |
| 新ハムレット | New Hamlet | 1941 | |
| 新樹の言葉 | Words of the New Trees | 1943 | |
| 新郎 | The Groom | 1943 | |
| 新釈諸国噺 | New Interpretation of Country Stories | 1945 | O'Brien |
| 親友交歓 | The Courtesy Call | 1943 | |
| 失敗園 | The Garden of Failure | 1942 | |
| 知らない人 | Unknown Person | 1943 | |
| 【シリーズ好評既刊】 | Successful Series | 1941 | |
| 私信 | Private Letter | 1940 | |
| 市井喧争 | People's Disputes | 1942 | |
| 正直ノオト | Honest Notes | 1938 | |
| 諸君の位置 | Your Positions | 1940 | |
| 食通 | Gourmet | 1942 | |
| 小志 | Small Ambitions | 1939 | |
| 小照 | Little Light | 1942 | |
| 小説の面白さ | The Fun of the Novel | 1940 | |
| 秋風記 | Autumn Wind Story | 1942 | |
| 春昼 | Spring Day | 1940 | |
| 創作余談 | Creation Side Notes | 1936 | |
| 創生記 | Creation Story | 1946 | |
| 水仙 | Daffodils / Narcissus | 1942 | McCarthy |
| 雀 | Sparrows | 1946 | |
| 雀こ | Little Sparrow | 1946 | |
| 多頭蛇哲学 | Philosophy of the Multi-headed Snake | 1934 | |
| 田中君に就いて | About Mr. Tanaka | 1937 | |
| たずねびと | Seeker | 1946 | |
| 天狗 | Tengu | 1943 | |
| 鉄面皮 | Thick-skinned | 1936 | |
| 答案落第 | Examination Failure | 1937 | |
| トカトントン | The Sound of Hammering | 1947 | O'Brien |
| 東京だより | News from Tokyo | 1941 | |
| 東京八景 | Eight Views of Tokyo | 1941 | Lyons; McCarthy; O'Brien |
| 燈籠 | Lantern | 1937 | |
| 當選の日 | Election Day | 1935 | |
| 徒党について | About Factions | 1944 | |
| 津軽 | Tsugaru | 1944 | Marshall; Westerhoven |
| 津輕地方とチエホフ | Tsugaru Region and Chekhov | 1938 | |
| 姥捨 | Putting Granny Out to Die | 1938 | O'Brien |
| 右大臣実朝 | Sanetomo, Minister of the Right | 1943 | |
| 鬱屈禍 | The Hidden Curse | 1940 | |
| 海 | The Sea | 1941 | |
| 嘘 | Lie | 1941 | |
| やんぬる哉 | Unbearable | 1937 | |
| ヴィヨンの妻 | Villon's Wife | 1947 | McCarthy |
| 容貌 | Appearance | 1936 | |
| 横綱 | Grand Champion | 1940 | |
| 雪の夜の話 | Story of a Snowy Night | 1936 | Swann |
| わが愛好する言葉 | Words I Love | 1936 | |
| わが半生を語る | My Half-Life | 1937 | |
| 渡り鳥 | Migratory Birds | 1936 | |
| 私の著作集 | My Collected Works | 1944 | |
| 座興に非ず | Not Just for Fun | 1936 | |
| 俗天使 | The Common Angel | 1947 | |
| 善蔵を思う | Thinking of Zenzō | 1946 |