Osamu Dazai
Encyclopedia
was a Japanese author who is considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th-century Japan.
, a remote corner of Japan
at the northern tip of Tōhoku
in Aomori Prefecture
. His father was a member of the House of Peers
and was thus often away from home, and his mother was chronically ill after having given birth to 11 children, so he was brought up mostly by the servants.
Tsushima was sent to Aomori Prefectural Aomori High School
and Hirosaki for higher school
. An excellent student and an able writer even then, he edited student publications and contributed some of his own works. His life only started to change when his idol writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
committed suicide in 1927. Tsushima started to neglect his studies, spending his allowance on clothes, alcohol and prostitutes and dabbling with Marxism
, at the time heavily suppressed by the government. He frequently expressed guilt in his earliest writing about having been born into what he thought of as the incorrect social class. On 10 December 1929, the night before year-end exams that he had no hopes of passing, Tsushima attempted to commit suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills, but he survived and managed to graduate the following year.
Tsushima enrolled in the French Literature
Department of the Tokyo Imperial University and promptly stopped studying again. In October, he ran away with geisha
Hatsuyo Oyama and was formally expelled from his family. Nine days after the expulsion, Tsushima attempted suicide by drowning off a beach in Kamakura
with another woman (whom he barely knew), 19-year-old bar hostess Shimeko Tanabe . Shimeko died, but Tsushima lived, having been rescued by a fishing boat, leaving him with a strong sense of guilt. Shocked by the events, Tsushima's family intervened to drop a police investigation, his allowance was reinstated and in December Tsushima and Oyama were married.
This moderately happy state of affairs did not last long, as Tsushima was arrested for his involvement with the banned Communist Party of Japan and, upon learning this, his elder brother Bunji promptly cut off his allowance again. Tsushima went into hiding, but Bunji managed to get word to him that charges would be dropped and the allowance reinstated yet again if he solemnly promised to graduate and swear off any involvement with the party, and Tsushima took up the offer.
, whose connections enabled him to get his works published, and who helped establish his reputation.
The next few years were productive, Tsushima wrote at a feverish pace and used the pen name "Osamu Dazai" for the first time in a short story
called Ressha (列車 Train 1933): his first experiment with the first-person autobiographical style
that later became his trademark. But in 1935, it started to become clear that Dazai could not graduate, and he failed to obtain a job at a Tokyo newspaper as well. He finished The Final Years, intended to be his farewell to the world, and tried to hang himself on 19 March 1935 - failing yet again.
Worse was yet to come, as less than three weeks after his third suicide attempt Dazai developed acute appendicitis
and was hospitalized, during which time he become addicted
to Pabinal, 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 which time Dazai's wife Hatsuyo committed adultery with his best friend Zenshirō Kodate. This eventually came to light and Dazai attempted to commit double suicide with his wife. They both took sleeping pills, but neither one died, so he divorced her. He quickly remarried, this time to a middle school teacher named Michiko Ishihara (石原美知子 Ishihara Michiko). Their first daughter, Sonoko (園子), was born in June 1941.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Dazai wrote a number of subtle novels and short stories that are frequently autobiographical in nature. His first story, Gyofukuki (魚服記 1933), is a grim fantasy involving suicide. Other stories written during this period include Dōke no hana (The Flowers of Buffoonery, 1935), Gyakkō (逆行 Against the Current, 1935), Kyōgen no kami (狂言の神 The God of Farce, 1936), and those published in his 1936 collection Bannen (Declining Years), which describe his sense of personal isolation and his debauchery.
in December, but Dazai was excused from the draft because of his chronic chest problems (he was diagnosed with tuberculosis
). The censors became more reluctant to accept Dazai's offbeat work, but he managed to publish quite a bit anyway, remaining one of the very few authors who managed to turn out interesting material in those years. A number of the stories, which Dazai published during World War II
were retellings of stories by Ihara Saikaku
(1642–1693). Wartime works included Udaijin Sanetomo (Minister of the Right Sanetomo, 1943), Tsugaru (1944), Pandora no hako (Pandora's Box, 1945–46), and the delightful Otogizōshi (Fairy Tales, 1945) in which he retold a number of old Japanese fairy tales with vividness and wit.
His house was burned down twice in the American air raids against Tokyo
, but Dazai's family escaped unscathed, with a son, Masaki (正樹), born in 1944. His third child, daughter Satoko (里子), later became a famous writer under the pseudonym Yūko Tsushima (津島佑子), was born in May 1947.
He depicted a dissolute life in postwar Tokyo in Viyon no Tsuma (Villon's Wife, 1947). The narrator is the wife of a poet, who has abandoned her. She takes a job for a tavern keeper from whom her husband has stolen money. Her determination to survive is tested by hardships, rape and her husband's self-delusion, but her will is not broken.
In July 1947 Dazai's best-known work, Shayo (The Setting Sun
, translated 1956) depicting the decline of the Japanese nobility after World War II
was published, propelling the already popular writer into a celebrity. This work was based on the diary of Shizuko Ōta (太田静子). Ōta was one of the fans of Dazai's works and first met him in about 1941. She bore him a daughter Haruko (治子) in 1947.
Always a heavy drinker, he became an alcoholic
; he had already fathered a child out of wedlock with a fan, and his health was also rapidly deteriorating. At this time Dazai met Tomie Yamazaki (山崎富栄), a beautician and war widow who had lost her husband after 10 days of married life. Dazai effectively abandoned his wife and children and moved in with Tomie, writing his quasi-autobiography Ningen Shikkaku (人間失格, No Longer Human
, 1948, translated. 1958) at the hot-spring resort Atami
.
Ningen Shikkaku deals with a character hurtling headlong towards self-destruction, all the while despairing of the seeming impossibility of changing the course of his life. The novel is told in a brutally honest manner, devoid of all sentimentality. The book is one of the classics of Japanese literature
and has been translated into several foreign languages.
In the spring of 1948, he was working on a novelette scheduled to be serialized in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, titled Guddo bai (Goodbye). On 13 June 1948, Dazai and Tomie finally succeeded in killing themselves, drowning in the rain-swollen Tamagawa Canal near his house. Their bodies were not discovered until June 19, which by eerie coincidence was his 39th birthday. His grave is at the temple of Zenrin-ji, in Mitaka, Tokyo
.
There has been a persistent rumor that his final, successful suicide attempt was not a suicide at all, but that he was murdered by Tomie Yamazaki, who then killed herself after dumping his body in the canal. While providing a plot for various subsequent fictional novels and a Japanese TV drama, there has been no proof that there is any veracity in this rumor.
.
Dazai's works are also characterized by a profound pessimism, not surprising from an author who made several unsuccessful suicide attempts before finally succeeding. In his novels the protagonist similarly consider suicide
as the only viable alternative to a hell
ish existence, yet (often) fail to kill themselves due to an equally savage apathy towards their own existence i.e. the question of whether to live or not becomes trivial. In his works, he shifts from pathos to comedy, from melodrama
to humor, adjusting his vocabulary accordingly.
His opposition to the prevailing social and literary trends was shared by fellow members of the Buraiha
school, including Ango Sakaguchi
and Sakunosuke Oda.
.
Biography
Early life
Dazai was born , the eighth surviving child of a wealthy landowner in KanagiKanagi, Aomori
was a town located in Kitatsugaru District in western Aomori Prefecture, Japan.Kanagi was located in central Tsugaru Peninsula, in an area known for severe winter weather conditions and blizzards. The town was also known as the birthplace of famed author Osamu Dazai. The area was part of Hirosaki...
, a remote corner of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
at the northern tip of Tōhoku
Tohoku region
The is a geographical area of Japan. The region occupies the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region consists of six prefectures : Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi and Yamagata....
in Aomori Prefecture
Aomori Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku Region. The capital is the city of Aomori.- History :Until the Meiji Restoration, the area of Aomori prefecture was known as Mutsu Province....
. His father was a member of the House of Peers
House of Peers (Japan)
The ' was the upper house of the Imperial Diet as mandated under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan ....
and was thus often away from home, and his mother was chronically ill after having given birth to 11 children, so he was brought up mostly by the servants.
Tsushima was sent to Aomori Prefectural Aomori High School
Aomori Prefectural Aomori High School
The is a high school in the city of Aomori, Aomori Prefecture, Japan.Originally a Junior High School named the , the school was established on September 11, 1900....
and Hirosaki for higher school
Hirosaki University
is a University in Hirosaki city in Aomori, Japan.- Faculties :* Faculty of Humanities* Faculty of Education* School of Medicine* Faculty of Science and Technology* Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science-History:...
. An excellent student and an able writer even then, he edited student publications and contributed some of his own works. His life only started to change when his idol writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Ryunosuke Akutagawa
was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period in Japan. He is regarded as the "Father of the Japanese short story". He committed suicide at age of 35 through an overdose of barbital.-Early life:...
committed suicide in 1927. Tsushima started to neglect his studies, spending his allowance on clothes, alcohol and prostitutes and dabbling with Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
, at the time heavily suppressed by the government. He frequently expressed guilt in his earliest writing about having been born into what he thought of as the incorrect social class. On 10 December 1929, the night before year-end exams that he had no hopes of passing, Tsushima attempted to commit suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills, but he survived and managed to graduate the following year.
Tsushima enrolled in the French Literature
French literature
French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...
Department of the Tokyo Imperial University and promptly stopped studying again. In October, he ran away with geisha
Geisha
, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...
Hatsuyo Oyama and was formally expelled from his family. Nine days after the expulsion, Tsushima attempted suicide by drowning off a beach in Kamakura
Kamakura, Kanagawa
is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called .Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the...
with another woman (whom he barely knew), 19-year-old bar hostess Shimeko Tanabe . Shimeko died, but Tsushima lived, having been rescued by a fishing boat, leaving him with a strong sense of guilt. Shocked by the events, Tsushima's family intervened to drop a police investigation, his allowance was reinstated and in December Tsushima and Oyama were married.
This moderately happy state of affairs did not last long, as Tsushima was arrested for his involvement with the banned Communist Party of Japan and, upon learning this, his elder brother Bunji promptly cut off his allowance again. Tsushima went into hiding, but Bunji managed to get word to him that charges would be dropped and the allowance reinstated yet again if he solemnly promised to graduate and swear off any involvement with the party, and Tsushima took up the offer.
Early literary career
In what was probably a surprise to all parties concerned, Tsushima kept his promise and managed to settle down a bit. He managed to obtain the assistance of established writer Masuji IbuseMasuji Ibuse
was a Japanese author.-Life and work:Ibuse was born in 1898 to a landowning family in the village of Kamo which is now part of Fukuyama, Hiroshima.At the age of 19 he started studying at Waseda University in Tokyo...
, whose connections enabled him to get his works published, and who helped establish his reputation.
The next few years were productive, Tsushima wrote at a feverish pace and used the pen name "Osamu Dazai" for the first time in a short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
called Ressha (列車 Train 1933): his first experiment with the first-person autobiographical style
I Novel
is a literary genre in Japanese literature used to describe a type of confessional literature where the events in the story correspond to events in the author's life. This genre was founded based on the Japanese reception of Naturalism during the Meiji period. Many authors believed form reflected...
that later became his trademark. But in 1935, it started to become clear that Dazai could not graduate, and he failed to obtain a job at a Tokyo newspaper as well. He finished The Final Years, intended to be his farewell to the world, and tried to hang himself on 19 March 1935 - failing yet again.
Worse was yet to come, as less than three weeks after his third suicide attempt Dazai developed acute appendicitis
Appendicitis
Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...
and was hospitalized, during which time he become addicted
Addiction
Historically, addiction has been defined as physical and psychological dependence on psychoactive substances which cross the blood-brain barrier once ingested, temporarily altering the chemical milieu of the brain.Addiction can also be viewed as a continued involvement with a substance or activity...
to Pabinal, a morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
-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
Cold turkey
"Cold turkey" describes the actions of a person who abruptly gives up a habit or addiction rather than gradually easing the process through gradual reduction or by using replacement medication....
. The "treatment" lasted over a month, during which time Dazai's wife Hatsuyo committed adultery with his best friend Zenshirō Kodate. This eventually came to light and Dazai attempted to commit double suicide with his wife. They both took sleeping pills, but neither one died, so he divorced her. He quickly remarried, this time to a middle school teacher named Michiko Ishihara (石原美知子 Ishihara Michiko). Their first daughter, Sonoko (園子), was born in June 1941.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Dazai wrote a number of subtle novels and short stories that are frequently autobiographical in nature. His first story, Gyofukuki (魚服記 1933), is a grim fantasy involving suicide. Other stories written during this period include Dōke no hana (The Flowers of Buffoonery, 1935), Gyakkō (逆行 Against the Current, 1935), Kyōgen no kami (狂言の神 The God of Farce, 1936), and those published in his 1936 collection Bannen (Declining Years), which describe his sense of personal isolation and his debauchery.
Wartime years
Japan entered the Pacific WarPacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
in December, but Dazai was excused from the draft because of his chronic chest problems (he was diagnosed with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
). The censors became more reluctant to accept Dazai's offbeat work, but he managed to publish quite a bit anyway, remaining one of the very few authors who managed to turn out interesting material in those years. A number of the stories, which Dazai published during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
were retellings of stories by Ihara Saikaku
Ihara Saikaku
was a Japanese poet and creator of the "floating world" genre of Japanese prose .-Biography:Born the son of the wealthy merchant Hirayama Tōgo in Osaka, he first studied haikai poetry under Matsunaga Teitoku, and later studied under Nishiyama Sōin of the Danrin School of poetry, which emphasized...
(1642–1693). Wartime works included Udaijin Sanetomo (Minister of the Right Sanetomo, 1943), Tsugaru (1944), Pandora no hako (Pandora's Box, 1945–46), and the delightful Otogizōshi (Fairy Tales, 1945) in which he retold a number of old Japanese fairy tales with vividness and wit.
His house was burned down twice in the American air raids against Tokyo
Bombing of Tokyo in World War II
The bombing of Tokyo, often referred to as a "firebombing", was conducted by the United States Army Air Forces during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. The U.S. mounted a small-scale raid on Tokyo in April 1942, with large morale effects...
, but Dazai's family escaped unscathed, with a son, Masaki (正樹), born in 1944. His third child, daughter Satoko (里子), later became a famous writer under the pseudonym Yūko Tsushima (津島佑子), was born in May 1947.
Postwar career
In the immediate post-war period, Dazai reached the height of his popularity.He depicted a dissolute life in postwar Tokyo in Viyon no Tsuma (Villon's Wife, 1947). The narrator is the wife of a poet, who has abandoned her. She takes a job for a tavern keeper from whom her husband has stolen money. Her determination to survive is tested by hardships, rape and her husband's self-delusion, but her will is not broken.
In July 1947 Dazai's best-known work, Shayo (The Setting Sun
The Setting Sun
is a Japanese novel by Osamu Dazai. It was published in 1947 and is set in Japan after World War II. Principal characters are the siblings Kazuko and Naoji, and their elderly mother. The story shows a family in decline and crisis, like many other families during this period of transition between...
, translated 1956) depicting the decline of the Japanese nobility after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was published, propelling the already popular writer into a celebrity. This work was based on the diary of Shizuko Ōta (太田静子). Ōta was one of the fans of Dazai's works and first met him in about 1941. She bore him a daughter Haruko (治子) in 1947.
Always a heavy drinker, he became an alcoholic
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
; he had already fathered a child out of wedlock with a fan, and his health was also rapidly deteriorating. At this time Dazai met Tomie Yamazaki (山崎富栄), a beautician and war widow who had lost her husband after 10 days of married life. Dazai effectively abandoned his wife and children and moved in with Tomie, writing his quasi-autobiography Ningen Shikkaku (人間失格, No Longer Human
No Longer Human
is a Japanese novel by Osamu Dazai. Published after Run Melos and The Setting Sun, No Longer Human is considered Dazai's masterpiece and ranks as the second-best selling novel in Japan, behind Kokoro....
, 1948, translated. 1958) at the hot-spring resort Atami
Atami, Shizuoka
is a city located in the eastern end of Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of February 2010, the city has an estimated population of 39,755 and a population density of 645 people per km². The total area is 61.56 km².-Geography:...
.
Ningen Shikkaku deals with a character hurtling headlong towards self-destruction, all the while despairing of the seeming impossibility of changing the course of his life. The novel is told in a brutally honest manner, devoid of all sentimentality. The book is one of the classics of Japanese literature
Japanese literature
Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan...
and has been translated into several foreign languages.
In the spring of 1948, he was working on a novelette scheduled to be serialized in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, titled Guddo bai (Goodbye). On 13 June 1948, Dazai and Tomie finally succeeded in killing themselves, drowning in the rain-swollen Tamagawa Canal near his house. Their bodies were not discovered until June 19, which by eerie coincidence was his 39th birthday. His grave is at the temple of Zenrin-ji, in Mitaka, Tokyo
Mitaka, Tokyo
is a city located in Tokyo, Japan. As of 1 November 2010, the city has an estimated population of 176,737. The total area is 16.50 km² and is about 50 – 55 meters above sea level...
.
There has been a persistent rumor that his final, successful suicide attempt was not a suicide at all, but that he was murdered by Tomie Yamazaki, who then killed herself after dumping his body in the canal. While providing a plot for various subsequent fictional novels and a Japanese TV drama, there has been no proof that there is any veracity in this rumor.
Writing style
The single most distinguishing feature of Dazai's works is their “first person” viewpoint, a style known in Japanese as "". All of his stories are autobiographical in some manner. His modes of expression could take the form of a diary, essay, letter, journalistic type reporting, or soliloquySoliloquy
A soliloquy is a device often used in drama whereby a character relates his or her thoughts and feelings to him/herself and to the audience without addressing any of the other characters, and is delivered often when they are alone or think they are alone. Soliloquy is distinct from monologue and...
.
Dazai's works are also characterized by a profound pessimism, not surprising from an author who made several unsuccessful suicide attempts before finally succeeding. In his novels the protagonist similarly consider suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
as the only viable alternative to a hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
ish existence, yet (often) fail to kill themselves due to an equally savage apathy towards their own existence i.e. the question of whether to live or not becomes trivial. In his works, he shifts from pathos to comedy, from melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
to humor, adjusting his vocabulary accordingly.
His opposition to the prevailing social and literary trends was shared by fellow members of the Buraiha
Buraiha
The were a group of dissolute writers who expressed the aimlessness and identity crisis of post-World War II Japan. While not comprising a true literary school, the Buraiha writers were linked together by a similar approach to subject matter and literary style. The main characters in works of the...
school, including Ango Sakaguchi
Ango Sakaguchi
was a Japanese novelist and essayist. His real name was Heigo Sakaguchi .-History:From Niigata, Sakaguchi was one of a group of young Japanese writers to rise to prominence in the years immediately following Japan's defeat in World War II...
and Sakunosuke Oda.
Major works
Major works by Dazai include:| Year | Japanese Title | English Title | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1933 1933 in literature The year 1933 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* February 17 - The magazine Newsweek is published for the first time.* James Joyce's Ulysses is allowed into United States.-New books:... |
思い出 Omoide | Memories | in 'Bannen' |
| 1935 1935 in literature The year 1935 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* June 15 - W. H. Auden enters a marriage of convenience with Erika Mann.* July 30 - Allen Lane founds Penguin Books to publish the first mass market paperbacks in Britain.... |
道化の華 Dōke no Hana | Flowers of Buffoonery | in 'Bannen' |
| 1936 1936 in literature The year 1936 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Life magazine is first published.* The Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's literature is established in the UK.-New books:... |
晩年 Bannen | The Late Years | Collected short stories |
| 1937 1937 in literature The year 1937 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 9 - The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States.*Thomas Quinn Curtiss meets Klaus Mann.-New books:*Eric Ambler - Uncommon Danger... |
二十世紀旗手 Nijusseiki Kishu | A standard-bearer of the twentieth century | |
| 1939 1939 in literature The year 1939 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*December 25 - A Christmas Carol is read before a radio audience for the first time.... |
富嶽百景 Fugaku Hyakkei | One hundred views of Mount Fuji | |
| 女生徒 Joseito | Schoolgirl | ||
| 1940 1940 in literature The year 1940 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Aldous Huxley is a screenwriter for the movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.*Jean-Paul Sartre is taken prisoner by the Germans.... |
女の決闘 Onna no Kettō | Women's Duel | |
| 駈込み訴え Kakekomi Uttae | An urgent appeal | ||
| 走れメロス Hashire Merosu | Run, Melos! Run, Melos! is a Japanese short story by Osamu Dazai. Published in 1940, "Run, Melos!" is a widely read classic in Japanese schools.The story is a reworking of Friedrich Schiller's ballad Die Bürgschaft, which tells the story of Moerus and Selinuntius , originally Damon and Pythias... |
||
| 1941 1941 in literature The year 1941 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Frank Herbert marries Flora Parkinson.*F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished work, The Last Tycoon, is edited and published by Edmund Wilson.-New books:... |
新ハムレット Shin-Hamuretto | New Hamlet | |
| 1942 1942 in literature The year 1942 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*André Gide leaves France to live in Tunis.*Robertson Davies becomes editor of the Peterborough Examiner.*Thomas Mann emigrates to California.... |
正義と微笑 Seigi to Bisho | Right and Smile | |
| 1943 1943 in literature The year 1943 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*George Orwell resigns from the BBC to become literary editor of Tribune.*Isaac Bashevis Singer becomes a naturalized citizen of the United States.... |
右大臣実朝 Udaijin Sanetomo | Minister of the Right Sanetomo | |
| 1944 1944 in literature The year 1944 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*Samuel Hopkins Adams – Canal Town*Jorge Amado – Terras do Sem Fim *Saul Bellow – Dangling Man*Jorge Luis Borges – Fictions... |
津軽 Tsugaru | Tsugaru | |
| 1945 1945 in literature The year 1945 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 1 - The magazine Ebony is published for the first time.*Noel Coward's short play, Still Life, is adapted to become the film, Brief Encounter.... |
パンドラの匣 Pandora no Hako | Pandora's Box | |
| 新釈諸国噺 Shinshaku Shokoku Banashi | A new version of countries' tales | ||
| 惜別 Sekibetsu | A farewell with regret | ||
| お伽草紙 Otogizōshi | Fairy Tales | ||
| 1946 1946 in literature The year 1946 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 7 - Walker Percy marries Mary Bernice Townsend.*Launch in the United Kingdom of Penguin Classics under the editorship of E. V... |
冬の花火 Fuyu no Hanabi | Winter's firework | Play |
| 1947 1947 in literature The year 1947 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Diary of Anne Frank is published for the first time.*Jack Kerouac makes the journey which he will later chronicle in his book On the Road.... |
ヴィヨンの妻 Viyon No Tsuma | Villon's Wife | |
| 斜陽 Shayō | The Setting Sun The Setting Sun is a Japanese novel by Osamu Dazai. It was published in 1947 and is set in Japan after World War II. Principal characters are the siblings Kazuko and Naoji, and their elderly mother. The story shows a family in decline and crisis, like many other families during this period of transition between... |
||
| 1948 1948 in literature The year 1948 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The Pulitzer Prize for the Novel is renamed the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.... |
如是我聞 Nyozegamon | I heard it in this way | Essay |
| 桜桃 Ōtō | A Cherry | ||
| 人間失格 Ningen Shikkaku | No Longer Human No Longer Human is a Japanese novel by Osamu Dazai. Published after Run Melos and The Setting Sun, No Longer Human is considered Dazai's masterpiece and ranks as the second-best selling novel in Japan, behind Kokoro.... |
||
| グッド・バイ Guddo-bai | Good-Bye | Unfinished | |
Legacy in Japanese pop culture
A haiku of his is featured at the end of the last episode of Space Pirate Captain HarlockSpace Pirate Captain Harlock
is a manga series written and illustrated by Leiji Matsumoto, serialized Akita Shoten's Play Comic from 1977 to 1979. The series was adapted into an animated television series in 1978 directed by Rintaro and produced by Toei Animation....
.
Selected bibliography of English translations
- The Setting Sun (斜陽 Shayō), translated by Donald KeeneDonald KeeneDonald Lawrence Keene is a Japanologist, scholar, teacher, writer, translator and interpreter of Japanese literature and culture. Keene was University Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he taught for over fifty years...
. Norfolk, Connecticut, James LaughlinJames LaughlinJames Laughlin was an American poet and literary book publisher who founded New Directions Publishers.- Biography :He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Henry Hughart and Marjory Rea Laughlin...
, 1956. (Japanese publication: 1947)., translated by Donald KeeneDonald KeeneDonald Lawrence Keene is a Japanologist, scholar, teacher, writer, translator and interpreter of Japanese literature and culture. Keene was University Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he taught for over fifty years...
. Norfolk, Connecticut, New Directions PublishersNew Directions PublishersNew Directions Publishing Corp. is an independent book publishing company that was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin. The company was incorporated in 1964 as the New Directions Publishing Corporation and operates from New York City, and its books today are distributed by WW Norton & Company. Its...
, 1958. - Dazai Osamu, Selected Stories and Sketches, translated by James O’Brien. Ithaca, New York, China-Japan Program, Cornell UniversityCornell UniversityCornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, 1983? - Return to Tsugaru: Travels of a Purple Tramp (津軽), translated by James Westerhoven. New York, KodanshaKodansha, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
International Ltd., 1985. - Run, Melos! and Other Stories. Trans. Ralph F. McCarthy. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1988. Tokyo: Kodansha English Library, 1988.
- Crackling Mountain and other stories, translated by James O’Brien. Rutland, Vermont, Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1989.
- Blue Bamboo: Tales of Fantasy and Romance, translated by Ralph F. McCarthy. Tokyo and New York, KodanshaKodansha, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
International, 1993. - Schoolgirl (女生徒 Joseito), translated by Allison Markin Powell. New York: One Peace Books, 2011.
External links
- e-texts of Osamu's works at Aozora bunkoAozora BunkoAozora Bunko is a Japanese digital library. This online collection encompasses several thousands of works of Japanese-language fiction and non-fiction. These include out-of-copyright books or works that the authors wish to make freely available....
- Osamu's Short Story Waiting
- Osamu Dazai's grave