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Osamu Dazai
Born on June 19th, 1909 as Shuji Tsushima, Dazai is considered to be one of the greats of early Japanese modern fiction, ranking just behind Ryunosuke Akutagawa, who, incidentally, was Dazai's role model. Background Dazai was born to a prominent wealthy family, who traded in rice and lent money. Dazai's father, who married into the dynasty and became the adopted son of Dazai's grandfather, was a member of parliament for some years. The Tsushima mansion was the most opulent in a small town in the remote northern rural prefecture of Aomori, and the house included a large foyer where rice farmers would come to deal. Notably, the mansion was surrounded by high walls and fences, and located right across the police station, to protect the family from rioting by tenanted peasant farmers. This is interesting because later on Dazai became involved with the leftist political movement, leading to estrangement from his family and trouble with the authorities. Writing Dazai showed literary promise as a schoolboy, and even wrote well in English. In high school, he started publishing and editing his own gazette. Though he was also a gifted painter, he clearly was born to be a writer. What's interesting is that Dazai's work is all written in the first person, and with his best work the narrator is inevitably a young woman confessing her story. The most famous of his work is "Kirigirisu", a short story about a young woman who falls out of love with her husband after becoming disillusioned with his materialistic values and lack of principles. Personal Life Since he wrote best in a woman's voice, you'd think Dazai was gay. Far from it. When still young he frequented girlie bars and, having fallen in love with a bar girl called Atsumi Tanabe, planned mutual suicide with her, which apparently was a romantic thing to do in those days. The thing is, Atsumi died and Dazai survived, and although he was ill for a while, the incident otherwise doesn't seem to have affected him much. Later, just as his writing career was coming together, he tried it again, this time with a war widow. They plunged themselves into the waters of the Tamagawa River, and this time Dazai managed to do himself in as well. Evaluation I haven't read all of his work, and I am not a scholar of Dazai. But the extraordinarily delicate quality of his work - like gossamer or fine lace - is in marked contrast to the way he lived his life, which would cause anyone to label him a first-class scoundrel. Thus his biography makes more interesting reading than some of his work, which could be mediocre. |
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This intel was contributed by nick
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May, 2012
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