Dazai, Osamu (ōsä`m

dä`zī), pseudonym of Shuji Tsushima (sh

`jē ts

`shĭmä), 1909–48, Japanese novelist. Considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th-century Japan, Dazai was noted for his ironic and gloomy wit, his obsession with suicide, and his brilliant fantasy. In the 1930s and 40s he wrote a number of subtle novels and short stories that are frequently autobiographical in nature. His first novel, Gyofukuki (1933), is a grim fantasy involving suicide. His stories, published as Bannen [declining years] (1936) describe his sense of personal isolation and his debauchery. In Otogi Zoshi (1945) he retold a number of old Japanese fairy tales with vividness and a trenchant wit. The decline of the Japanese nobility after World War II was his theme in The Setting Sun (1947, tr. 1956). He depicted a dissolute life in postwar Tokyo in Bion no Tsuma (1947). His No Longer Human (1948, tr. 1958) was a rephrasing of much autobiographical matter. Dazai committed suicide while working on a novel entitled Good-bye.

Dazai, Osamu

orig. Shuji Tsushima

(born June 19, 1909, Kanagi, Aomori prefecture, Japan—died June 13, 1948, Tokyo) Japanese novelist. At the end of World War II he emerged as the literary voice of his time, capturing the period of postwar confusion when traditional values were discredited. The son of a wealthy landowner and politician, he often used his background as material in his fiction. Tsugaru (1944) is perhaps his best novel. His postwar works—The Setting Sun (1947), Villon's Wife (1947), and No Longer Human (1948)—were increasingly despairing in tone, reflecting the crisis that led to his suicide at age 38.