DAZAI OSAMU

   Dazai Osamu, given name Tsushima Shuji, was born in northern Japan, the child of a wealthy landowner. An excellent boarding school student, he began neglecting his studies after his idol Akutagawa Ryunosuke committed suicide. Much of his career was marked by attempted suicides, addictions, extramarital affairs, divorce, and even an arrest for involvement with the Communist Party. He never graduated from university, but connections with Ibuse Masuji enabled him to get his works published. He first used his pen name Dazai Osamu in the short story Ressha (Train, 1933), an early experiment using first-person autobiographical style that became his trademark. He remained a productive writer during World War II and published his best-known work, Shayo (1947; tr. The Setting Sun, 1956), shortly after the end of the war. Dazai abandoned his children and second wife and finally succeeded in double suicide with a mistress in 1948, leaving his final work, Guddo bai (Goodbye), unfinished.

   See also DAZAI OSAMU PRIZE; MARXISM; ODA SAKUNOSUKE; POSTWAR LITERATURE; TSUSHIMA YUKO.