Dazai, whose style has a structure that penetrates deep into the human soul, actually experienced the dark aspects he shows in his works a lot in his own life, and perhaps he tried to get himself out of this hopeless situation by writing.
Our author, whose life was full of suicide attempts, unfortunately succeeded in this attempt and committed suicide by jumping into the Tamagawa canal, which was overflowing due to rain, with his mistress on a summer day on July 3, 1948. Let us tell you about the life of this writer who is obsessed with suicide.
Our author, whose real name is Shūji Tsushima, was actually born into a rich and privileged life.
Dazai, who had an aristocratic family, grew up in a mansion full of servants on June 19, 1909, in a family with very good standards considering their background. He had a very large family, he had 11 siblings, but unfortunately he had a lonely childhood in all the crowd. He spent most of his time with the servants at home, and they took care of Dazai. His father was busy with political matters and his mother was constantly ill. For him, it was an inevitable fact that he had no parental bond.
Dazai, who has been interested in writing since adolescence, has already taken his first steps towards becoming a bright future writer.
Dazai, who had unbearable pressure due to his aristocratic family, started writing since adolescence, ignoring all these pressures. It is obvious that he had great potential during his adolescence, and he used this potential to join literary magazines and write his own poems. The poems he published were very successful.
Carrying all the difficulties of having a distinguished family on his shoulders, he endured his family’s pressure to study Political Science for a long time, but he did not bow to these pressures and moved towards doing the job he loved and got into the French Language and Literature department. His family must have been so resentful of this situation that they disowned Dazai on the grounds that he was a member of the Communist Party during his university years. Thus, he took his first step into his writing adventure, half-bitterly.
Despite all the pressure, he never stopped laughing and making people laugh.
He himself expressed this situation as follows: “I must make people laugh by any means necessary; If I do that, they won’t care even if I stay out of the ‘life’ they call it; In any case, I must not be in the eyes of those people; Thoughts like “I am nothing, I am the wind, I am the air” would accumulate inside me. “I always made my family laugh with my antics, and I even served as a joke to our maids, who were more incomprehensible and scary than my family.”
When we saw that even in his childhood he was the only one smiling in the photographs, we couldn’t help but wonder how a person who loved to laugh and make others laugh fell into such darkness. Trying to gloss over his family’s pressure and harsh reactions to avoid damaging his political image is a brief summary of the mental crisis he is experiencing.
It all started when his favorite writer, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, committed suicide…
Osamu, who had a very good start to his university life, was dragged into an endless depression of grief when one day his favorite writer took his own life. Suicidal thoughts were constantly running through his mind, and he couldn’t get out of these endless depressive thoughts. In fact, our author, who was normally very successful in his classes, caused his grades to drop in a short time after this incident.
Of course, when a person goes through a difficult period in his life, he can hold on to incredible addictions… Unfortunately, Osamu also devoted himself to alcohol and women. As a result of this depression, Dazai attempted suicide for the first time by taking sleeping pills, but failed in this attempt. Since the pills he took were insufficient doses, he managed to hold on to life, albeit for a short time.
He graduated from college, wanted to get married, and was disowned once again.
Dazai, who barely managed to graduate from his department in 1930, later continued his education by studying French Literature. During this period, mental health problems began to arise again, causing him to make bad decisions and he had to quit his education.
His first bad decision was to marry Oyama Hatsuyo, a Japanese geisha (a woman who serves male clients in Japanese culture). His family was strongly against this situation, and the elders of the family disowned Dazai again, thinking that this marriage would tarnish the image of his family as a child of an aristocratic family. Facing the painful reality of being disowned once again, he turned to alcohol again. As a matter of fact, he moved on with his life, leaving his relationship with Hatsuyo behind.
After being repeatedly rejected from his family, Dazai could not get out of this depression and attempted suicide once again. They attempted double suicide by convincing 19-year-old Shimeko Tanabe, whom he met at the bar at the time, to commit suicide with him. While the woman tragically drowned, Dazai managed to hold on to life again with the help of a fishing boat.
This time, he attempted double suicide with his wife, Hatsuyo.
Dazai, who was interrogated by the police after Shimeko’s death, later managed to escape this situation thanks to the influence of his family. His family once again accepted him into the family and tried to provide financial support to Dazai and help him after these events. After overcoming the events, he married Hatsuyo.
Dazai, who spent his life with alcohol addiction, had an inflamed abdominal membrane and was hospitalized with the support of his friends. He was devastated when he learned that his wife, Hatsuyo, was cheating on him with a friend while he was in the hospital. This time, he and his wife, Hatsuyo, attempted double suicide and failed. After this attempt, they separated their lives from each other.
While his suicide attempts continued, he became a famous writer in the country, thanks to his mentor.
Taking a break from the turbulent life he had lived in the past years, Dazai received mentorship from Masuji Ibuse, a respected writer, and made himself well-known by improving his writings with his support. His literary works began to be published and he became more known in the literary world. In this way, his status as a writer was further strengthened.
During this time, he chose a pseudonym for himself to publish his work called ‘Ressha’ in 1933 and continued to write as ‘Osamu Dazai’, as he is known today in the literary community.
Let’s talk about his last suicide attempts… He attempted 2 more times.
Realizing that he would not be able to graduate from Tokyo University, Dazai made another attempt to commit suicide by hanging himself, but he was unsuccessful in this attempt. Even in such a dark mood, he wrote and published his world-famous works, even though he was struggling with tuberculosis.
Later, she met Tomie Yamazaki, who works at a beauty salon, and moved to her house. Dazai attempted suicide for the last time by jumping into the Tamagawa canal, dragging Yamazaki into a double suicide attempt, just like the two women in his life before, and unfortunately he was successful. Finally, Dazai had achieved the death wish he had been trying for years. The note he left behind was rather sad: “Forgive me for being born!”
He inspired the anime Bungo Stray Dogs.
In the famous manga and anime series Bungo Stray Dogs, the character named Osamu Dazai is inspired by the famous author and some references are shown. It is clear in this picture that a reference is made to Osamu Dazai’s family photo.
Our character sitting on the mange panel, just like Osamu Dazai, made a good reference to this famous photo. Also, the name of the anime character Dazai’s talent is ‘No Longer Human’, that is, ‘Ningen Shikkaku’. This seems to be a striking reference to the famous author’s work No Longer Human, known as one of his most successful works.
Additionally, the name of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Dazai’s favorite author, is also mentioned in the anime.
We express our regret for our author, who spent most of his life with mental turmoil and depression, and we strongly recommend his books to you. If you want to buy his work called ‘Losing My Humanity’, you can find it here.
We are wondering if you have read our author’s book before, and we will be waiting in the comments for what you think about his life being so turbulent and depressive!
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