Osamu Dazai

Bo Mineri

Osamu Dazai

Osamu DazaiOsamu Dazai (太宰 治 Dazai Osamu, June 19, 1909 – June 13, 1948)

Continuously popular to the youth above the times

Born into a wealthy landowner family, he led a dissolute school life yielding to self-hatred.
While having a committed to the leftist movement, he published some works.
Under his dissipated life and repeated suicide attempts, his decadent style have been focused, but humorous stories are also well received until now.
The phrase "people of the setting sun [syayo-zoku]", which means the ruin of the wealthy family, used in his novel became a vogue word in the postwar period, and was added to the dictionary.
He committed a double suicide with his mistress and their bodies found on his 39th birthday.

Notable works:
  No Longer Human (1948)
  The Setting Sun (1947)

 Next author (Ango Sakaguchi)