Talk:Osamu Dazai

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 10 January 2022 and 30 April 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Dsra229 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Dslaym (talk) 13:57, 10 January 2023 (UTC)

Naming

This article should be retitled. His hame is Osamu Dazai, not Dazai Osamu.

In Japanese his name is DAZAI Osamu. Dazai is his family name. In Japanese, the family name always comes first. Since this is an article concerning a person in Japanese literature I think the more academic style, the name order as it originally appears in the Japanese, should be used. Most of the other Japanese literary articles follow this convention. Outside the circles of those who read Japanese literature, he is not a well known person.

If someone searches for "Osamu Dazai", there is a redirect page that will bring people to this article. This is my interpretation of the Wikipedia:Manual of Style for Japan-related articles. --Mp623

Despite that, his name is re-ordered in English versions of his works. It is a common practice to switch the naming order. There is no doubt that he is referred to in the Japanese language as "Dazai Osamu". WhisperToMe 00:17, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Yes, "I enjoy the works of Twain Mark, especially Sawyer Tom. Recently, I saw the famous actor Hanks Tom play Gump Forrest on TV." While Wikipedia:Manual of Style for Japan-related articles has been agreed to after much discussion, the use of western name ordering is not only jarring to people with more than a passing familarity with Japanese, but is positively ridiculous to any native speaker.--MChew 07:34, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Your bibliographical facts seem to be out-of-date

As a Japanese, I am glad to see a good article about one of the best authors in Japan. But I want you to know that few of the bibliographical facts you stated seem to be out-of-date. I don't blame this, because I don't think there is any up-to-date reference book about him published in English language.

1. He almost had no connection to Marxism and its followers. He did lend his apartment as a secret conference room, but he did it because he was asked by a friend, and he himself did not attend this conference. 2. Now many scholars agree that most of his attemted suicides were make-believes. He was perfectly aware that he wouldn't die from the actions he was about to take, but he did it anyway to get attention and possibly some financial aid from his home. 3. Related to the previous point, there is a high possibility that he did not commit double-suicide with Tomie, but was killed by her and then was tied around to her body, who then jumped in the river afterwards. Some say decent amount of cyanide was found from his body at the autopsy. Dazai in 1948 was at the apex of his life, and it is hard to imagine him wanting to be dead.

Just wanted to inform you. Thanks.

Please sign your comments! In reference to the above--while it is certain that he was not a serious Marxist, or and certainly not an official card-carrying member of the Japan Communist Party, it is undeniable that he had a strong attraction to communism as a political philosophy as a youth, attended meetings, and spoke out in favor of "class struggle" -- perhaps as another form of adolescent protest against his family. He was one of many authors forced to recant their leftist ideology under the Tenko strategy promulgated by the government. With regards to point 3, conspiracy theories abound, but remain theories. His deteriorating physical and clearly unstable mental health make suicide a very likely possibility.--MChew 07:34, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Brutally honest

Re: this edit, having read Ningen shikkaku, I can attest that the words "brutally honest" are an accurate description of it, whereas "honest" and "confessionally honest" are misleading -- this is not the kind of thing you whisper in a confessional. It's brutal in the sense that naturalist works are, with drug addiction and vomiting blood etc; however, that particular label is rarely applied to Dazai, whose novels revolve tightly around their narrator. And it's honest in the sense that it's largely autobiographical, plus it's all first person. Why you do find these words "ad copy"?

But, this being Wikipedia, I suppose I'm not a reliable source, so I'm open to sourcing a better description. Here's a few from Google Scholar: Jpatokal (talk) 11:53, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

• "...no other work of his presents such a frank confession". [1], p. 238
• "yellowed nihilism", ibid., p. 239
• "a universal cry of loneliness and defeat", [2], p. 1 (this source, incidentally, also has a neat little capsule bio that should be mined for other references)

Compared to lot of editors of limited value and narrow specialisation, I appreciate that an Osamu Dazai fanatic actually has some qualification to be human. Unfortunately, I think a continuing flaw of WP is that subject matter and presentation of subject matter tend to intermingle in an unhealthy fashion. Hence, the writer about Tom Clancy adds military detail to a literary entry; the writer about Osamu Dazai, inevitably, finds it a 'tragically flawed character,' a 'passionately detailed work,' a 'brutally honest cri de coeur.' I guess I won't challenge your text since it is your most favourite article, but here one J-lit specialist who finds O.D. to be of varying quality/popularity through the various fashions of the years. -WikiSkeptic (talk) 23:27, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

I find all three of those phrases to be accurate and, yes, encyclopedic descriptions of Dazai and his works, and the references above would appear to agree. As said, I'm happy to replace any uncited phrase in the article with any source that gets the same message across, or remove them if none can be found.

And FWIW, I'm not exactly a "fanatic" of Dazai (only read Tsugaru and Ningen Shikkaku, both years ago) , but he definitely has his own literary style and I think it's important that Wikipedia accurately conveys it. Jpatokal (talk) 00:50, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Adding

Hello, I am a student who will be adding new information about Dazai from these sources:

Dazai Osamu James A. O’Brien ISBN0805726640

The saga of Dazai Osamu : a critical study with translations Lyons, Phyllis I. ISBN0804711976

and I also plan to translate and verify and add some information on the Japanese Wikipedia for Osamu Dazai using the sources:

ピカレスク 太宰治伝 by 猪瀬 直樹
太宰治生涯と文学 by 野原一夫

If you have any suggestions or tips please let me know!

MishaGriego (talk) 03:50, 24 February 2018 (UTC)

The saga of Dazai Osamu : a critical study with translations Lyons, Phyllis I. ISBN0804711976 - this book states that Omoide, a major work of Dazai's, is translated as "Recollections", but the Wiki page states it as "Memories". Would it be more appropriate to have it as "Recollections" or as "Memories"? Any ideas? I am adding basic summaries of some of the major works listed. If anyone has read any of the major works listed, your help would be greatly appreciated. I feel that these basic descriptions will add more information to the page and possibly bring more interest to Dazai's work. Let me know any and all opinions and ideas for this, please let me know. Another author has descriptons of their works. Many researchers also have varying theories on these pieces. Such as some of them being stories based on Dazai's life. Should these be included or put in another section? MishaGriego (talk) 21:49, 28 March 2018 (UTC)

Image of Osamu Dazai's Body

Maybe it might be a bit disrespectful to have an image of his body after he commited suicide? Especially given his background leading up to it. Astrobirder (talk) 20:07, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Neutrality and MOS?

There are open issues for neutrality and not following the MOS, but I'm not seeing anything obvious -- what are these referring to? Jpatokal (talk) 04:04, 15 September 2022 (UTC)

I was wondering about that myself . . . Krimp Varkey (talk) 12:06, 7 December 2022 (UTC)

Contradiction

His death was listed as being suicide by hanging. I changed it to suicide by drowning. This is because the page states that he drowned himself.

Please notify me if this was a mistake. I don't see why this contradiction was there in the first place. 2001:569:BF36:B00:C4DD:1ACD:A4CF:F0E1 (talk) 05:05, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

Expanded Works section

I've expanded the list of Dazai's works using The Saga of Dazai Osamu by Phyllis Lyons; the table should definitely be looked over by someone fluent in Japanese who can add the appropriate characters to the new titles that only have rōmaji, and also make sure that I didn't make any mistakes! (I wasn't able to find an appropriate infobox for this, so if anybody knows of one, please include it). An additional bibliography other than Lyons's to cite would also be good. As much as I would like this list to be complete, there are a number of stories in Crackling Mountain and Other Stories, not listed by Lyons, that I didn't include because they are not given publication dates. Some brave and intrepid soul could perhaps consult this collection and see if they can incorporate any or all of the stories that aren't already included, though again, they'd have to find another source for the dates. Krimp Varkey (talk) 10:21, 3 December 2022 (UTC)

Move plot summaries?

I would also suggest that the brief plot summaries below the list of works be moved or incoporated into other pages. Krimp Varkey (talk) 10:26, 3 December 2022 (UTC)

Quotation

This article contained no actual samples of Dazai's work, which seems like a real shame. I've added back a previously deleted quotation that's (IMHO) quite autobiographical and encapsulates his style well, this time with the source & translator credited, so we should still be within WP:COPYQUOTE guidelines. Jpatokal (talk) 22:46, 4 March 2024 (UTC)