Osamu Dazai (太宰治); Gender, Love, Self-Sacrifice; 性別、愛、自己犠牲

Osamu Dazai is famous for his novels, female narratives which are unique, complex and beautiful at the same time. The books are rich, rich with experiences, rich in plot, rich in every aspect of life Dazai himself passed through. His writings was influenced by the times he had to live in and the women he was surrounded by. The women were omnipresent in Japanese culture, history and especially – art. Tragic and depressive life of Dazai made his novels very personal and autobiographical, the women he described differs; it might me a single mother, a young girl – a schoolgirl, or an old woman, each of them are portrayed with a certain attitude. These women are strong, self-confident, imaginative, intelligent. Their features of character are totally opposite to the men’s ones; in Dazai’s novels men are weak, deprived of humane basic virtues, alcoholics, real outcasts of society. The women Dazai describes do not reflect the positives; it is very misleading to think so; the author himself was very critical, none of his works he perceived as a good one.  The relationships he had are vividly described; his wives, mistresses, women on the fore and background, all of them were part of his life and created the life he (un)wanted to live. His first wife was geisha Oyama Hatsuyo, the marriage was not all it meant to be, shortly after it began, Dazai tried to commit a double suicide with his mistress – a young, nineteen-years-old married woman – Tanabe Shimeko, unfortunately Shimeko died, the death of such a young person marked Dazai writings till his death. After that suicidal attempt, Dazai tried it many times. Dazai perception of women was ‘crossed’, deeply rooted into the Japanese culture so strongly dominated by the male elements, it enforced Dazai’s way of thinking – women as a weaker part of society - a men's completion. In his writings he imposes certain sets of behavior women should follow. He was a winner of a very prestigious literary award – Akutagawa Literary Award. He acclaimed the importance of it, however, he was very critical, always ‘apologized’ for his personal and emotional upheavals. It must be remembered that he was a drug addict, an alcoholic with all addiction problems, his writings style, his approach to life was determined by his illness. Dazai represents the generation of writers of so-called “I novel”, the language of the novel is transient, it represents the author’s “I; Self-being”.  Dazai describes the events in the way he feels, sees and perceives, at the same time, he tends to avoid a confrontation of others; background witnesses, who might distract the ‘perfect image’ he obtained. His strong opinions about women might be surprising and shocking, yet, he deeply believed, women should be submissive towards men, as they were created by men, they were always part of men’s life and existence. In one of his essays “Lessons for Women” he portrays a futuristic image of “what might be …if?” – the main theme circles around a blind woman who due to surgery is capable to regain her sight again by implanting the rabbit’s eyes. It is short-term effect, however, the beginning is successful,  after the surgery, gradually, the woman becomes anticipated, she is afraid of everything and everyone, she runs away and hides from danger. The eyes – reflect “I” – the personal image of a human being. The woman is afraid of the hunter, she started behaving like a rabbit, day after day, "to become one", but the reason it happened is not because she got a rabbit's eyes transplanted, but, by the fact her psycho created the image of a rabbit within herself.   In some of his novels it is visible and felt that he is frustrated by women’s fragility, their delicate existence, he sees men as prime subject of society, women are aside as if they were a separate group. What is very important and what is also reflected in Dazai’s writings, is the Taisho Period, in which women were more explicit, were more active socially, intellectually, therefore more visible in every aspect of social life. Women in Japan gave their right to be active in social life relatively late, in 1930s – they were allowed to vote and take part in elections.  It made a contrast to the Japanese woman from Meiji Era which always symbolized a good loving and devoted mother and wife. The diversification of the gender was always a subject in art and literary works, both sexes fight for supreme position, males win this battle. The woman in Japanese culture is self-scarifying, loving and devoted mother and wife. She does anything she can to make her family happy. “Onnagata” for that reason is very lonely,  very depressed and sad. Women low place in society made them ‘worse’ than man. Due to modernization and evaluation of social structures the image of a woman changed, more and more Japanese women became writers, fought for women’s rights. Western patterns tried to shake the traditional gender role off. Unsuccessfully.  The sexual desire, the sexual need to be completed is in Japan unchangeable, the sexual drive was to dominate women’s demeanor. What Dazai’s novels presents are domination and submission of women. In a novel “A Fool’s Love” – the reader faces with a transformation, the transformation of Japan, Japanese women, Naomi – a main character of the book becomes a “Western girl”, she changes and wants to fit into Western patterns, she is successful, she also moves from Tokyo (a small, just town) to Yokohama (what was a real something) at that time. She becomes a part of cosmopolitan society, a humdrum and vibrant city, leading her life in a hush pace. All Dazai’s characters belong to middle class, higher they are the better.  Woman was always a certain means to expose Dazai’s own weaknesses, women were used as a literary figure to criticize everything Dazai hated and disagreed with. In his short story “Schoolgirl” he describes his own fan, he used her diary as a background for his novel. The plot circles around a young – anonymous woman whose father recently has passed away, she is alone, even though, she has got a sister, the sister is too far away to help her. When she wakes up she tries to determine her feelings; she finds what she was looking for but it is sad and gloomy; depressing and barren;

“…When you open a box, and inside it there’s another little box,

and when you open that little box, again, inside that there’s a smaller box,

and when you open that, again, there’s another smaller box, and when you

open that little box, there’s another little box, and so you go on opening

seven, eight little boxes, and finally, at the end, there’s a box as small as a

die, and when you carefully open that, there’s nothing, it’s empty…”

The life of a young woman is nothing but a torrent of suffering, doubts and unfinished fights for a better tomorrow. Every day is the same, the young woman does not want to live, she feels pity she exists.

“…I immediately coddle it, indulge myself in it, feel sorry for myself…”

Dazai tries to explain that there is nothing wrong with weakness – it is nothing wrong to be ashamed of. Everyone feels it and fights with it. Moreover, there is a gender clash, it is a description of what had been in the past and what might be in the future Japan.