WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.200 okay so let's just jump right in we're looking 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:06.139 at a figure today who i can only really describe 00:00:06.139 --> 00:00:09.460 as i guess the literary rock star of despair 00:00:09.460 --> 00:00:11.580 that's a great way to put it And I don't use 00:00:11.580 --> 00:00:13.320 rock star lightly here. I mean, you have to picture 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:15.160 this. Here's a guy born into absolute, almost 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:19.320 feudal level luxury. I'm talking the son of a 00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:21.780 wealthy politician living in this enormous mansion 00:00:21.780 --> 00:00:23.980 that would make, you know, Downton Abbey look 00:00:23.980 --> 00:00:27.260 cozy. And he somehow becomes the poster child 00:00:27.260 --> 00:00:30.000 for post -war disillusionment, for addiction, 00:00:30.260 --> 00:00:33.259 for tragedy. It's just it's a huge contradiction. 00:00:33.539 --> 00:00:35.420 It is a study in contradictions, isn't it? We 00:00:35.420 --> 00:00:39.380 are talking about Osamu Dazai or born Shuji Tsushima. 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:41.579 And you're right. Right. That rock star comparison, 00:00:41.700 --> 00:00:44.020 it really holds up because his life hits all 00:00:44.020 --> 00:00:45.820 those tragic notes. It really does. You've got 00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:47.560 the drugs, the fame, the scandals, the women 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:50.060 and the eventual almost inevitable early death. 00:00:50.299 --> 00:00:53.659 But I mean, underneath all that sensationalism, 00:00:53.700 --> 00:00:56.740 there's a writer of just profound and sometimes 00:00:56.740 --> 00:00:59.280 terrifying depth. And what's so wild to me is 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:01.740 that his most famous book, No Longer Human or 00:01:01.740 --> 00:01:04.640 Ningen Shikaku in Japanese, is still this massive 00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:08.150 cultural touchstone. I was looking into the sales 00:01:08.150 --> 00:01:10.689 figures, and it's still one of the best -selling 00:01:10.689 --> 00:01:13.069 books in Japanese history. It's incredible. You 00:01:13.069 --> 00:01:15.489 can walk into a bookstore in Tokyo today, and 00:01:15.489 --> 00:01:18.090 it's right there. It's widely read all over the 00:01:18.090 --> 00:01:20.819 world. And the title, I mean, it... literally 00:01:20.819 --> 00:01:23.760 translates to disqualified from being human. 00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:27.579 That is a heavy, heavy title for a bestseller. 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:29.719 It's not exactly, you know, chicken soup for 00:01:29.719 --> 00:01:31.879 the soul. It is the anti -chicken soup. And I 00:01:31.879 --> 00:01:33.879 think that speaks to the universality of what 00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:36.659 Dazai was tapping into, that very specific feeling 00:01:36.659 --> 00:01:40.040 of alienation. But to really get the book. You 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:42.340 have to understand the man. You just have to. 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:45.019 Because with Dazai, you can't separate the art 00:01:45.019 --> 00:01:47.200 from the artist. Right. He was a central figure 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:49.599 of the Buraiha school. Okay, the Buraiha. That's 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:51.739 usually translated as the decadent school, right? 00:01:51.819 --> 00:01:55.079 Or the libertines. Yes, but decadent almost sounds 00:01:55.079 --> 00:01:57.319 too fun. Like they were just out partying all 00:01:57.319 --> 00:02:00.340 the time. The Buraiha were these writers who... 00:02:00.859 --> 00:02:03.939 In the absolute chaos of post -World War II Japan, 00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:07.219 they just rejected all the traditional established 00:02:07.219 --> 00:02:09.860 values. Everything. They embraced aimlessness, 00:02:10.060 --> 00:02:13.439 identity crisis, and this sort of performative 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:15.560 self -destruction. And Dazai was the absolute 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:18.860 king of this. He was also deeply, deeply entrenched 00:02:18.860 --> 00:02:21.900 in the iNovel tradition, the Shishusetsu. Let's 00:02:21.900 --> 00:02:23.659 pause on that term, i -novel, because I think 00:02:23.659 --> 00:02:25.659 for a lot of us in the West, we can sometimes 00:02:25.659 --> 00:02:28.020 misunderstand it. You know, we're used to autobiography 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:30.560 and we're used to fiction. But the i -novel in 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:32.620 Japan at that time was something else, wasn't 00:02:32.620 --> 00:02:35.400 it? It wasn't just based on a true story. Exactly. 00:02:35.439 --> 00:02:37.400 Think of it less like a memoir and more like 00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:40.800 a public confession booth. In the Western tradition, 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:43.139 fiction is so often about constructing a narrative, 00:02:43.319 --> 00:02:45.939 a hero's journey, something with an arc. A neat 00:02:45.939 --> 00:02:49.139 little package. Right. The Shishitsetsu was about 00:02:49.139 --> 00:02:52.460 exposing the author's own dark side, their sins, 00:02:52.599 --> 00:02:55.139 their shame, with an almost uncomfortable honesty. 00:02:55.180 --> 00:02:58.439 It's the literary equivalent of modern, you know, 00:02:58.460 --> 00:03:01.280 oversharing on social media, but with just incredible 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:04.960 artistic merit. The goal was sincerity. through 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:07.120 self -exposure. And Daze did that better than 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:09.819 anyone. He blurred the lines so completely that 00:03:09.819 --> 00:03:11.639 you could hardly tell where the character ends 00:03:11.639 --> 00:03:13.840 and the real person, Shuji Tsushima, begins. 00:03:14.379 --> 00:03:16.639 That is exactly what we're here to explore today. 00:03:16.860 --> 00:03:19.580 Our mission for this deep dive is to figure out 00:03:19.580 --> 00:03:23.219 how this man, born into the lap of luxury, became 00:03:23.219 --> 00:03:26.439 the voice of gritty urban despair. We're going 00:03:26.439 --> 00:03:28.780 to look at how he annoyed the legendary Yukio 00:03:28.780 --> 00:03:31.020 Mishima just by breathing. Which is a fantastic 00:03:31.020 --> 00:03:33.419 story. It's hilarious and we'll get to it. We're 00:03:33.419 --> 00:03:34.759 going to talk about how he survived multiple 00:03:34.759 --> 00:03:37.340 suicide attempts and how in this bizarre twist 00:03:37.340 --> 00:03:39.759 he ended up writing fairy tales while the world 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:41.860 was literally burning down around him during 00:03:41.860 --> 00:03:43.909 World War II. It's a journey from From the very 00:03:43.909 --> 00:03:46.110 top of society, I mean, the absolute pinnacle 00:03:46.110 --> 00:03:48.530 to the very bottom and then into this strange 00:03:48.530 --> 00:03:51.229 kind of immortality. So let's go back to the 00:03:51.229 --> 00:03:52.909 start. We really need to set the scene because 00:03:52.909 --> 00:03:55.409 his childhood wasn't just rich kid rich. It was 00:03:55.409 --> 00:03:58.949 something else entirely. We're in Kanagi, Aomori 00:03:58.949 --> 00:04:02.789 Prefecture, June 19, 1909. Right. And Aomori 00:04:02.789 --> 00:04:05.090 is the far north of Honshu, the main island of 00:04:05.090 --> 00:04:08.110 Japan. It's snowy. It's rural. And at that time, 00:04:08.129 --> 00:04:10.729 it was still very traditional. And he was born 00:04:10.729 --> 00:04:13.849 Shuji Tsushima. To give you a sense of the scale 00:04:13.849 --> 00:04:16.870 of his isolation from the gecko, he was the 10th 00:04:16.870 --> 00:04:20.970 of 11 children. 11 kids, wow. That is a full 00:04:20.970 --> 00:04:23.850 soccer team with a sub on the bench. It is. And 00:04:23.850 --> 00:04:26.329 they lived in a mansion that was, quite frankly, 00:04:26.449 --> 00:04:28.709 ridiculous. Yeah. It was this newly completed 00:04:28.709 --> 00:04:31.269 estate that housed about 30 people at any given 00:04:31.269 --> 00:04:34.009 time. 30 people. 30. You have the immediate family, 00:04:34.209 --> 00:04:36.709 the extended relatives, grandmothers, aunts, 00:04:36.709 --> 00:04:38.529 and then a small army of servants. You would 00:04:38.529 --> 00:04:40.930 think that would be a lively, chaotic, warm environment. 00:04:41.029 --> 00:04:43.430 Just, you know, constant noise and big family 00:04:43.430 --> 00:04:46.959 dinners. You'd think so. But for Dazai. All the 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:48.860 sources suggest it was incredibly isolating. 00:04:49.180 --> 00:04:50.879 You have to look at the hierarchy of it all. 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:53.879 The Tsushima family was running a massive operation. 00:04:54.220 --> 00:04:57.139 His father, Kanemon, wasn't just a dad coming 00:04:57.139 --> 00:05:00.220 home at 5 p .m. He was a busy politician, a member 00:05:00.220 --> 00:05:02.939 of the House of Peers. Which is, what's the equivalent? 00:05:03.079 --> 00:05:05.220 Like the House of Lords in the UK or the Senate 00:05:05.220 --> 00:05:07.540 in the U .S.? He's a national player. Exactly. 00:05:07.620 --> 00:05:10.040 He was one of the four wealthiest landowners 00:05:10.040 --> 00:05:12.560 in the entire prefecture. He was constantly absent 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:16.060 either... in Tokyo for politics or off managing 00:05:16.060 --> 00:05:19.420 his vast estates. He was this distant, towering 00:05:19.420 --> 00:05:21.839 figure, not the kind of father you, you know, 00:05:21.839 --> 00:05:24.839 played catch with. And his mother. In these big 00:05:24.839 --> 00:05:27.060 families, usually the mother becomes the emotional 00:05:27.060 --> 00:05:29.720 core, the center of gravity. Not in this case. 00:05:29.839 --> 00:05:33.509 Yeah. His mother, Tane. was chronically ill and, 00:05:33.589 --> 00:05:36.170 well, exhausted from bearing 11 children, which 00:05:36.170 --> 00:05:37.889 is understandable. Of course. So you have this 00:05:37.889 --> 00:05:41.370 young boy, Shuji, the 10th child, and he's effectively 00:05:41.370 --> 00:05:43.910 raised by servants and his aunt, a woman named 00:05:43.910 --> 00:05:46.189 Kie. He didn't sleep in his parents' room. He 00:05:46.189 --> 00:05:47.730 slept with his aunt. He didn't often eat with 00:05:47.730 --> 00:05:49.850 his parents. He was raised by staff. It sounds 00:05:49.850 --> 00:05:52.790 like that classic rich kid neglect trope, but 00:05:52.790 --> 00:05:55.879 just dialed up to 11. But there's a specific 00:05:55.879 --> 00:05:58.139 Japanese cultural layer here too, isn't there? 00:05:58.199 --> 00:06:01.220 The Anji system, the family system. That's a 00:06:01.220 --> 00:06:04.600 crucial point. The Tsushima family adhered to 00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:07.500 what Dazai later called exceedingly feudal traditions. 00:06:07.980 --> 00:06:10.899 In that system, the eldest son is everything. 00:06:11.459 --> 00:06:14.379 He's the heir. He is the future head of the household 00:06:14.379 --> 00:06:16.540 who will control the wealth and the ancestors' 00:06:16.779 --> 00:06:19.339 legacy. And the younger sons? They're spare parts. 00:06:19.579 --> 00:06:22.180 Spare heirs. Just insurance policies in case 00:06:22.180 --> 00:06:23.959 the big brother dies or something. Precisely. 00:06:24.410 --> 00:06:26.750 Being the eighth surviving child and the younger 00:06:26.750 --> 00:06:29.610 son at that, Dazai was structurally irrelevant 00:06:29.610 --> 00:06:32.990 to the family's dynastic ambitions. He was surrounded 00:06:32.990 --> 00:06:35.449 by people, 30 of them, yet he was profoundly 00:06:35.449 --> 00:06:38.670 alone. That psychological impact isolation within 00:06:38.670 --> 00:06:40.569 a crowd is something that just haunts his later 00:06:40.569 --> 00:06:42.990 work. He wrote about feeling like an imposter 00:06:42.990 --> 00:06:45.029 in his own home, like he was just taking up space. 00:06:45.329 --> 00:06:46.730 And there's a bit of irony in where all this 00:06:46.730 --> 00:06:48.449 money came from. I mean, they acted like this 00:06:48.449 --> 00:06:50.110 ancient aristocracy, but they weren't, were they? 00:06:50.189 --> 00:06:52.680 Not at all. The sources mentioned the family 00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:56.160 had obscure peasant origins. The great -grandfather 00:06:56.160 --> 00:06:58.740 was a moneylender who built up the family fortune 00:06:58.740 --> 00:07:02.279 ruthlessly. So by the time Dazai is born, yes, 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:04.639 they're respectable, they're powerful, but the 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:07.879 foundation is new money. It's a rags -to -riches 00:07:07.879 --> 00:07:10.240 story for the family, but for Dazai personally, 00:07:10.420 --> 00:07:12.839 it feels more like a riches -to -isolation story. 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:15.500 He was born at the peak, but he never felt he 00:07:15.500 --> 00:07:17.699 earned it, and he never ever felt he belonged 00:07:17.699 --> 00:07:20.120 there. He was a guest in his own life right from 00:07:20.120 --> 00:07:23.100 the start. So you have this isolated kid in a 00:07:23.100 --> 00:07:25.680 crowded mansion feeling like a ghost. You'd expect 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:28.180 him to rebel immediately, right? But looking 00:07:28.180 --> 00:07:30.019 at his early school records, he actually starts 00:07:30.019 --> 00:07:32.240 out on a completely different path. He does. 00:07:32.300 --> 00:07:34.939 He was a model student initially. He went to 00:07:34.939 --> 00:07:37.500 Kanagi Elementary, then Aomori Junior High, and 00:07:37.500 --> 00:07:40.040 got into Hirosaki Higher School. I mean, these 00:07:40.040 --> 00:07:42.360 are elite tracks. He was bright. He was engaged. 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:44.819 He wasn't the class clown. He was the kid at 00:07:44.819 --> 00:07:46.860 the top of the class. And he had these really 00:07:46.860 --> 00:07:49.160 sophisticated cultural interests early on. I 00:07:49.160 --> 00:07:51.439 read he was into Edo period culture and something 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:53.540 called Gidae. Can you explain what Gidae is? 00:07:53.779 --> 00:07:56.800 Yeah, Gidae is a style of chanted narration that's 00:07:56.800 --> 00:07:59.579 used in Bunraku puppet theater. Think of it as 00:07:59.579 --> 00:08:02.939 a mix between opera recitative... and maybe slam 00:08:02.939 --> 00:08:05.899 poetry. It's very rhythmic, very dramatic, and 00:08:05.899 --> 00:08:08.120 it requires a lot of vocal control. The chanter 00:08:08.120 --> 00:08:10.740 has to do all the voices, the weeping heroine, 00:08:10.779 --> 00:08:13.240 the angry samurai, everyone. So he's basically 00:08:13.240 --> 00:08:15.560 a theater kid. He is absolutely a theater kid. 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:17.800 And it shows he had an ear for performance and 00:08:17.800 --> 00:08:20.339 for storytelling from a very early age. He was 00:08:20.339 --> 00:08:23.459 editing student publications, writing for a magazine 00:08:23.459 --> 00:08:25.740 he and his friends made called Cell Literature. 00:08:25.879 --> 00:08:28.199 He was totally on the path to being a respectable 00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:30.379 intellectual. He was doing everything right to 00:08:30.379 --> 00:08:32.240 become a professor or... a writer within the 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:34.620 establishment. So what broke him? When does the 00:08:34.620 --> 00:08:37.840 good student Dai and the decadent artist take 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:41.100 over? Because the shift is just so drastic. The 00:08:41.100 --> 00:08:44.379 year is 1927, and the event is what's often called 00:08:44.379 --> 00:08:47.919 the Akutagawa Shock. Ryunosuke Akutagawa, the 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:50.360 author of Rashomon, the guy they named the biggest 00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:53.059 literary prize in Japan after. The very same. 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:57.009 Akutagawa was Dazai's absolute idol. his hero. 00:08:57.110 --> 00:08:59.210 He was the pinnacle of modern Japanese literature 00:08:59.210 --> 00:09:01.570 at the time. He was brilliant. He was sharp. 00:09:01.690 --> 00:09:04.570 He was modern. And in 1927, Okutagawa committed 00:09:04.570 --> 00:09:07.659 suicide at the age of 35. Why was this such a 00:09:07.659 --> 00:09:10.240 massive deal? I mean, people die, authors die. 00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:13.200 Why did this specifically break Dazai? You have 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:15.860 to understand the cultural context. Akutagawa's 00:09:15.860 --> 00:09:17.820 suicide wasn't just seen as a personal tragedy. 00:09:18.100 --> 00:09:20.419 It was interpreted by the entire intellectual 00:09:20.419 --> 00:09:23.419 class as a statement that modern life is unlivable. 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:26.860 Akutagawa wrote about having this vague anxiety 00:09:26.860 --> 00:09:29.740 about the future. For Dazai, who worshipped him, 00:09:29.860 --> 00:09:32.440 it was a full -blown existential crisis. Right. 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:35.330 If the greatest writer of the age the man Dazai 00:09:35.330 --> 00:09:38.230 aspired to be, found life to be essentially void 00:09:38.230 --> 00:09:40.509 of meaning, then what was the point of studying? 00:09:40.570 --> 00:09:42.289 What was the point of being a good boy? It's 00:09:42.289 --> 00:09:44.149 like when Kurt Cobain died for the grunge generation, 00:09:44.470 --> 00:09:46.970 but maybe even more intellectualized. It validated 00:09:46.970 --> 00:09:49.929 Dazai's own darkness. Exactly. That's a great 00:09:49.929 --> 00:09:53.190 comparison. Dazai began neglecting his studies 00:09:53.190 --> 00:09:55.610 almost immediately. He started spiraling. The 00:09:55.610 --> 00:09:57.409 allowance from his wealthy family wasn't going 00:09:57.409 --> 00:09:59.169 to textbooks anymore. It was going to custom 00:09:59.169 --> 00:10:02.230 -made clothes, expensive alcohol, and prostitutes. 00:10:02.779 --> 00:10:05.399 He was trying to fill that void that Akutagawa 00:10:05.399 --> 00:10:08.039 left behind. And then he tries to follow his 00:10:08.039 --> 00:10:10.879 idol. He does. On the night of December 10th, 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:14.840 1929, Dazai made his first suicide attempt. This 00:10:14.840 --> 00:10:16.519 is the first of many we're going to discuss. 00:10:16.580 --> 00:10:19.000 And he's just a kid, really. 20 years old. Yeah. 00:10:19.299 --> 00:10:22.019 He overdosed on Kalmotin, which was a sedative. 00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:25.200 He took a massive amount. But he survived. He 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:28.889 woke up. And in a bizarre twist of fate, and 00:10:28.889 --> 00:10:31.029 this is where Dazai's life gets almost darkly 00:10:31.029 --> 00:10:33.549 comedic in his tragedy, he actually managed to 00:10:33.549 --> 00:10:35.690 graduate from Hirosaki Higher School the following 00:10:35.690 --> 00:10:38.529 year. That is just wild. He tries to kill himself, 00:10:38.730 --> 00:10:41.149 fails, wakes up groggy, and school's like, okay, 00:10:41.250 --> 00:10:43.409 see you in class on Monday. It speaks to his 00:10:43.409 --> 00:10:45.370 resilience, or maybe just the momentum of his 00:10:45.370 --> 00:10:47.570 privilege at that point. He couldn't even fail 00:10:47.570 --> 00:10:50.330 at dying properly. So he survives, he graduates, 00:10:50.529 --> 00:10:53.750 but he's definitely not fixed. This leads us 00:10:53.750 --> 00:10:56.610 into a really murky period of his life. He heads 00:10:56.610 --> 00:10:59.830 to Tokyo to enroll in university, but he finds 00:10:59.830 --> 00:11:03.610 a new obsession. Communism. Right. He enrolls 00:11:03.610 --> 00:11:05.789 in Tokyo Imperial University to study French 00:11:05.789 --> 00:11:09.250 literature. But study is a very generous word. 00:11:09.389 --> 00:11:12.470 He hardly ever attended class. Instead, he got 00:11:12.470 --> 00:11:14.669 completely swept up in the leftist movement. 00:11:14.870 --> 00:11:17.610 No. We need to clarify the stakes here. Being 00:11:17.610 --> 00:11:19.929 a communist in a Western democracy today is one 00:11:19.929 --> 00:11:23.330 thing. Being a communist in 1930s imperial Japan 00:11:23.330 --> 00:11:25.950 was something else entirely. It was life -threatening. 00:11:26.049 --> 00:11:28.269 The peace preservation laws were in full effect. 00:11:28.490 --> 00:11:30.830 The thought police, the toko, they were active. 00:11:31.370 --> 00:11:33.490 Marxism was heavily suppressed by the government 00:11:33.490 --> 00:11:36.360 as a direct threat to the emperor system. People 00:11:36.360 --> 00:11:38.820 were arrested, they were tortured, and they were 00:11:38.820 --> 00:11:40.740 imprisoned for this. It was not just a college 00:11:40.740 --> 00:11:42.820 phase, it was a crime. But does Ai, I mean, he's 00:11:42.820 --> 00:11:44.860 the son of a wealthy landowner, he's living off 00:11:44.860 --> 00:11:47.159 an allowance that's generated by the very peasants 00:11:47.159 --> 00:11:49.519 the communists claim they want to liberate. Was 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:52.059 he a true believer? Or was this just, you know, 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:54.279 champagne socialism? That is the big debate. 00:11:55.139 --> 00:11:58.379 He met an activist named Aizou Kudo and started 00:11:58.379 --> 00:12:01.200 contributing 10 yen a month to the Japanese Communist 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:03.919 Party. That was a decent chunk of money back 00:12:03.919 --> 00:12:06.860 then. But there's a specific incident that really 00:12:06.860 --> 00:12:09.240 makes me question his sincerity. There was a 00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:11.820 student strike against a principal who had misappropriated 00:12:11.820 --> 00:12:14.639 funds. A classic cause. Stick it to the man. 00:12:14.899 --> 00:12:18.159 Right. But Dazai hardly participated in the actual 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:20.919 strike. He didn't do the grunt work. He wasn't 00:12:20.919 --> 00:12:22.980 out there handing out flyers in the rain or manning 00:12:22.980 --> 00:12:25.580 the barricades. Instead, he sat in his room and 00:12:25.580 --> 00:12:27.879 wrote a novel about it called Student Group to 00:12:27.879 --> 00:12:30.460 impress the activists. He wanted the aesthetic 00:12:30.460 --> 00:12:33.120 of the revolutionary without the sweat. Precisely. 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:35.539 It highlights his nature as a dramatist of his 00:12:35.539 --> 00:12:38.259 own life. He mimicked proletarian literature 00:12:38.259 --> 00:12:40.340 because it was the counterculture of the time. 00:12:40.379 --> 00:12:42.899 He's the rebellious thing to do. But this play 00:12:42.899 --> 00:12:45.440 acting had real consequences because his name 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:48.500 was Tsushima. Right. His family back in Aomori, 00:12:48.659 --> 00:12:50.980 the wealthy politicians, they must have been 00:12:50.980 --> 00:12:53.379 absolutely horrified. Their son is funding the 00:12:53.379 --> 00:12:55.139 people who want to overthrow them. They were 00:12:55.139 --> 00:12:58.960 apoplectic. But interestingly, The final straw 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:01.480 for the family wasn't the politics. It was the 00:13:01.480 --> 00:13:04.960 woman. In 1930, he ran away with a geisha named 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:08.600 Hatsuya Oyama. Of course. The classic scandal. 00:13:08.940 --> 00:13:11.460 For a respectable, aristocratic family in Aomori, 00:13:11.620 --> 00:13:13.879 having a son running around with a geisha was 00:13:13.879 --> 00:13:16.159 unacceptable. It brought shame on the house. 00:13:16.519 --> 00:13:20.080 And this led to his formal disownment. The Tsushima 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:22.580 family cut him off. They effectively said, you 00:13:22.580 --> 00:13:24.700 are no longer one of us. That must have been 00:13:24.700 --> 00:13:27.519 terrifying for him. He's 21, cut off from the 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:29.480 money spigot, playing at being a revolutionary. 00:13:29.940 --> 00:13:32.419 But they didn't leave him entirely alone. And 00:13:32.419 --> 00:13:34.820 this is how powerful families work. His brother, 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:36.840 Bunji, who was also a politician, he tracked 00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:38.899 him down later. They made a deal. The family 00:13:38.899 --> 00:13:40.620 would basically handle the mess. They'd reinstate 00:13:40.620 --> 00:13:42.919 a stipend. But Dozai had to sign a pledge at 00:13:42.919 --> 00:13:45.000 the prosecutor's office to completely withdraw 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:49.029 from all leftist activities. Wow. That is fascinating. 00:13:49.110 --> 00:13:51.389 So when push came to shove, when he had to choose 00:13:51.389 --> 00:13:53.529 between the revolution and the safety net, he 00:13:53.529 --> 00:13:56.809 chose the safety net. He did. It shows that for 00:13:56.809 --> 00:13:59.309 all his posturing, he was still tethered to that 00:13:59.309 --> 00:14:02.929 privilege. He couldn't survive without it. But 00:14:02.929 --> 00:14:05.110 before that resolution, we have to talk about 00:14:05.110 --> 00:14:07.850 the Kamikori incident. Because this is the moment 00:14:07.850 --> 00:14:10.370 that I think truly broke him forever. This is 00:14:10.370 --> 00:14:13.250 the darkest moment in his early life. It's just 00:14:13.250 --> 00:14:15.450 nine days after he gets expelled from university. 00:14:16.220 --> 00:14:18.519 This is the defining tragedy that hangs over 00:14:18.519 --> 00:14:22.600 no longer human. Nine days after expulsion, feeling 00:14:22.600 --> 00:14:25.620 hopeless, Dazai travels to a beach in Kamakura. 00:14:26.360 --> 00:14:28.659 And he isn't alone. He's with a 19 -year -old 00:14:28.659 --> 00:14:31.440 bar hostess named Shimeiko Tanabe. They had only 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:32.940 known each other for a very short time, right? 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:35.179 A few days. A matter of days. It was this impulsive, 00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:37.460 desperate connection. They went to the beach 00:14:37.460 --> 00:14:39.720 and they attempted a double suicide. They tried 00:14:39.720 --> 00:14:41.600 to drown themselves in the sea. And this is where 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:44.120 the story splits. Yes. And here's the horror 00:14:44.120 --> 00:14:47.059 of it. Shimeiko Tanabe died. Dazai lived. He 00:14:47.059 --> 00:14:48.980 was rescued by a fishing boat. He was pulled 00:14:48.980 --> 00:14:52.059 out of the water, coughing and sputtering. And 00:14:52.059 --> 00:14:54.480 she was gone. I just can't even imagine the headspace 00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:57.240 you'd be in. You try to die, you fail, but the 00:14:57.240 --> 00:14:59.899 person you convince to do it with you is dead. 00:15:00.519 --> 00:15:03.259 And technically, legally, he was an accomplice 00:15:03.259 --> 00:15:06.360 to her death. That's a crime. He assisted suicide. 00:15:06.700 --> 00:15:09.100 He was charged. The police were involved. But 00:15:09.100 --> 00:15:11.600 again, the family name comes into play. The privilege 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:14.019 card, as you might call it. The Tsushima family 00:15:14.019 --> 00:15:16.500 was shocked. But they intervened. They pulled 00:15:16.500 --> 00:15:18.700 strings. They stopped the police investigation. 00:15:19.139 --> 00:15:21.620 His allowance was reinstated, and he was released 00:15:21.620 --> 00:15:24.200 without any charges. That is sickening in a way, 00:15:24.220 --> 00:15:27.440 the guilt. You survive, the girl dies, and your 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:29.659 rich family just sweeps it under the rug like 00:15:29.659 --> 00:15:31.480 a broken vase. You're free, but you're carrying 00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:33.899 that ghost forever. And he did carry it. If you 00:15:33.899 --> 00:15:36.580 read his later works, specifically No Longer 00:15:36.580 --> 00:15:39.720 Human, that guilt is palpable. The protagonist, 00:15:39.940 --> 00:15:42.870 Obiozo, feels like a fraud. A murderer. Someone 00:15:42.870 --> 00:15:44.850 who has no right to exist among human beings. 00:15:45.269 --> 00:15:48.070 This incident is the bedrock of that self -hatred. 00:15:48.250 --> 00:15:50.309 He felt he had stolen a life he didn't deserve. 00:15:50.470 --> 00:15:53.149 He was living on borrowed time, paid for by a 00:15:53.149 --> 00:15:56.049 dead girl. So he's disowned, then he's reinstated, 00:15:56.090 --> 00:15:58.090 he's traumatized, branded a criminal but not 00:15:58.090 --> 00:16:00.929 punished. And now he has to actually try to be 00:16:00.929 --> 00:16:03.149 a writer. He can't just be a rich screw -up anymore. 00:16:03.490 --> 00:16:07.620 And he finds a mentor, Masuji Ibuse. Ibius was 00:16:07.620 --> 00:16:10.679 this established, respected writer, very different 00:16:10.679 --> 00:16:13.159 from Dazai, very grounded, who took Dazai under 00:16:13.159 --> 00:16:15.899 his wing. He helped him get published. And this 00:16:15.899 --> 00:16:18.879 is when Shuji Tsushima officially becomes Osamu 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:23.139 Dazai. 1933. The short story, Russia, or Train. 00:16:23.480 --> 00:16:25.179 That's the first appearance of the pen name. 00:16:25.549 --> 00:16:27.889 And it marks the start of that trademark iNovel 00:16:27.889 --> 00:16:30.230 style we talk about. He's mining his own trauma 00:16:30.230 --> 00:16:32.750 for content. He realized his life was his best 00:16:32.750 --> 00:16:34.929 material. But things don't exactly smooth out 00:16:34.929 --> 00:16:37.750 just because he has a pen name. The years 1935 00:16:37.750 --> 00:16:40.529 and 1936, I was looking at the timeline, and 00:16:40.529 --> 00:16:43.009 it just reads like a comedy of errors if it wasn't 00:16:43.009 --> 00:16:45.450 so horrific. It's often called his year of despair. 00:16:45.809 --> 00:16:48.190 It was a cascade of failures, a total collapse. 00:16:48.409 --> 00:16:51.110 By 1935, it became clear he wasn't going to graduate 00:16:51.110 --> 00:16:53.470 university. He'd gone back but failed again. 00:16:54.069 --> 00:16:56.210 He failed to get a job at a Tokyo newspaper, 00:16:56.450 --> 00:16:58.490 which was his last hope for a normal income. 00:16:58.750 --> 00:17:01.169 He felt he had hit a dead end. So he writes a 00:17:01.169 --> 00:17:03.970 book called The Final Years, or Bannon. The title 00:17:03.970 --> 00:17:06.869 says it all, The Final Years. And he was in his 00:17:06.869 --> 00:17:10.210 mid -20s. He wrote it intending it to be his 00:17:10.210 --> 00:17:13.150 suicide note. He wrote it thinking, this is it, 00:17:13.170 --> 00:17:16.549 I'm leaving this as my legacy. And in March 1935, 00:17:16.869 --> 00:17:20.130 he tries to hang himself. And fails. Again. The 00:17:20.130 --> 00:17:22.750 rope broke, or the knot slipped. The details 00:17:22.750 --> 00:17:25.450 vary, but he survived. He woke up with a sore 00:17:25.450 --> 00:17:28.650 neck and a bruised ego. But then, almost immediately, 00:17:28.910 --> 00:17:31.789 fate just kicks him while he's down. Three weeks 00:17:31.789 --> 00:17:33.910 later, he gets acute appendicitis. Talk about 00:17:33.910 --> 00:17:36.369 bad timing. You try to kill yourself, fail, and 00:17:36.369 --> 00:17:38.049 then your body tries to kill you with an infected 00:17:38.049 --> 00:17:40.269 organ. It was disastrous. He's hospitalized for 00:17:40.269 --> 00:17:43.130 surgery. And in the hospital, to manage the severe 00:17:43.130 --> 00:17:45.589 post -op pain, the doctors give him Pavanol. 00:17:45.730 --> 00:17:48.130 Which is a morphine -based painkiller. And highly, 00:17:48.170 --> 00:17:50.130 highly addictive. Dazai takes to it immediately. 00:17:50.539 --> 00:17:52.579 He becomes a serious addict. For the next year, 00:17:52.599 --> 00:17:54.299 he is fighting this addiction. He's borrowing 00:17:54.299 --> 00:17:56.940 money from everyone he knows. He's lying. He's 00:17:56.940 --> 00:17:59.660 in a haze. His mentor, Eye Abuse, is trying to 00:17:59.660 --> 00:18:03.599 help. But Dazai is spiraling. Finally, in October 00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:06.460 1936, he is taken to a mental institution. No, 00:18:06.500 --> 00:18:08.140 he didn't check himself into rehab, right? He 00:18:08.140 --> 00:18:10.740 was tricked into it. Essentially. He was told 00:18:10.740 --> 00:18:12.799 he was going to a nice sanatorium to rest and 00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:15.819 recover. Instead, he was locked in a room in 00:18:15.819 --> 00:18:18.279 a mental ward and forced to quit cold turkey. 00:18:19.079 --> 00:18:21.440 for over a month he suffered through withdrawal 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:24.680 in a place he felt was a prison he felt deeply 00:18:24.680 --> 00:18:26.559 betrayed by his wife and his friends who put 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:28.059 him there even if they were trying to save his 00:18:28.059 --> 00:18:31.319 life to him the asylum was the ultimate rejection 00:18:31.319 --> 00:18:34.240 he was officially marked as a madman and while 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:36.599 he's locked up this is the part that sounds like 00:18:36.599 --> 00:18:40.470 a soap opera but is just tragic reality His wife, 00:18:40.650 --> 00:18:42.890 Hatsuyo, the geisha he ran away with, the one 00:18:42.890 --> 00:18:45.230 he fought his family for, she cheats on him. 00:18:45.309 --> 00:18:48.109 With his best friend's Zenchir Kodake. That is 00:18:48.109 --> 00:18:51.390 brutal. Just brutal. When Dazai gets out of the 00:18:51.390 --> 00:18:54.009 asylum, clean but incredibly fragile, and he 00:18:54.009 --> 00:18:56.670 finds this out, it just breaks whatever was left 00:18:56.670 --> 00:18:59.569 of their bond. He attempts Shinju a joint suicide 00:18:59.569 --> 00:19:02.190 with Hatsuyo. They take sleeping pills. Neither 00:19:02.190 --> 00:19:04.470 died. They survived. And soon after, they divorced. 00:19:04.940 --> 00:19:06.720 Okay, let's just recap this sequence because 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:10.900 it's insane. Failed career, failed hanging, appendix 00:19:10.900 --> 00:19:13.680 rupture, morphine addiction, locked in an asylum, 00:19:13.940 --> 00:19:17.420 wife cheats with best friend, failed double suicide, 00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:22.079 and a divorce. All in about 18 months. It completely 00:19:22.079 --> 00:19:24.700 cemented his worldview. You can see why he viewed 00:19:24.700 --> 00:19:26.720 the world as a place of relentless betrayal and 00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:29.279 isolation. He felt he couldn't trust his family, 00:19:29.359 --> 00:19:31.960 his body, his wife, or his friends. He felt that 00:19:31.960 --> 00:19:34.880 human beings were inherently deceitful. But then, 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:36.960 and this is where his story takes such a weird 00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:39.380 turn, things kind of stabilize. We enter the 00:19:39.380 --> 00:19:42.460 war years. It's the great paradox of Dazai. When 00:19:42.460 --> 00:19:46.019 the world goes mad, he gets sane. In 1939, he 00:19:46.019 --> 00:19:48.140 remarries, this time to a middle school teacher 00:19:48.140 --> 00:19:50.920 named Michiko Ishihara. It's an arranged marriage, 00:19:51.079 --> 00:19:53.440 encouraged by his mentor Ibuse, who probably 00:19:53.440 --> 00:19:55.440 thought, we need to get this guy a stable environment. 00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:58.519 Stat. And it works. For a time, it works. They 00:19:58.519 --> 00:20:00.660 move to Metaka, a suburb of Tokyo. They have 00:20:00.660 --> 00:20:03.319 children. A daughter, Sonoko, a son, Masaki, 00:20:03.460 --> 00:20:05.599 and another daughter, Satoko, who actually grew 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:07.579 up to be the very famous writer Yuko Tsushima. 00:20:07.980 --> 00:20:10.299 And this is all happening as World War II is 00:20:10.299 --> 00:20:13.940 ramping up. 1941, Japan attacks the U .S. The 00:20:13.940 --> 00:20:16.599 entire country mobilizes. Most men are getting 00:20:16.599 --> 00:20:19.319 drafted. Dazai was excused. He had chronic chest 00:20:19.319 --> 00:20:21.319 problems and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:23.880 So while his entire generation went off to die 00:20:23.880 --> 00:20:26.279 in the Pacific, he stayed home. And the censorship 00:20:26.279 --> 00:20:28.420 back then was intense. I mean, you had to write 00:20:28.420 --> 00:20:30.759 things that supported the national spirit, the 00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:33.980 war effort. If you wrote about despair or individualism, 00:20:34.019 --> 00:20:37.099 you were going to jail. But Dazai... He pivoted. 00:20:37.119 --> 00:20:39.140 He did. He started writing retellings of fairy 00:20:39.140 --> 00:20:42.619 tales. Otogijishi. He retold stories by Ihara 00:20:42.619 --> 00:20:46.359 Sekaku, an old Edo period writer. He wrote Suguru, 00:20:46.460 --> 00:20:49.079 which is this beautiful, almost nostalgic travelogue 00:20:49.079 --> 00:20:51.619 of his home region. Why fairy tales? Was it just 00:20:51.619 --> 00:20:54.359 pure escapism? In a way, yes. While Tokyo is 00:20:54.359 --> 00:20:56.660 being firebombed, and Dazai's house burned down 00:20:56.660 --> 00:20:59.240 twice, by the way, he is retreating into folklore. 00:20:59.809 --> 00:21:02.230 Imagine him sitting in a bomb shelter, the ground 00:21:02.230 --> 00:21:05.089 shaking from B -29 raids, writing a story about 00:21:05.089 --> 00:21:07.650 a talking badger or a red demon. That's an amazing 00:21:07.650 --> 00:21:10.410 image. But it was also a way to preserve a kind 00:21:10.410 --> 00:21:12.990 of humor and humanity when the current reality 00:21:12.990 --> 00:21:15.789 was so grim. He couldn't write about the war 00:21:15.789 --> 00:21:18.130 honestly without getting arrested. So he wrote 00:21:18.130 --> 00:21:20.390 about demons and badgers and ancient heroes. 00:21:20.589 --> 00:21:23.569 It was a form of quiet resistance. He refused 00:21:23.569 --> 00:21:26.220 to let the war kill his art. I love that. The 00:21:26.220 --> 00:21:28.140 world is ending and he's writing about a badger. 00:21:28.220 --> 00:21:30.700 It shows his dedication to the craft. He was 00:21:30.700 --> 00:21:33.240 writing to stay sane. It kept him tethered to 00:21:33.240 --> 00:21:36.200 life. And because he kept publishing during the 00:21:36.200 --> 00:21:38.400 war, when a lot of other writers fell silent 00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:40.519 or just wrote propaganda, by the time the war 00:21:40.519 --> 00:21:43.839 ended in 1945, he was perfectly positioned. Which 00:21:43.839 --> 00:21:46.500 leads us to the post -war era. Japan has surrendered. 00:21:47.079 --> 00:21:49.500 The cities are ash. The emperor has renounced 00:21:49.500 --> 00:21:52.279 his divinity. All the old values are shattered. 00:21:52.460 --> 00:21:54.980 And suddenly, Dazai is the voice of the era. 00:21:55.160 --> 00:21:58.039 He was. He wrote Vian's Wife in 1947, which depicts 00:21:58.039 --> 00:22:00.500 a dissolute poet and his long -suffering wife 00:22:00.500 --> 00:22:02.960 in post -war Tokyo. It resonated so powerfully, 00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:05.259 people felt. This man understands our exhaustion, 00:22:05.460 --> 00:22:07.900 our moral confusion. And then came The Setting 00:22:07.900 --> 00:22:11.079 Sun, or She. A massive hit. It depicts a decline 00:22:11.079 --> 00:22:14.079 of the Japanese nobility after the war. The aristocracy 00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:16.440 was being dismantled, losing their money and 00:22:16.440 --> 00:22:20.380 their status. The term shesoku, or setting sun 00:22:20.380 --> 00:22:23.140 tribe, actually entered the language to describe 00:22:23.140 --> 00:22:27.799 these declining aristocratic families. Dazai 00:22:27.799 --> 00:22:30.259 captured the melancholy of a dying class perfectly. 00:22:30.539 --> 00:22:32.380 And this book was based on real life too, right? 00:22:32.440 --> 00:22:34.559 He was getting messy again. Oh, very messy. It 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:37.529 was based on the diary of Shizuko. an admirer 00:22:37.529 --> 00:22:39.450 of his that he had an affair with. They even 00:22:39.450 --> 00:22:41.289 had a child together, a daughter named Haruko. 00:22:41.829 --> 00:22:44.049 Dazai was juggling his wife, his mistress, his 00:22:44.049 --> 00:22:45.890 fame, and his return to very heavy drinking. 00:22:46.130 --> 00:22:48.930 But not everyone was a fan of this saint of sadness 00:22:48.930 --> 00:22:51.470 act. And this is where we get to bring in Yukio 00:22:51.470 --> 00:22:54.289 Mishima. The feud. This is legendary in Japanese 00:22:54.289 --> 00:22:56.769 literary circles. So paint the picture for us. 00:22:56.970 --> 00:22:59.170 Mishima is the young upstart. He's obsessed with 00:22:59.170 --> 00:23:01.450 beauty, with strength, with discipline, with 00:23:01.450 --> 00:23:03.869 bodybuilding later on. He wants to restore the 00:23:03.869 --> 00:23:08.639 samurai spirit. And then you have Dazai. They 00:23:08.639 --> 00:23:11.099 are polar opposites. They met for dinner on December 00:23:11.099 --> 00:23:15.259 14, 1946. It was literary gathering. Mishima 00:23:15.259 --> 00:23:17.720 was there, probably in a crisp suit, very composed. 00:23:17.960 --> 00:23:19.480 Dazai was there probably already a few drinks 00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:22.980 in. And Mishima, being Mishima, reportedly looked 00:23:22.980 --> 00:23:27.359 Dazai in the eye across a table and said, He 00:23:27.359 --> 00:23:32.319 said that to his face. At a dinner party, that 00:23:32.319 --> 00:23:35.440 is some serious hostility. Yeah. Pass the soy 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:38.200 sauce. And by the way, I loathe your very existence. 00:23:38.819 --> 00:23:41.240 To his face. The room must have gone dead silent. 00:23:41.460 --> 00:23:43.220 What was his problem with Dazai? What was it 00:23:43.220 --> 00:23:45.940 about him? Mishima later listed three specific 00:23:45.940 --> 00:23:49.720 reasons. One, he disliked Dazai's face. He just 00:23:49.720 --> 00:23:52.440 thought he looked weak. Wow. Two, he disliked 00:23:52.440 --> 00:23:54.880 his rustic preference for urban sophistication. 00:23:54.980 --> 00:23:56.799 He was basically calling him a country bumpkin 00:23:56.799 --> 00:23:59.240 trying to act cool. And three, and this is the 00:23:59.240 --> 00:24:01.880 most important one, he disliked that Dazai played 00:24:01.880 --> 00:24:04.059 roles inappropriate for him. He called it clowning. 00:24:04.900 --> 00:24:07.740 Mishima hated weakness, and he saw Dazai as a 00:24:07.740 --> 00:24:09.900 man who celebrated his own weakness, who wallowed 00:24:09.900 --> 00:24:13.039 in it. It's the clash of two philosophies. Mishima 00:24:13.039 --> 00:24:15.180 wanted to overcome human flaw through discipline. 00:24:15.799 --> 00:24:18.700 Dazai wanted to expose human flaw through confession. 00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:22.279 Exactly. Mishima thought Dazai was pathetic. 00:24:22.779 --> 00:24:25.460 Dazai probably thought Mishima was rigid and 00:24:25.460 --> 00:24:28.390 uptight. And Dazai's defense at the dinner was 00:24:28.390 --> 00:24:31.130 apparently just to smile and say, but you're 00:24:31.130 --> 00:24:33.450 here, so you must like me a little bit, and then 00:24:33.450 --> 00:24:36.390 try to argue about another writer, Gaimori. He 00:24:36.390 --> 00:24:38.589 didn't fight back with anger, he just deflected. 00:24:38.750 --> 00:24:41.490 Which probably made Mishima hate him even more. 00:24:41.710 --> 00:24:43.970 Oh, absolutely. And amidst all this fame and 00:24:43.970 --> 00:24:47.170 fighting, Dazai writes his masterpiece, No Longer 00:24:47.170 --> 00:24:49.650 Human. Written in an onsen in Itami and finished 00:24:49.650 --> 00:24:52.190 in Numia. It is the culmination of everything 00:24:52.190 --> 00:24:54.509 we've talked about. The suicide attempts, the 00:24:54.509 --> 00:24:56.470 leftist posturing, the addiction, the feeling 00:24:56.470 --> 00:24:59.190 of being an outsider. It's a quasi -autobiography 00:24:59.190 --> 00:25:02.970 of a man, Oboioso, who feels disqualified from 00:25:02.970 --> 00:25:05.309 being human. I reread it recently for this, and 00:25:05.309 --> 00:25:07.250 what really struck me is that clowning aspect 00:25:07.250 --> 00:25:09.890 that Mishma hated. The main character creates 00:25:09.890 --> 00:25:12.890 this funny, goofy persona to hide his terrifying 00:25:12.890 --> 00:25:15.690 social anxiety. He acts like a goofball so people 00:25:15.690 --> 00:25:18.009 won't see how empty he feels inside. That is 00:25:18.009 --> 00:25:21.039 the core of the book, the mask. It resonates 00:25:21.039 --> 00:25:23.480 so hard with people today because we all wear 00:25:23.480 --> 00:25:26.920 masks. We all perform happiness. Dazai just admitted 00:25:26.920 --> 00:25:29.180 it. He wrote that famous line, I have always 00:25:29.180 --> 00:25:32.319 been shaking with fear. It was a confession that 00:25:32.319 --> 00:25:34.059 he had never, ever felt comfortable in the world 00:25:34.059 --> 00:25:36.180 of human beings. It was completed just before 00:25:36.180 --> 00:25:37.599 his death. It's almost like he had to get that 00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:39.640 out of his system before the end. It stands as 00:25:39.640 --> 00:25:42.079 a suicide note in novel form. He poured every 00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:44.400 last drop of his pain into that book, and once 00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:46.720 it was done, he was empty. Which brings us to 00:25:46.720 --> 00:25:50.549 the end, the final act. The final spiral. By 00:25:50.549 --> 00:25:53.789 1948, Dazai's health was deteriorating rapidly. 00:25:54.109 --> 00:25:56.650 The alcoholism was rampant. He was drinking sake 00:25:56.650 --> 00:25:59.430 by the gallon. The tuberculosis was worsening. 00:25:59.430 --> 00:26:02.150 He was coughing blood. And he met a woman named 00:26:02.150 --> 00:26:04.750 Tomi Yamazaki. She was a beautician and a war 00:26:04.750 --> 00:26:07.289 widow. Someone who was also, you know, damaged 00:26:07.289 --> 00:26:10.390 by life. And in classic Dazai fashion, he abandons 00:26:10.390 --> 00:26:12.029 his wife and children to move in with her. He 00:26:12.029 --> 00:26:14.839 just repeats the cycle. Yes. He does. And on 00:26:14.839 --> 00:26:18.299 June 13, 1948, late at night, they leave their 00:26:18.299 --> 00:26:21.220 apartment. This is the event, the Tamagawa Aqueduct. 00:26:21.339 --> 00:26:24.400 It had been raining heavily. The aqueduct, which 00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:26.599 runs through Tokyo, was swollen, the water was 00:26:26.599 --> 00:26:29.740 muddy, and the current was fast. This wasn't 00:26:29.740 --> 00:26:32.660 a peaceful stream. It was a torrent. They walked 00:26:32.660 --> 00:26:34.460 along the bank. And they didn't just jump. They 00:26:34.460 --> 00:26:36.960 tied themselves together. Yes, with a red sash, 00:26:37.259 --> 00:26:41.640 a kimono sash. It's a very dramatic, very literary 00:26:41.640 --> 00:26:45.130 image. Bound together in death. Their bodies 00:26:45.130 --> 00:26:47.789 weren't found immediately, were they? No. They 00:26:47.789 --> 00:26:50.690 disappeared on the 13th. The police and his friends 00:26:50.690 --> 00:26:53.250 searched for days. They eventually found the 00:26:53.250 --> 00:26:56.230 bodies on June 19th. Which incredibly would have 00:26:56.230 --> 00:26:59.250 been his 39th birthday. A macabre birthday present 00:26:59.250 --> 00:27:01.849 to the world. He was found dead on the day he 00:27:01.849 --> 00:27:04.049 was born. Now, there's some speculation about 00:27:04.049 --> 00:27:06.750 this, right? It wasn't as clear cut as they both 00:27:06.750 --> 00:27:09.829 wanted to die happily ever after. There's a haunting 00:27:09.829 --> 00:27:12.569 theory from Kikichi Nakahata, who was a kimono 00:27:12.569 --> 00:27:14.650 merchant who knew the family and saw the scene 00:27:14.650 --> 00:27:17.430 when the bodies were pulled out. He speculated 00:27:17.430 --> 00:27:19.809 that Dazai might have been pressured into it 00:27:19.809 --> 00:27:22.269 by Tommy. Pressured. Nakahata said, and this 00:27:22.269 --> 00:27:25.470 is a quote, Dazai was asked to die, and he simply 00:27:25.470 --> 00:27:28.470 agreed, but just before his death, he suddenly 00:27:28.470 --> 00:27:31.329 felt an obsession with life. What makes him think 00:27:31.329 --> 00:27:33.410 that? Is there any evidence? Well, the physical 00:27:33.410 --> 00:27:36.049 evidence. There were scratch marks on the ground 00:27:36.049 --> 00:27:38.289 at the edge of the bank and on the bodies themselves. 00:27:38.769 --> 00:27:40.650 It looked like someone had tried to claw their 00:27:40.650 --> 00:27:42.670 way back up the slippery mud bank at the last 00:27:42.670 --> 00:27:46.490 second. It suggests a moment of regret, a panic. 00:27:46.730 --> 00:27:49.490 That is a terrifying image. You jump in, the 00:27:49.490 --> 00:27:51.910 cold water hits you, the reality hits you, and 00:27:51.910 --> 00:27:53.589 suddenly you think, wait, I want to write another 00:27:53.589 --> 00:27:55.349 book, but you're tied to someone else and the 00:27:55.349 --> 00:27:57.549 current is just too strong. We will never truly 00:27:57.549 --> 00:28:00.730 know. But it adds this layer of tragic ambiguity. 00:28:01.269 --> 00:28:03.789 Did the man who spent 20 years trying to die 00:28:03.789 --> 00:28:06.250 finally want to live exactly at the moment when 00:28:06.250 --> 00:28:08.230 it was too late? And he left work unfinished. 00:28:08.609 --> 00:28:12.430 Yes, a novella called Goodbye, or Goodabye. He 00:28:12.430 --> 00:28:14.109 was writing it for the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. 00:28:14.670 --> 00:28:16.930 It was meant to be a lighthearted comedy about 00:28:16.930 --> 00:28:18.890 a man trying to break up with all his mistresses. 00:28:19.029 --> 00:28:22.390 A comedy, after all that. Yes. He wanted to write 00:28:22.390 --> 00:28:25.269 something light, but it just breaks off mid -sentence. 00:28:25.430 --> 00:28:28.319 Goodbye. You couldn't write a more fitting ending 00:28:28.319 --> 00:28:31.000 if you tried. It is the ultimate unfinished business. 00:28:31.279 --> 00:28:34.400 So what does this all mean? We look at this whole 00:28:34.400 --> 00:28:37.859 trajectory from the mansion in Omori to the muddy 00:28:37.859 --> 00:28:40.779 aqueduct in Tokyo. From the prince to the corpse, 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:43.390 what's the takeaway? I think it's the story of 00:28:43.390 --> 00:28:45.970 a man who was just too sensitive for the world 00:28:45.970 --> 00:28:48.829 he was born into. He lacked the skin that protects 00:28:48.829 --> 00:28:51.670 the rest of us from the small and large cruelties 00:28:51.670 --> 00:28:54.829 of life. He tried to numb that sensitivity with 00:28:54.829 --> 00:28:57.769 alcohol, with drugs, with women, with politics. 00:28:58.109 --> 00:29:00.369 But the only thing that really worked, the only 00:29:00.369 --> 00:29:02.470 thing that gave his suffering shape and meaning, 00:29:02.569 --> 00:29:05.250 was the writing. He turned his pain into art 00:29:05.250 --> 00:29:07.390 that has comforted millions of people who feel 00:29:07.390 --> 00:29:10.599 the same way. His legacy is undeniable. His grave 00:29:10.599 --> 00:29:13.000 at Zenrinji Temple in Mitaka is still covered 00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:15.420 in offerings today. I've seen photos of it. Cigarettes, 00:29:15.579 --> 00:29:18.559 one cup of zekisek, flowers, cherries. People 00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:21.119 visit him like a patron saint of sadness. They 00:29:21.119 --> 00:29:23.460 go there to say, I feel broken too and you make 00:29:23.460 --> 00:29:25.920 me feel less alone. So here's a thought to leave 00:29:25.920 --> 00:29:28.720 you with. Imagine that final moment at the aqueduct. 00:29:28.980 --> 00:29:32.920 He spent 20 years fetishizing suicide. He wrote 00:29:32.920 --> 00:29:35.059 about it. He attempted it. He built his entire 00:29:35.059 --> 00:29:38.059 brand on it. But that speculation that he tried 00:29:38.059 --> 00:29:40.960 to climb back up, it makes me wonder if No Longer 00:29:40.960 --> 00:29:43.319 Human was his way of finally saying goodbye to 00:29:43.319 --> 00:29:45.660 that persona so he could start living. But the 00:29:45.660 --> 00:29:48.099 momentum of his own legend just dragged him into 00:29:48.099 --> 00:29:50.700 the water. That is the tragedy. Goodbye remained 00:29:50.700 --> 00:29:52.900 unfinished because he finally said it for real. 00:29:53.119 --> 00:29:55.380 If you haven't read No Longer Human, pick it 00:29:55.380 --> 00:29:58.000 up. But don't just read it as a story. Read it 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:01.390 as a survival log that abruptly ends. Thanks 00:30:01.390 --> 00:30:03.210 for listening to this deep dive. Thank you.