Japanese Literature discussion

Our April discussion is about Osamu Dazai's The Setting Sun.

The story is told through the eyes of Kazuko, the unmarried daughter of a widowed aristocrat. Her search for self meaning in a society devoid of use for her forms the crux of Dazai’s novel...

Kazuko’s mother falls ill, and due to their financial circumstances they are forced to take a cottage in the countryside. Her brother, who became addicted to opium during the war is missing. When he returns, Kazuko attempts to form a liaison with the novelist Uehara. This romantic displacement only furthers to deepen her alienation from society.

This one needs the normal Dazai CW—suicide and misogyny. If you'd like more context on Dazai's life, I've got a podcast episode on Dazai's life and work (tinyurl.com/RJLeps11).

Please feel free to add your own resources in the thread!

I read this book many years ago, but it is still fresh in my head.

I wonder what some people’s favorite quote(s) from The Setting Sun. I am curious but while I’m at it my favorite quote from the book is near the end of chapter five and it is “I don’t either. I wonder if anyone does. We all remain children, no matter how much time goes by. We don’t understand anything.”

I must have read something by Dazai in the past, but nothing comes to mind.

I got in my copy of The Setting Sun today. I will start it shortly after the month turns.

This New Directions edition of The Setting Sun is odd. The minimalist cover with the odd font makes it look new, and the only serious omission is that nowhere on the outside is the translator credited.

Once you open it, though, it's so old-fashioned you might think it's used: the old fonts, the huge margins. No original publication copyright. No date on the preface to tell you when it was translated. One is left to assume the 'Japan today' Keene describes is the Japan of 1956 (the date New Directions copyrighted it. As if they have any right to ownership).

But on to the novel...

Bill wrote: "This New Directions edition of The Setting Sun is odd. The minimalist cover with the odd font makes it look new, and the only serious omission is that nowhere on the outside is th..." I never really thought of the book cover nor its fonts... Its really interesting how the publishing house did that.

I'm in the middle of chapter 3 now.

It seemed to be going well for our narrator and her mother through the first two chapters, despite the mother not wanting to leave her old home. Then at the end of chapter 2, Kazuko has a couple of outbursts over being asked to change her life in ways she very much does not want to do. I found those outbursts to be confusing pseudo-philosophy. Are they intended to be nonsensical? Are they badly translated?

Kazuko then sinks into what can only be called depression in chapter 3. It seems to me that some compromise should have been possible at the end of chapter 2, rather than completely rejecting her family's requests and throwing all to the wind. I hope things get better for her in later chapters.

On the other hand, Dazai shows he can do good, poetic philosophizing in the section of Naoji's journal that Kazuko reads in the middle of chapter 3. Which makes me think all the more than he intended to portray Kazuko as irrational at the end of chapter 2.

I'm going to put off mentioning the plot of chapters 4, 6, and 8 until later in the month when more people have finished this. They go together as a set, with chapters 5 and 7 as interludes.

If chapter 5 is about the fall of aristocracy, I don't see how. Her death by a common illness (Dazai makes it clear how common, by bringing it up again at the end of chapter 6) makes her no different than others. There aren't even any noble sentiments involved. Just a slow waning of health until the end. This chapter is essential to the plot, but doesn't really develop the theme.

I read through chapter 7 last night and again this afternoon, and I still don't understand its reasoning. I am willing to accept that that 'right' exists, but I don't see why he exercised it. It strikes me as not just a very important part of the novel, but am important part of the author's life: surely everyone from then until now has read this chapter as a self-assessment of Dazai's life.

I have to admit I found more meaning and value in the first half of the novel than the second. Is it there and I missed it? Quite possibly.

I've been really excited to revisit this amazing book for the second time. I had previously read it at the end of 2023, I can say now that reading it a second time was very much needed. I really feel like Dazai put a lot of his personal struggels into some of the characters in the story and it makes it a lot more personal. I won't go into details as I don't want to spoil it for anybody that's currently reading it. I will say however that Kazuko has a very bizarre type in men, when she was describing the man she loves I couldn't help but to be disgusted with the image she provides lol. Naoji is a character that grew on me so much, specially with how his relationship with Kazuko deveoped towards the end. I really enjoy reading stories set in this time period, how the war changed so many of the aristocrats lives I find it very interesting. This book is a 5/5 for me, I look foward to reading eveybody's opinions :D

I liked this book even if it verges on desperation most of the times. It is so gloom but still I couldn't stop reading it. I think that what makes the difference is the author and the way he uses to convey even the worst of things. Or maybe is the Italian translation :) I don't know. Anyway I read the Manga Version in English a couple of months ago, and I don't remember any particolar discrepancies.

I'm very curious as to how directly Dazai made use of his "inspiration" of Ota Shizuko's diaries in his portrayal of Kazuko. She's unusually resilient and determined to endure when compared against most Dazai characters or her brother. But I did struggle to understand some of her decisions, and I wonder if, perhaps, Dazai's ability to empathise with women impacted that.

I’ve just finished reading this book. The 2nd for me of Dazai Osamu, thank you for suggesting it. :) I had a general feeling while reading the 2nd part, more desperate and sad, like when I was reading Dostoevski. The same gloomy feeling, which made me shocked when I was younger, and still I can’t totally digest while reading it. I preferred the first part of the book, I thought I liked the book so much and was so happy to have found a strong reading like this. It was really easy to read, (I read the English translation, which I liked very much and didn’t feel weird like sometimes it happens.)
Kazuko and her mother’s together living was enviable to me, so peaceful and beautiful, even when they had to change house. The house on the mountains felt for me like a peaceful retreat for them. Many new feelings could come afloat, good and bad. Suddenly Naoji, like a bad premonition, came home; destroyed himself, he destroyed what was left of the beauty between the two women. Even if love between the three was still very strong, they were trying to help each other at all times, soon it was to become gloomy and dark. I felt Kazuko’s willingness to fight for life was admirable, even if outdated, as if it was a woman in our days, of course she would have had more independent choices available, but as I wrote, it’s understandable in those days. I felt she’s very strong even though she was desperate, she could live the change from an aristocrat to a normal woman boldly.

Chapter one: I don't know if this is a translation issue but i'm not quite fond of dazai/keene using the word "breast" for that snake metaphor like they could've used "chest".