SOURCE: “Dazai Osamu,” in Modern Japanese Writers and the Nature of Literature, Stanford University Press, 1976, pp. 145–72.

In the following essay, Ueda maintains that Dazai, while saying little about his own works, used the autobiographical tone of his stories and novels to present his thoughts and ideas on the novel and the role and responsibilities of the writer and artist.

It may at first seem strange that Dazai Osamu (1909–48), noted for his garrulity, said little about literature or about his own works in his essays and letters. One should recall, however, that he was basically a very shy person who could not bear talking much about himself in an open manner. Writing about his own works seemed to him like bragging about his looks. “A writer should be ashamed of himself,” he once said, “to give even one word of explanation or apology regarding his own work.” Such being...