100 Year Anniversary of the Birth of DAZAI Osamu: DAZAI Osamu and Art-His Homeland and Self-Portraits

The Aomori Museum of Art is holding the “100 Year Anniversary of the Birth of DAZAI Osamu: DAZAI Osamu and Art-His Homeland and Self-Portraits” exhibit to commemorate the 100th year anniversary of the birth of DAZAI Osamu.

DAZAI Osamu (1909 – 1948) was a famous novelist from Aomori prefecture, as well as a famous novelist of Japan in the Showa period (1926 – 1989). Even sixty years after his passing, his literary works contain a modernity which does not age, which still captures the hearts of readers today, as well as continues to find new readers in younger generations.
Among his works which continue to be read to this day, is his magnum opus, “Ningen Shikkaku” (No Longer Human) (1948), in which the main character is a manga artist, and self-portraits and photographs are a major motif in the story. The author, DAZAI himself had a deep interest in the fine arts since he was a student, designing the covers for his own literary magazines by himself, as well as repeatedly making sketches in his notebooks and textbooks of faces, starting with his own self-portraits. In his later years in the art studio of a painter and friend of DAZAI, he produced a portrait thought to be his self-portrait, as well as several paintings produced by DAZAI himself which still exist to this day.

This exhibit focuses on the relationship between DAZAI and art, displaying works of art created by DAZAI, and his literary magazines whose covers were designed by DAZAI himself, to examine the life and literature of DAZAI Osamu from the perspective of his connection with art.

This exhibit introduces the background from which DAZAI’s literature was born in the following multiple dimensions:

– Display of the artistic works of DAZAI’s Aomori contemporaries and friends, such as MUNAKATA Shiko, ABE Gosei and KODATE Zenshiro.

– Introduction of the artistic environment and cultural network of pre-war Aomori, which could be called the “home” which fostered the art of DAZAI.

– Display of precious literary materials, handwritten drafts, letters, first-edition books, and the magazines in which DAZAI was first published.

– Display of pictures and other materials of the Tsugaru region of Aomori from the time-period in which DAZAI lived.

Aomori Museum of Art