#ibuse

Which animal would you like to make a summoning contract with?

absolute baby hours

    “Memories” may have been intended as the testament of Tsushima Shūji, sometime university student and Communist party sympathizer, but it marked the birth of Dazai Osamu. He apparently decided to use this pseudonym after a meeting with Ibuse in January 1933. He also decided at this time the title of his first collection of short stories, Declining Years. “Memories” was the first work by Dazai to elicit praise from Ibuse, who wrote:

In the summer of 1930 Dazai visited Ibuse Masuji with the manuscripts of two stories. Ibuse recalled twenty-five years later that Dazai wrote him saying he would kill himself if Ibuse refused to meet him. Ibuse naturally consented, and Dazai soon afterward appeared at the publishing company where Ibuse worked. He insisted that Ibuse read the stories on the spot. Ibuse read them, recognized the influence of one of his own stories, and bluntly told Dazai that the stories were no good. He urged Dazai to read the classics, rather than worthless fiction, if he intended to become a writer. Dazai had chosen Ibuse as his mentor because he had enjoyed Ibuse’s writings ever since he was a boy of fourteen. He later even induced Ibuse to contribute a story to his high school magazine. After the meeting in 1930 Dazai continued to send Ibuse stories, and when three or four had accumulated would pay a visit. He probably hoped that Ibuse would recommend publication to a literary magazine, but Ibuse never vouchsafed a word of criticism. Instead, he once again recommended that Dazai read Pushkin, Chekhov, Proust, and other major European writers. Dazai’s reading of Evgeni Onegin provided direct inspiration for writing “Memories.” Perhaps in the hope of strengthening their ties, Dazai initially urged Ibuse to become a left-wing writer; Ibuse, refusing, urged Dazai in return not to become one.

He was rather weighed down at the moment, perhaps by the uncertainty of existence.

Nobody, I imagine, likes making absurd comparisons between himself and other things. Only to a man whose heart is wrung with grief would it occur to liken himself to a scrap of tin.