Open Talk: Buraiha Writers and Literary Monuments: On the Deaths of Sakaguchi Ango, Dazai Osamu, and Dan Kazuo
The Yanai Initiative welcomes TOKINOYA Yuri, a Teacher at Waseda University Senior High School, who will explore how memories and monuments associated with the buraiha writers have evolved over time.
Sakaguchi Ango, Dazai Osamu, and Dan Kazuo, who were strongly associated with the buraiha (“decadent school”) movement, shared a close friendship with each other. Ango and Dan wrote tributes to Dazai when Dazai committed suicide in 1948, and after Ango died in 1955, Dan would portray both Ango and Dazai in his novels. However, Dan’s efforts to preserve his memories of his friends were not confined to his writing but extended into the living world as well, as he helped erect a monument dedicated to Ango in Niigata and participated in the unveiling ceremony for a Dazai monument in Aomori. After Dan died in 1976, he was honored with his own monument in Fukuoka.
This open talk will use these monuments as a starting point to explore the significance of inscribing memories through text as well as into stone and the deep connection among the three buraiha writers.
- Date & Time: September 3rd, 2026 (Thursday), 14:00-15:00
- Venue: The Waseda International House of Literature, B1F
- Language: Japanese
- Participation: Free
- Admission: Open to Students, Faculty and Public
- Presented by the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities, with support from the Waseda International House of Literature
Lecturer
TOKINOYA Yuri
TOKINOYA Yuri is a teacher at Waseda University Senior High School. She received her MA and PhD from Waseda University, as well as an MA from Columbia University through the Double Degree Program. She is a specialist of modern Japanese literature, with particular interest in the writings of Sakaguchi Ango and related issues of censorship and media. Recent scholarly contributions include the publication “The Shadow of Sakaguchi Ango over Dan Kazuo’s Novels: On Shōsetsu Sakaguchi Ango and Kataku no hito” (Kenkyū nenshi, March 2023) and co-editorial work on Sakaguchi Ango daijiten (Bensei Shuppan, June 2022).
Facilitator
Yanai Initiative Committee Member: Bent Yusuke Henry
Contact
Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities: [email protected]
