Shayo (1947; tr. The Setting Sun, 1956), a best-selling novel by Dazai Osamu, is set in postwar Japan. Mirroring Dazai’s riotous lifestyle and deep interest in suicide, the tragic narrative is told by Kazuko, a young woman from a once-noble lineage. Her impoverished life after the war is further complicated by the loss of both her mother and drug-addicted brother. Kazuko’s loss of identity and emptiness deepen as she tries to adopt new Western fashions, despite her fundamentally traditionalist soul. Ultimately, after taking up with Uehara, a self-indulgent writer, she willfully becomes pregnant in an attempt to bring hope to her dismal life.
See also WOMEN IN LITERATURE.
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.