太宰 治（だざい おさむ、1909年–1948年）は、日本の小説家。青森県金木村（現・五所川原市）生まれ。本名は津島修治。東京帝国大学仏文科中退。1936年に最初の創作集『晩年』を刊行し、自身の経験を素材にした作品から、女性の語りによる小説、古典や民話の翻案まで、多様な形式で人間の弱さや孤独を描いた。他者への恐怖を道化の振る舞いで覆い隠す青年・大庭葉蔵の半生を描いた『人間失格』（英題 “No Longer Human”）では、周囲に合わせて生きようとするほど、自分の居場所を失っていく人物の内面を、手記の形式でたどる。敗戦後の没落貴族の家族を描いた『斜陽』（英題 “The Setting Sun”）では、母や弟の直治、作家の上原との関わりを通じて、主人公のかず子が古い道徳から離れ、自分の生き方を選び取ろうとする姿を描く。両作はドナルド・キーンによって英訳された。また、1944年に故郷を旅した経験に基づく『津軽』（英題 “Return to Tsugaru: Travels of a Purple Tramp”）では、土地の歴史や風景に、旧友や幼いころの世話人との再会を織り込む。故郷を紹介する紀行であるとともに、家族や人々との記憶をたどり、自分と生まれ育った土地との関係を確かめる作品となっている。
Osamu Dazai (1909–1948) was a Japanese novelist born in Kanagi, Aomori Prefecture, now part of Goshogawara. His real name was Shuji Tsushima. He studied French literature at Tokyo Imperial University but left without graduating, and published his first collection of fiction in 1936. His work explores human vulnerability and loneliness through autobiographical narratives, female narrators and adaptations of classical tales and folklore. Following a young man who conceals his fear of others behind clownish behaviour, “No Longer Human” traces Yozo Oba’s growing alienation through a series of notebooks. His attempts to accommodate other people deepen his uncertainty about where he belongs. Portraying an aristocratic family’s decline after Japan’s defeat in World War II, “The Setting Sun” centres on Kazuko and her relationships with her mother, her brother Naoji and the novelist Uehara. As inherited values lose their authority, Kazuko attempts to choose a life beyond conventional morality. Both novels were translated into English by Donald Keene. Based on a journey through his home region in 1944, “Return to Tsugaru: Travels of a Purple Tramp,” translated by James Westerhoven, combines local history and landscape with reunions with old friends and a woman who cared for him in childhood. Alongside its account of the region, the book examines Dazai’s relationship with his birthplace through memories of family and personal encounters.
