DAISAN NO SHINJIN. See THIRD GENERATION.
DANCING GIRL, THE. See MAIHIME.
DARK NIGHT’S PASSING, A. See AN’YA KÔRO.
DAZAI OSAMU (1909–1948). Dazai Osamu, given name Tsushima Shûji, was born in northern Japan, the child of a wealthy landowner. An excellent boarding school student, he began neglecting his studies after his idol Akutagawa Ryûnosuke committed suicide. Much of his career was marked by attempted suicides, addictions, extramarital affairs, divorce, and even an arrest for involvement with the Communist Party. He never graduated from university, but connections with Ibuse Masuji enabled him to get his works published. He first used his pen name Dazai Osamu in the short story Ressha (Train, 1933), an early experiment using first-person autobiographical style that became his trademark. He remained a productive writer during World War II and published his best-known work, Shayô (1947; tr. The Setting Sun, 1956), shortly after the end of the war. Dazai abandoned his children and second wife and finally succeeded in double suicide with a mistress in 1948, leaving his final work, Guddo bai (Goodbye), unfinished. See also DAZAI OSAMU PRIZE; MARXISM; ODA SAKUNOSUKE; POSTWAR LITERATURE; TSUSHIMA YÛKO.
DAZAI OSAMU PRIZE. The Dazai Osamu Prize (Dazai Osamu shô), founded in 1964 in honor of author Dazai Osamu, is awarded annually for an unpublished short story by a previously unrecognized author. (The work may have appeared in a coterie magazine.) The winner receives a commemorative gift and a cash award of one million yen. After being discontinued in 1978, the award was revived in 1999 and is now sponsored by the Mitaka city government. Prize recipients include Miyamoto Teru, who received it for Doro no kawa (Muddy River, 1977). See also LITERARY AWARDS.
DETECTIVE NOVELS. The Japanese detective novel (tantei shôsetsu or suiri shôsetsu) was born in the 1890s and flourished during the 1920s. The movement’s key author, Edogawa Rampô, was an admirer of Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Maurice Leblanc and founded the Detective Story Club in Japan in the 1940s. Matsumoto Seichô’s story of social and political corruption, Kao (1957; tr. Face, 1980), injected realism to detective literature. Since the 1980s, detective fiction has evolved to include elements of intellectual reasoning and introspection. Detective fiction also recently expanded to include manga (visual novels), most notably the weekly children’s publication Meitantei Konan (Case Closed), established in 1994. See also MINAKAMI TSUTOMU; OKAMOTO KIDÔ; SAKAGUCHI ANGO; YAMAMOTO SHÛGORÔ.
DIET LIBRARY. The National Diet Library (Kokkai Toshokan, abbreviated NDL) was created in June 1948 to help members of the Diet in researching matters pertaining to public policy. The library was formed from two preexisting libraries: the libraries of the two branches of the former Imperial Diet (established in 1890) and the Imperial Library (established in 1872). The NDL consists of two buildings in Tokyo (the second being built in 1961) and one in Kyoto Prefecture (called the Kansai-kan, built in 2002). The primary responsibilities of the NDL are to assist the Diet members in their public service duties and to provide library services for the other branches of government, as well as the general public. In addition to the main collection, the NDL is made up of an International Library of Children’s Literature, an Oriental Library (Tôyô Bunko), and 26 branch libraries in the executive and judicial branches of government. See also AOZORA BUNKO; MUSEUM OF MODERN JAPANESE LITERATURE; NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JAPANESE LITERATURE.
DRIFTING CLOUDS. See UKIGUMO.