Dazai Osamu Memorial
The Dazai Osamu memorial “Shayōkan” ( Japanese 太宰 治 記念 館 「斜陽 館」 , Dazai Osamu Kinenkan “Shayōkan” ) is located in Kanagi (today: Goshogawara ) in Aomori Prefecture . The literary memorial is the former home of the Japanese writer Dazai Osamu . As an exemplary house of contemporary Japanese architecture , it was declared an important national cultural asset in 2004.
Overview
The house was built in 1907 by Dazai's father, Tsushima Gen'emon , a member of the Japanese parliament . Dazai lived in this house until 1923 when he moved from middle school to high school and moved to Aomori .
After Dazai's death in 1950, the Tsushima family sold the house. The owner of a ryokan in the neighborhood bought the house and renovated it as a memorial and also used it as a ryokan, which he named Shayōkan after Dazai's novel Shayō ( 斜陽 , setting sun ). The ryokan as well as a café located in it enjoyed great popularity among the followers of Dazai from the opening in 1950. Over time, the publicly accessible memorial was not only visited by hotel guests, but also by Dazai fans.
When the management of the ryokan deteriorated, the owner decided to sell the Shayōkan . In 1995 the town of Kanagi bought the house and made a fresh start with the conversion to a literary memorial. For this reason, the memorial was reopened in 1998 under the current name Dazai Osamu Shayōkan Memorial . You can still spend the night in the house today. In addition, it serves as an archive for Dazai's literary work and as a museum, in which valuable belongings of large landowners from the beginning of the Shōwa period , such as the Tsushima family, are on display.
The building is made of wood with the hiba wood typical of Aomori . On the ground floor there are eleven rooms with an area of 278 tsubo (approx. 917 m²), on the first floor eight rooms with an area of 116 tsubo (approx. 382 m²). In total, the landowner's residence, including gardens, a pond and other buildings belonging to the complex, has a total area of 680 tsubo (approx. 2244 m²). The external appearance of the building corresponds to that of a typical Japanese house. The arrangement and the layout of the rooms is generous and it follows the arrangement of the rooms in townhouses in the Tsugaru region. Inside, however, there are also a staircase and reception room in a western style, so that it represents a hybrid of Japanese-western architecture.
There is a branch of Aomori Bank on the opposite side of the building , but this neighborhood is no coincidence, as the banking business operated by the Tsushima family during the Meiji period was later transferred to Aomori Bank.
Building data
- Planning: Horie Sakichi (1875–1907)
- Completion: 1907
- Construction: single-storey wooden house with a hip roof
- Address: 〒037-0202 Aomori-ken Goshogawara-shi Kanagi-machi Asahiyama 412-1
- Declared a national and important cultural asset in December 2004
Web links
- Dazai Osamu Memorial on the website of the city of Goshogawara (Japanese), with pictures and floor plan of the memorial.
- Shayokan (Osamu Dazai Museum) - opening times, entrance fees etc. (English)
- Dazai Museum (English)
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 40 ° 54 ′ 9.7 " N , 140 ° 27 ′ 19.8" E