The Flowers of Buffoonery by Osamu Dazai, translated by Sam Bett (New Directions)

Osamu Dazi is the pen name of Shuji Tsushima. A Japanese writer who was born in the rural town of Kanagi, currently a part of Goshogawara City, in Aomori Prefecture. His most famous novel is 人間失格 (Ningen Shikkaku), translated into English as No Longer Human. 

The Flowers of Buffoonery is a prequel to No Longer Human and has become available for the first time in English in 2023. It was first published as 道化の華 (Douke no Hana) in the literary journal Japanese Romanticism Vol.1 No.3 in 1935. It was published in book form as 晩年 (Ban’nen) in 1936 by Sunagoya Shobo. 

The story features Yozo Oba, the protagonist of No Longer Human, convalescing in a seaside sanatorium in Kanagawa Prefecture after an attempted double suicide with a young woman. The woman perished but Yozo was saved by a passing fisherman. 

Yozo Oba is staying at a place called Blue PInes Manor. He is recuperating from his failed suicide attempt. The story takes place over four days with Yozo’s friends and family coming to visit him. They try to keep Yozo in good spirits and avoid talking about Sono, the woman he was planning on dying with. 

The director of the sanatorium and the nurse that works there also drifts in and out of Yozo’s room to see how well he is doing and to check his mental stability. While staying at the sanatorium, Yozo decides to write a book with Yozo Oba as the main character. 

The story opens with Yozo reading his own lines from his book he is trying to write. It starts off with “Welcome to Sadness. Population one.” He tries to tell the story about how and why he survived. He continues to write in the first person, “It was me - these are the hands that pulled Sono underwater. In my insolence, I prayed for my salvation in the same breath that I prayed Sono would die”. 

Yozo Oba isn’t the only patient at Blue Pines Manor. When he was brought in, there were thirty-six tuberculosis patients. Two of them were in critical condition, eleven had mild cases, and the rest were in remission. 

Yozo was staying in Room 4 of the Eastern Wing of the sanatorium. A place reserved for “special cases” such as himself. There are six rooms in the Eastern Wing, two of which are currently vacant. In Room One was a male college student. In Rooms Five and Six were a couple of young women. All three were recovering patients. 

Although the story is rather short at just shy of one hundred pages, the emotions that are displayed by Yozo and his friends and family shows Dazai’s understanding of the human condition. 

Yozo Oba is of course based on Dazai’s own life experiences and he often makes fun of how people react to different situations. He makes Yozo act lighthearted when he is around his friends who can joke about a serious subject like suicide and yet, Yozo’s innermost thoughts are quite the opposite of how he acts. 

It’s difficult to sympathize with Yozo Oba. You cannot know if he’s being serious or if he just has a chip on his shoulder and is a bitter person at heart. If you have also read No Longer Human, you will know what becomes of him. 

Reading Dazai’s stories can be quite depressing at times and yet he manages to add a bit of humor so the reader won’t give up in disgust. Even if you cannot sympathize with Yozo Oba or Osamu Dazai, you can’t help but to continue reading to find out what happens in the end. ~Ernie Hoyt