The collection I have, features three stories: The Student (Joseito), Applause (Kassai), and The Tale of Urashima (Urashimasan). They’re very different, not so much in mood (it’s Dazai Osamu after all) but in scope and purpose, and that makes this book a little weird.
The first is a traditional tale, the flow of conscience of a young female student going home to her mother, and the author uses her to express some of his feelings of sorrow and uncertainty when it comes to life itself. Unfortunately, the author’s misogyny also comes to light in all its glory.
Kassai is deeply autobiographical and deals with the author’s self-perceived failures as a publisher and poet.
The last one is a delightfully deep retelling of the famous tale where a nobleman saves a turtle and the turtle takes him to the bottom of the sea, into the Dragon’s Palace. It’s better to know the tale already, as Dazai isn’t interested so much in telling it: he turns the story into a dialogue between the turtle and the young nobleman, reasoning on life and expectations and what does it mean to be content, and ultimately reflects on its ending, on happiness and time and death.
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