Tajfuny’s shelves needed this original edition of Osamu Dazai’s prose, the author of The Setting Sun (Zmierzch).
This book from our favorite series of classics from Kadokawa Publishing (with covers using patterns of tenugui towels) features ten texts – including one of the most famous and recognized among Dazai’s works, Hashire Merosu.
This story is based on a ballad by Friedrich Schiller, which in turn was based on the myth of Damon and Pythias – a parable about extraordinary friendship and trust, in which one of the men allows himself to be locked up in prison as a hostage so that the other, sentenced to death, can say goodbye to his family. Dazai tells their story in such a moving way that since a long time it has been an obligatory reading in Japanese schools, and also has been turned into an anime.
In the appendix you will find a detailed timeline of the writer’s life, an essay on his art and some hints on how to better understand some of his works. A real must-have for all The Setting Sun fans who can read Japanese.
