Otogizōshi: Księga japońskich opowieści

by Osamu Dazai, Katarzyna Sonnenberg (Translator)

Fascynująca interpretacja tradycyjnych opowieści japońskich osadzona przez autora w realiach II Wojny Światowej. Uniwersalne historie o uczuciach i zmaganiach z losem opowiedziane są w ciekawy, intrygujący sposób, a stare opowieści nabierają nowego sensu w obliczu wojennej tragedii. Otogizōshi: Księga japońskich opowieści to świetny przykład na książkę, która pozostając na wskroś "japońska" przemawia również do zachodniego czytelnika.

Osamu Dazai (właśc. Shūji Tsushima; 1909-1948) to jedna z najważniejszych postaci w literaturze japońskiej. W czasie swojego burzliwego – bo naznaczonego uzależnieniami i licznymi próbami samobójczymi – życia zasłynął jako mistrz nowego stylu, świetnie władający językiem, potrafiący głośno wyrazić stany uczuciowe kolejnych pokoleń młodych Japończyków.

First published October 25, 1945

About the author

Osamu DAZAI (native name: 太宰治, real name Shūji Tsushima) was a Japanese author who is considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th-century Japan. A number of his most popular works, such as Shayō (The Setting Sun) and Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human), are considered modern-day classics in Japan.
With a semi-autobiographical style and transparency into his personal life, Dazai’s stories have intrigued the minds of many readers. His books also bring about awareness to a number of important topics such as human nature, mental illness, social relationships, and postwar Japan.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting concept this book is! During World War II, a Japanese father takes his young daughter down to the bomb shelter in their yard during an air raid. To relieve the young girl, the father begins telling classic Japanese fairy tales to her. He has the book on hand, but the simple text rather infuriates him as he is an academic and writer himself (the father is unnamed at the time, but rather implied to be the author himself), he decides to elaborate upon these tales.

The structure of the stories are rather fascinating for those who like looking at origins and the historic nature of these tales. A line or two of the original text is included in a different font, then the father reinterprets these simple words, turning them more into a traditional narrative and giving origins and personalities to these characters, explaining their actions. When he comes across a line that he finds peculiar, he will examine the historic context and wonder aloud about why an oni may be portrayed as a horrible monster in stories and yet how in critiques an author may be compared to an oni as praise.

This is a self-examining story, looking at Japanese history and culture all through a humorous fairy tale lens. While it is fascinating in regards to Osamu’s own examination of history, it is actually fairly historically important in its own right. While the author’s earlier work is consider much more important, this one has the honor of being one of the first Japanese published longer works (and by that I mean that though it may be a short book at 123 pages, it is not just a single short story) after WWII. In fact, Osamu most likely set it in a bomb shelter, as he probably came up with it in one. As he was writing the book, he and his family had evacuated to the countryside after his home was destroyed in an air raid (and again, his second home would also be destroyed in one). It is not hard to imagine that he was in a similar situation as the father in this book, telling his children stories to calm them, and interjecting his own sense of humor to keep his own spirits up.

The four stories are The Stolen Wen, Urashima-San,Click-Clack Mountain and The Sparrow Who Lost Her Tongue. The first tale is mostly just a humorous introduction to how Dazai will be taking on these stories, without getting into the depth that future stories will. Urashima-San in many ways seems to be Dazai pondering about how one should live a “proper” life. This is also where he begins to really analyze the tales from multiple directions (he makes comparison to this story and both Pandora’s Box and the Garden of Eden), while also comically interjecting reality; like how a tortoise would be very unlikely to show up in the village where he story takes place and tries to find a reasonable reason for its appearance there.

With Click-Clack Mountain he takes the interesting approach of telling you how the story ends in the first couple of paragraphs. It is important to note that these are all well known tales in Japan, so he would obviously think his reader already knew how it ended. He does this though to demonstrate the gruesome history of the tale and why it was altered in the then modern form to be more fitting for children. He analyses the story before even attempting to tell it, as he wants to show that depending on the version read, the lead character is either a monster absolutely deserving of a horrible fate, or someone who in self defense slightly injured an old woman and is met with a ghastly fate way out of proportion with his actions. Through this we see how the moral seems to change depending on how the tale is told (something we could apply to modern reworking of the works of the Brother’s Grimm as well).

Before beginning his final story, he tells us that he originally intended to include the story of Momotaro, but that it felt unfitting. All the works in this book come off as comedic tragedies, but Momotaro is such a distinctly heroic Japanese figure that he couldn’t rework him without coming off as insulting to Japanese history. In his own words, Momotaro is “Japan’s number 1,” how could he mock him without mocking Japan? Considering when this was written, I am unsure if this is a moment of patriotism or fear of censorship, but either way it adds to his examination of these tales in its own way.

The final story is, in my opinion, nowhere near as funny as the others. It doesn’t examine the story as much either… it’s just rather melancholy and yet seems a fitting conclusion. With this book Dazai set out to examine Japanese fairy tales and frequently points out the lack of a true moral to many of them, expressing that they are really just tragic comedies that can be understood by children. Here the comedy seems to fall off as if the project is no longer as amusing as it was, and instead we leave off with a note of sorrow.

This collection comes highly recommended for those with a love of Japanese stories or for anyone interested in the “hows and whys” behind the tales.

[Lör K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Why can’t people get along without criticizing one another?” Urashima shakes his head as he ponders this rudimentary question. “Never have the bush clover blooming on the beach, nor the little crabs who skitter o’er the sand, nor the wild geese resting their wings in yonder cove found fault with me. Would that human beings too were thus! Each individual has his own way of living. Can we not learn to respect one another’s chosen way? One makes every effort to live in a dignified and proper manner, without harming anyone else, yet people will carp and cavil and try to tear one down. It’s most vexing.”

Rating: 4 / 5

Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu is a collection of four fairy tales written by renowned Japanese author, Dazai Osamu. In literary terms, this also falls into Japanese literature, and Japanese culture.
Otogizōshi is a collection of fairy tales that Dazai wrote during the last years of the Pacific War.
Despite the gloom and suicidal overtones of books such as No Longer Human and The Setting Sun, Dazai shows his wit and humour in this book and I’m welcome to a wonderful change from his works. Since reading Schoolgirl and Blue Bamboo, I just had to read this one as well.
Thanks to Scribd, I got to read this for free because of my 30 day free trial (please note a 30 day free trial only gives you three book credits and allows you to only read three full books).

The Stolen Wen

This is the story of an old man with a wen on his cheek, and how he cares and loves for it. His family have no care for him, and Ojii-san, a drunkard, needs a change of pace. This was a wonderful story. I really enjoyed it, after I got through Dazai’s constant breaks of ‘so I couldn’t do this with this story because of this and that’. These were quite annoying, in all honesty, to read in the middle of the story. It was very distracting and it was hard to get back into it after having to trudge through it, especially when you’re enjoying the story as much as I was. Dazai has a peculiar way of writing, and within his stories, this shows and it aids them. When he writes like this, I feel that, personally, it takes away from the story. It’s not as smooth as usual, when he breaks the fourth wall, and as much as I love that in things such as Deadpool, I don’t think fourth wall breaks works so well within this piece. I feel like I definitely could have enjoyed this a lot more than I did, had Dazai left out his narrations until the end. A shame, really. If this was a stand alone book, I would only give it 2.5 stars.

Urashima-San

What if Westerners were to get wind of this and run around claiming that Japan’s fairy tales are more brutal or gruesome than their darling Greek myths? - Dazai, calling out the Whites. I love it.

I found this story to be quite educational, actually. Dazai teaches us of tortoises in a passage (in another author note, fourth wall break), and I found I didn’t know of the things he wrote before reading this.

I wasn’t enjoying this when I first started reading it. I found Dazai’s constant annotations, as in the previous story, very off putting. However, as I continued reading into Dazai’s writing in this, I became entranced, and ended up extremely glad I didn’t DNF this book as a whole. The descriptions in this are just marvellous, and Dazai has created a remarkable fantasy land that I just wish to escape to and hole up for a while, despite the time limitation. This is a wonderful story that has just sparked my imagination in the most wonderful way. Reading this allowed me to adjust to Dazai’s writing of annotations within his stories as well, and for that, I’m grateful as I can read freely without the interruptions.

This was a remarkable story and dissection of social standing and how humans view each other and the world. I found myself to be quite taken aback, realising that every word that Dazai wrote is true; it’s how humans perceive and how we act. It was a bit down putting, really, to realise how much we do out of good practice that is really no good at all. This has definitely given me a new outlook on life, and many things to ponder on in my behaviour and to wonder if they’re worth changing or not.

I have to say though – it was weird as hell learning all of this from a damn tortoise!

Click-Clack Mountain

I finally understand the fourth wall break! It’s Dazai discussing the stories of the child’s book he’s using as a prompt for the whole story. That took me too long.

I really enjoyed this story actually. It’s a story of too much revenge for one small act but I found it really sweet to read. It was evil, and definite overkill. The rabbit in this is wonderfully wicked, and I found I really enjoyed her character. She’s a devious little minx and I couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit of love for her. We’re meant to feel sorry for the tanuki in this but honestly? I just wanted him gone. He annoyed me no end and I’m actually glad he got the ending he did. Whoops.

This was a brilliant story and Dazai did this wonders.

The Sparrow Who Lost Her Tongue

I cried reading this. I legit cried. I felt so bad for the sparrow, I just wanted to give her a hug. I think this was a really strong story about trusting the people you’re supposed to love in the things they say, in my interpretation. The things that are said within this by one of the main characters really made me think about humankind and the way we do things. It’s strange to learn these things through the way they have been taught but they have seriously made me think about the things that humans do in social standing and have really helped me to outlook on my own life.

Overall, I think this was a really sweet book. I really enjoyed reading it, despite it taking me too long to get through. I was put off, at first, by Dazai’s constant authors notes, but when I reached “Click-Clack Mountain”, I realised that he was, in fact, explaining his decisions and thoughts on the stories that he was rewriting from a children’s book whilst stuck in a bomb shelter. I think this is pretty ingenious. It allows us a look into his mind as he writes, and allowed me, a foreigner, to understand the traditional children’s tales a lot more.

This was a great little read, and I recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy and faerie tales.

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an absolute blast of a book. The exceedingly sarcastic retellings of some of Japan's favourite children's fairy tales.

My favourite has to be Urashima-san who rescues a turtle or a tortoise from mean children and the turtle falls in (platonic) love with him and takes him to the Dragon Palace under the sea. It sounds mild enough, like all the fairy tales but there are hard edges everywhere and the turtle is the most sarcastic creature on the planet seemingly.

All the tales are "fiddled with" in some way by Dazai Osamu. They're funny, mean and there are nods to other myths and legends littered in the script. Great fun!

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although Dazai is better known for his downbeat works such as No Longer Human, this short book is at the same time amusing and thought-provoking. Written in the aftermath of WW2, these re-imagined traditional folktales are humorous and wry by turns, thanks in great part to the amazing skill of the translator. Ralph McCarthy uses accessible, contemporary language without falling into the trap of making it too colloquial or Americanised.

There are only four tales in this short work, and the author places himself in the weft as another character, the storyteller. Only one of the stories has the traditional "happy ending" expected in the West; however, the stories are all revealing of human character. The only tale I didn't particularly care for was "Click-clack Mountain": I found it confusing and rather pointless, but then I felt the same about the Tar Baby story in Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit. Also, having first met the versatile, shape-shifting tanuki in contemporary anime such as "Pom-Poko", I was surprised that the gluttonous tanuki in Dazai's tale would require any kind of boat, given that they use their testicles for boating (and just about everything else) in other stories.

[Mewa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Team zajączek. Była okrutna i mściwa, ale jenot? To utożsamienie najobrzydliwszego starego podrywacza, który napastuje młodą kobietę.

(Opowiadania zupełnie nie kojarzą się z Dazai, jakiego znamy)

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"(…) esistono anche parole di gioia, ma a quelle sono stati avviluppati sordidi espedienti, perché gli esseri umani nell'allegria trovano l'angoscia."

Otogizōshi di Dazai Osamu è una raccolta di quattro avvincenti rivisitazioni di fiabe giapponesi. L'autore parte dal presupposto che il lettore conosca già le fiabe di riferimento da cui prende spunto per narrare la sua versione delle storie, pertanto consiglio a chi non le conosca di leggersi le prime quattro facciate della postfazione prima di iniziare il libro, in modo da capire qual è la trama originale delle fiabe che Dazai andrà a rielaborare in modo estremamente originale.

Grazie al suo acuto umorismo, da un lato è piacevole e divertente leggere queste storie che scorrono veloci come un ruscello ma, al contempo, si ha sempre la strana sensazione di star scappando da qualcosa. Quando si entra nel villaggio dei passerotti in mezzo al bosco di bambù, o nel Palazzo del Drago nelle profondità marine, nonostante la meraviglia, aleggia sempre un'atmosfera malinconica e dolceamara che ha la sua origine nella nostra realtà. Infatti, le fiabe sono state scritte negli anni in cui infuria la seconda guerra mondiale in Giappone e nelle mani di Dazai diventano un mezzo per sfuggire da una realtà troppo brutta da vivere. Così, si mettono in scena storie straordinarie che vanno oltre il comprensibile, alla ricerca di un sollievo impossibile da trovare, perché prima o poi si torna sempre indietro, nella vita reale.

Dazai Osamu è sempre una garanzia. Lettura consigliatissima!

[Alex Pler · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Ya me has quitado las ganas de creer en nada. Por eso no me gusta la aventura. Porque, aunque te engañen, no hay modo de estar seguro de ello. Uno no tiene más remedio que seguir las indicaciones de su guía. Y si te dice que algo es así o asá, no queda sino creérselo. La aventura consiste en que te engañen".

Qué habilidad la de Dazai para reinterpretar cuentos clásicos con la visión descarnada del presente, para buscar sentidos útiles hoy a los mitos de siempre y para personalizarse él mismo y sus circunstancias en las historias ancestrales. No es perfecto pero es fascinante.

[Tobi ﾄﾋﾞ · Rating 4 out of 5]

“i’m afraid i don’t really have a clear understanding of the psychology of the powerful- particularly the absolutely invincible variety, which i’ve never met or known to exist. i’m a story writer with such feeble imaginative powers that unless i myself have experienced something, i can’t write one line- i can’t write a word- about it.”

”it’s because people have aspirations and ambitions that solitude wears on them. if you don’t have a damn about what the rest of the world is up to, you can be alone for a hundred years- a thousand years- with no difficulty whatsoever. at least, you can if you don’t let criticism bother you.”

“speech blossomed from anxiety… words were fermented from the uncertainty of existence, like poisonous red mushrooms that sprout from the rotting earth. it’s true we have words of joy and pleasure, but aren’t those the must unnatural and contrived of them all? apparently human beings experience anxiety even in the midst of joy. but in a place without anxiety there’s no need for such ignoble contrivances.”

[Sandra || Tabibito no hon · Rating 4 out of 5]

JAKIE TO BYŁO SUPER.

HUMOR, CZAICIE, humor i Dazai XD

Nie no, tak poważnie, to zawsze dało się u niego odczuć, ale dotychczas to było takie gorzkie, a tutaj takie uszczypliwe i pozytywne, ach, świetnie się bawiłam ❤️

Dazai zabiera nas w podróż wprost do znanych japońskich legend i bajek, które urozmaicił po swojemu ❤️ I ZROBIŁ TO ŚWIETNIE. To jak przerobił bohaterów na bliższych jego przekonaniom to coś super! Wstawki autorskie też bardzo mi się podobały, Osamu nawet przy przedstawianiu nam własnych interpretacji nie pozwolił nam uciec z krainy baśni. Czułam się jak dziecko słuchające z zapartym tchem co ma mi do przekazania.

Najbardziej podobała mi się historia o uratowaniu żółwia, ale najciekawsza była ta o jenocie i króliku!

Widywałam opinie o słabych wrażeniach, dlatego długo zwlekałam z lekturą, ale to było cudowne :) Muszę to zdobyć by mieć na regale!!!

To jest twórczość przystępna dla każdego, serio, odnajdą się tu również osoby nie będące miłośnikami japońskiej literatury, Dazai potrafi.

Jednak fajnie najpierw znać dane historie 😇

Ode mnie 8/10 ⭐

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'espediente di raccontare le fiabe della tradizione ai figli durante un bombardamento della seconda guerra mondiale l'ho trovato molto bello come gli interventi dell'autore stesso durante il racconto. 3 stelle perché questi racconti non mi hanno fatto impazzire.