Osamu Dazai · Tohoku, Aomori

Following Osamu Dazai Through Tsugaru: A Literary Travel Guide

Trace the real places behind Dazai Osamu's memoir Tsugaru — from his family home in Kanagi to the coastal town of Kodomari — with practical travel notes for international visitors.

Home to Tsugaru

Osamu Dazai

Place: Tsugaru in Aomori Prefecture, Japan Time: Spring 1944 As World War II was coming to an end, Osamu Dazai (born Shuji Tsushima) returned to his home in the northern tip of Honshu, Japan on assignment from a publisher to travel and write about the part of Japan where he was born and raised. He writes with humor and warmth about old friends, the people (family and servants) who nurtured him, his obsession with crabs, and his worries over sake in times of rationing. He writes with pride about his home even as he learns about some of its customs and history for the first time. This travel journal is part travelogue, part history lesson, and part love story. Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) was a twentieth century Japanese author. He is best known for the novels The Setting Sun and No Longer Human.

Osamu Dazai's 1944 travelogue-memoir Tsugaru is a quiet, wandering account of his return to his home region in northern Aomori after years away in Tokyo. Unlike his darker, more famous novel No Longer Human, Tsugaru is warm, funny, and deeply tied to real, visitable places — which makes it one of the best starting points for anyone who wants to combine a love of Japanese literature with a trip off the well-trodden Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka route.

This guide follows Dazai's own route through Tsugaru, with practical notes for planning a visit.

Who was Osamu Dazai?

Dazai (1909–1948) was born into a wealthy landowning family in Kanagi, a small town in rural Aomori Prefecture, at the northern tip of Japan's main island. He's best known internationally for No Longer Human, but Tsugaru is arguably a better introduction to the region he came from — and, as a public domain work, it's also freely available in translation and widely discussed without the copyright restrictions that apply to more recent authors.

Stop 1: Dazai Osamu Kinenkan "Shayokan" (斜陽館), Kanagi

The single most important stop for any Dazai pilgrimage is his childhood home in Kanagi, now preserved as the Dazai Osamu Memorial Hall, known as Shayokan ("Villa of the Setting Sun" — also the title of another of his novels, The Setting Sun). The building itself is a striking early-20th-century mansion, reflecting just how wealthy his family was, and now functions as a museum with manuscripts, personal items, and period rooms open to the public.

• Getting there: Kanagi is reached via the Tsugaru Railway from Goshogawara Station. The Tsugaru Railway's "Stove Train" (running in winter) is itself a well-known local attraction.
• Good to know: Give yourself at least half a day — Kanagi is small, and the memorial hall is best paired with a slow walk around the town Dazai describes in the book.

Stop 2: Goshogawara

Goshogawara is the transit hub for the region and appears in Tsugaru as Dazai passes through on his journey. It's a practical base for travelers, with better rail and bus connections than Kanagi itself.

Stop 3: Kodomari, the northern coast

In the book's most emotionally resonant section, Dazai travels to the remote coastal village of Kodomari to reconnect with Take, the woman who cared for him as a child. The windswept, end-of-the-road feeling of this coastline is very much still there today, and it's a striking contrast to the manicured, mansion-like feel of Shayokan.

Practical travel notes

• Best time to visit: Late April–May (cherry blossoms) or the Tsugaru Railway's winter Stove Train season (December–March) both give the region a strong sense of atmosphere.
• Base yourself in: Hirosaki or Aomori City, both well connected by train, with Tsugaru's Dazai sites reachable as a day trip.
• Language: This is rural Japan — English signage is limited outside major stations, so a translation app is useful.