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From March 15 to 16, 2025, I visited Mitaka City in Tokyo. Just outside the south exit of JR Mitaka Station, the Mitaka Tourist Information Center introduces a wide range of tours available in the city, including the Dazai Osamu Literary Walk. As I received a great deal of helpful tourist information there, I would encourage anyone visiting Mitaka to stop by and take advantage of what it has to offer.

Two literary walks are available: a shorter route of 3.1 km centered on a visit to Dazai's grave, and a longer walk of 6.7 km, taking around two hours and fifty minutes and covering all the local sites associated with Dazai. Having come all this way, I plumped for the latter without hesitation.

My first stop was the "Osamu Dazai Exhibition Room: This small house in Mitaka," held at the Mitaka City Gallery of Art. Through the exhibits, I was able to glimpse Dazai not only as a writer, but as a person who lived in Mitaka with his family.

Next, I arrived at the "Site of the Pedestrian Bridge." The bridge that Dazai loved is no longer there — it has been demolished, and its original form can no longer be made out. However, as I imagined what it must have looked like, I found myself becoming increasingly immersed in this journey.

Carrying that sense of excitement with me, I made my way to the Dazai Osamu Literary Salon, where I learned about the relationship between Mitaka City and Dazai in detail. Visitors can also have their photo taken wearing a cloak similar to the one Dazai wore — something I highly recommend.

I was confident in my stamina, thanks to years of fieldwork, but fatigue set in as I reached the Gyokka stone, the site of Dazai’s Sucide. Mitaka is a remarkably large city; I still had over half of the course left.

However, I continued the walk while admiring the beautiful cityscape—including the Tamagawa Josui Canal and the parks near Mitaka Forest—and managed to reach the final stop, the temple of Zenrin-ji Temple, by the time the sky had grown quite dark. My literary walk had come to a successful conclusion.

A few years ago, I visited the Shayōkan in Kanagi, Goshogawara City, Aomori Prefecture. On this occasion too, the Dazai I encountered in Mitaka was a kind-hearted person full of love.

I hope that you, too, will one day walk in Dazai's footsteps through Mitaka, and experience his literature and his life for yourself.

MITAKA Tourist Information Center (photo by the author)

Dazai Osamu Literary Salon (photo by the author)

Gyokka Stone (photo by the author)