Japan’s Literary Celebration

This year is the 100th year of the birth of Osamu Dazai, one of the major Japanese writers of the 20th century, who created a fascinating body of work including short stories like Run, Mellos! and major novels such as The Setting Sun (the story of an aristocratic family in the aftermath of World War II) and the semi-autobiographical No Longer Human. Japan is a very literate country, and they’ve always had a tradition of raising their great writers and poets up for all to see. While only former presidents appear on U.S. currency (except for good old Ben Franklin), Japan has featured many of its writers on its money, including Souseki Natsume, writer of “I am a Cat” and other books, who was on the previous 1000 yen note; Inazo Nitobe, who first wrote about bushido for the West and who adorned the former 5000 yen note; and the current 2000 yen note, which features both female novelist and poet Ichiyo Higuchi and the famous Murasaki Shikibu, writer of The Tale of Genji.
Japan has a long tradition of celebrating its writers by putting their faces on money.