In June 1948, novelist Osamu Dazai committed suicide. The 38-year-old, who had just completed his masterpiece, "No Longer Human," and whose fame was peaking, jumped into Tokyo's Tamagawa Canal with his mistress, Tomie Yamazaki, and drowned.

With his acid wit and nihilistic vision, Dazai had been the key author who benefitted from the easing of censorship after Japan's defeat in World War II. He scandalized and fascinated postwar society with his personal lifestyle — fathering children out of wedlock — and the fearless manner in which he depicted nontraditional relationships.

He undermined one of the key tenets of sexuality in modern Japan by suggesting that "romantic love" doesn't always lead to marriage and happiness.