Great figures who went through “Neglecting my family”
Caught up in your own life, you've put family last. Read the life stories of 6 Japanese historical figures who went through something similar.
Figures who went through this
- Dazai Osamu — The Man Who Pretended to Talk in His Sleep
A boy who wanted his father's fountain pen could only ask for it by pretending to talk in his sleep. He lied, borrowed money, and even begged a prize committee, "Please give it to me." The embarrassing, hard-to-look-away life of a writer.
- Ishikawa Takuboku — The Honest Liar
"Back then I told lots of lies," he wrote in one of his own poems. He missed his own wedding, lived on loans from friends, and kept his family waiting. Then he began to write only plain words. His way of living, though, stayed the same to the end.
- Kano Jigoro — The Man Who Never Said "I'm Tired"
"How do you do that move?" Every time he asked, the young man got thrown instead of answered. He was small, hated losing, and left the whole household to his wife. Even on a ship at seventy-seven, it is said, he answered that it did not hurt. The life of the father of judo.
- Makino Tomitaro — The Man Who Spared Nothing
"One who begrudges money cannot be a plant scientist." So wrote the only son of a sake shop when he was about twenty. He poured the family fortune into plants, and wrote about plants at a desk while court officers seized the furniture beside him. What held that life together was his wife, who joked that she was raising a spoiled son who wasted money on his hobby.
- Noguchi Hideyo — The Man Who Could Never Pay It Back
His classmates each gave a small coin after his essay about his burned hand was shared with the class. From that day on, he kept borrowing, spending it all, and asking again. The messy, lovable life of the man who was once on Japan's 1,000-yen bill.
- Sakamoto Ryoma — The Man Who Wrote That He Could Not Die
I'm so lucky that I can't die, he wrote, even in places where people die. The twenty-seven-year-old wrote this to his sister, and in the very next letter he puffed out his chest: "Ahem, ahem." The vain, joke-telling thirty-one years of the man who said he would give Japan a good washing.