Real-life References

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This page is dedicated for trivia and references relating to the real life versions of the Characters, Organizations and Locations in Bungo Stray Dogs.

General Trivia

 * Kafka Asagiri's pseudonym is taken from, a German novelist regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature.
 * All of the real-life counterparts of the members of the Hunting Dogs, with the exception of Michizō Tachihara, were at one point journalists or involved in politics.
 * was the founder of the which supported the conservative, he was also the head editor of the.
 * Teruko Okura was married to a diplomat and stayed in England for several years.
 * Saigiku Jōno was a journalist working for the.
 * was a journalist for the Chōya Shimbun and politician who supported the liberal.
 * The Russian writers featured within Bungo Stray Dogs are all from the . Russian literature flourished during the 19th century with the spread of romanticism and prose; Russian writers like and  also gained international renown during this time.
 * The book The Complete Suicide which Dazai owns in the series is a reference to written by  published in 1993 filled with guides on methods of suicide along with the assessment of the pain it causes, preparation required, the appearance of the body and, lethality.
 * The real-life counterparts of the two ability users introduced in Bungo Stray Dogs: 55 Minutes, Herbert George Wells and Jules Gabriel Verne, are both called "The Father of Science Fiction".
 * While most of the writers in Bungo Stray Dogs have passed away, the ability users introduced in Bungo Stray Dogs GAIDEN (Mizuki Tsujimura, Natsuhiko Kyōgoku, and Yukito Ayatsuji) are all still alive.
 * In real life, Osamu Dazai, Ango Sakaguchi and Sakunosuke Oda were all members of the literary movement . The three of them were known to be good friends spent their lives in decadence spending time in bars, using drugs, and having frequent relationships . Dazai, Sakaguchi and Oda would frequent Bar Lupin together which is also referenced in the light novel Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era.

Akiko Yosano

 * Her birth name was Shō Hō (鳳 志やう)

Atsushi Nakajima

 * Atsushi Nakajima is named after, a Japanese author who took inspirations from many Chinese classics.
 * Atsushi was born into a family of Confucian scholars. His parents are both Confucian scholars along with three of his uncles and his grandfather.
 * Atsushi's childhood can be considered unhappy. His parents divorced and he had to live with his grandfather who died a year after, he then moved back with his father who remarried and often changed jobs which lead him to change schools often in addition that he was not very close to his father and stepmothers. This unhappy childhood is referenced in the series with his time in the Orphanage.
 * The real Atsushi was a very intelligent person but he did not gain any popularity until he passed away and his wife even said that Atsushi rarely talks about his works, Atsushi is also often described as a sensitive and introspective person. It's said that Atsushi lacked the confidence to launch a full on writing career and the writings published to magazines are very little in number. This sensitive personality is also referenced in the series as he struggles with self-esteem.
 * Despite being alive around the same time of or, Atsushi was not considered a war-time writer as he did not write much about the war.
 * Atsushi also worked for some time as an English teacher in the Yokohama Girl's School.
 * Moon Over the Mountain or Sangetsuki is Atsushi's most famous work and the namesake for his ability Beast Beneath the Moonlight. The story was inspired by a legend, the story tells the encounter between a government official named Yuan Can and his friend Li Zheng who was transformed into a tiger. Li Zheng believes that he has failed to achieve literary encouragement and admits that his "cowardly pride" and "arrogant shame" eventually transformed him into a man-eating tiger . Atsushi's Ability in the series mirrors the fate of Li Zheng, albeit Atsushi has some form of control over his transformation.
 * The story was first published in and was mostly uncensored thanks to its mostly classical influences and is often included in student textbooks in Japan up until today.
 * In 1942, Atsushi would contract pneumonia during his stay in Palau and returned to Tokyo. During this he had written his final work "Light, Wind and Dreams" which was a finalist for the Akutagawa prize for Pure Literature. By this point, Atsushi was seen as a promising new writer on the rise however, he was soon hospitalized in November for a serious heart condition. His father, expecting a short stay at the hospital, did not go to see him. After a night of asthma attacks, Atsushi would pass away in the morning of December 4, 1942.

Doppo Kunikida

 * Doppo Kunikida is named after, a Japanese author of novels and romantic poetry during the Meiji Period, noted as the inventors of Japanese naturalism.
 * The birthname of the real life is Tetsuo Kunikida (国木田 貞臣)
 * Kunikida's biological father is unknown, but he was raised by his mother and her samurai-class husband. His step-father was a member of the Ministry of Justice and he had to move multiple times which may have contributed the themes of "wandering" in his works.
 * In 1891, he opened up a private school where he taught English and Mathematics. After half a year he quit because he was bored of the village life. In 1893 he would continue teaching, but his beliefs as a Christian did not appeal to the teachers and some students and he left soon after. This teaching job was referenced in Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam.
 * Nobuko Sasaki in the series is based on and named after the first wife of the real-life Kunikida. Nobuko's family disliked Kunikida and even told Sasaki to commit suicide but eventually the two got married. The marriage was short-lived and they divorced 5 months after their marriage, the two of them often fought and Kunikida had a tendency to be jealous. After the divorce Sasaki left to marry 's old classmate but never got married with him and came back to Japan with another man. Nobuko's story would be the inspiration to Arishima's book A Certain Woman (或る女,).
 * After the divorce, had said that Kunikida was devastated and heartbroken for years to come. Kunikida would also have nightmares about Sasaki, Tayama states in his memoirs (Thirty Years in Tokyo) about one of Kunikida's dreams, "It was THAT sword, the one that old man gave me. I stabbed her and thought she was dead, but she kept on laughing and asking me to stab her again. There was no blood. It was just a dream, after all". The sword mentioned in the dream refers very likely to the short sword Kunikida owned and kept it near him often.
 * During this heartbroken state, Kunikida would start writing Doppo Poetry (独歩集,) which would be the namesake of his ability in the series The Matchless Poet.

Osamu Dazai

 * Osamu Dazai is named after Japanese novelist, considered to be one of the most popular fiction writers of the 20th Century.
 * The real life 's birthname is Shūji Tsushima (津島 修治).
 * His relationship with is greatly reversed in the series. In real-life, Osamu Dazai greatly idolized Akutagawa and was greatly shaken about Akutagawa's suicide. After his idol's death, it was noted that he began to neglect his studies and did his first suicide attempt right before his final exams.
 * During his literary career, he was obsessed with obtaining the for Pure Literature, to the point where he begged and once even jokingly threatened to stab his mentor,  as he was part of the judging committee.
 * The real-life Osamu Dazai did not get along with . At one point Dazai wanted to start a literary magazine and invited Chūya and . While drinking Chūya had said "He (Dazai) looks like a blue mackerel floating in the sky.". The magazine ended after one issue; since then, Dazai criticized Chūya's work and even called him a "slug".
 * When Chūya passed away, Dazai commented "He looks dead, after all it is Nakahara, right? There’s not much of a difference. Even Michizō Tachihara is dead and he was supposed to be a genius, but what do you think? Everyone is boring."
 * In total, he attempted to commit suicide 5 times. Similar to the character in the series, the real-life Osamu Dazai considers the idea of a double-suicide romantic.
 * Tomie and Dazai's body was found on the 19th of June, what would have been Dazai's 39th birthday.
 * His character song, Goodbye to the Attempt on Eternity, may be a reference to his story Good Bye (グッド・バイ,) which was left unfinished due to his suicide.

Yukichi Fukuzawa

 * Yukichi Fukuzawa is named after, a Japanese writer, essayist, journalist, translator, and founder of . Most famously he appears on the ¥10,000 bill, leading to slang calling the bill a "Yukichi"
 * Fukuzawa is considered by many to be one of the fathers of modern Japan, he was an advocate for reform during the.
 * When Japan opened up to the west, he moved to the prefecture and realized that the traders were speaking English. Fukuzawa then began to study English, but at that time, English-Japanese interpreters were rare and dictionaries nonexistent, so his studies were slow.
 * In 1859, at the age of 24. He traveled along with several diplomats to the US, being the translator on board the ship . During his stay in America, he had found a Webster's dictionary and continued to study English. When he returned to Japan, he was appointed as the 's translator.
 * Fukuzawa's travels lead him to write a series of books called Things Western (西洋事情,) which describes western cultures and institution in simple terms and quickly became best sellers; he was soon regarded as the foremost expert on western civilization.
 * After the success of "Things Western", Fukuzawa concluded that his mission in life was to educate the Japanese people in new ways of thinking in order to enable Japan to resist European imperialism. This rejection of Western influences is mirrored in the series with him vehemently rejecting The Guild's proposition to purchase the Armed Detective Agency.
 * His ability in the series, All Men Are Equal, is derived from the book series where he outlines the importance of equal opportunity and believed in a firm mental foundation through education and studiousness. His main understanding while visiting western countries was that they were far more advanced because they fostered education, competition, independence and exchange of ideas.

Chūya Nakahara

 * Chūya Nakahara is named after the Japanese poet who was active during the early . Chūya drew inspiration from experimental French poetry and was a driving force in the renovation of modern Japanese Poetry.
 * The real life Chūya Nakahara's birthname is Chūya Kashimura (柏村 中也).
 * Chūya had a reputation of being short, according to 's short essay titled "Aftermath of a Drink", Chūya's height was around 151.5 centimeters (4'11.5").
 * Despite his short career, Chūya had written over 350 poems in total, some included in Goat Songs (山羊の歌,) and some published posthumously with the help of his friend, in Songs of Bygone Days (在りし日の歌,).
 * Chūya has also translated a numerous amount of French poems into Japanese, earning him the title of "The Japanese ". The influence of Rimbaud went beyond just his poetry, and Chūya also came to be known for his "bohemian" lifestyle.
 * The namesake of his ability, Upon the Tainted Sorrow is named after the poem of the same name first published in Goat Songs. The poem has four stanzas and sixteen lines in total with the line "This tainted sorrow" repeated eight times. One of the most unique aspects of the poem is how sorrow is written, Chūya writes sorrow as 「悲しみ」(using the kanji 悲 meaning sadness) instead of 「哀しみ」(using the kanji 哀 meaning sorrow), though both still means "sorrow". The poem mainly talks about sadness and the inner feelings of the character and how the two intersect in the present.
 * In October 1937, Chūya would pass his unpublished poems to Hideo Kobayashi and planned to return to Kamakura. But unfortunately, Chūya would shortly pass away from tubercular meningitis.
 * The Chūya Nakahara Memorial Museum sells a replica of the hat Chūya is often seen wearing.

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

 * Ryūnosuke Akutagawa is named after, a Japanese novelist and short-story writer from the widely regarded as "The Father of Japanese Short-Stories"
 * The birthname of the real life is Ryūnosuke Nīhara (新原 龍之介).
 * His is Chōkōdō Shujin (澄江 堂主).
 * Akutagawa was born into a family of three children with him being the only son, his mother experienced a mental illness shortly after his birth, so he was adopted and raised by his maternal uncle, Dōshō Akutagawa, which was how he received the Akutagawa family name.
 * As a child, Akutagawa was interested in the works of and.
 * In 1914, he revived Shinshichō, a literary journal, with his high-school friends including the likes of, Yuzuru Matsuoka, and . In this journal he would publish stories under the pen name of Ryūnosuke Yanagawa (柳川 隆之助).
 * Akutagawa would publish the namesake of his Ability,, in the literary magazine Teikoku Bungaku while he was still a student. The story was not received well among his friends who criticized the story extensively.
 * Akutagawa named Rashōmon after, one of the two city gates in Heian-kyō, by the 12th Century it had fallen into disrepair. Akutagawa's use of the gate was symbolic in nature, with the gate's ruined state representing the decay of Japanese civilization and culture.
 * Rashomon: Spider Thread (羅生門・蜘蛛の糸,), a technique used by Akutagawa in the series is named after Kumo no Ito (蜘蛛の糸), a short story written by Akutagawa in a children's literature magazine named Akai Tori.
 * From April 1927 to August 1927, Akutagawa would be involved in a very public fight with over the importance of structure versus lyricism in story published in the series of essays titled Literary, all too literary. Akutagawa would cite the works of  which upheld poetic lyricism as the primary value in the novel and discredited the role of structure. A complete turnaround from his original views on literature.
 * Near the end of his life, Akutagawa would experience visual hallucinations and anxiety because of the mental illnesses inherited from his mother. In 1927, he would commit suicide with the use of prescribed by fellow poet and family doctor  whom Akutagawa had complained to about having sleeping problems. Before his death he had written a suicide note titled "" for Masao Kume, in it he describes about “A vague sense of anxiety about my own future” being the reason as to why he had ended his own life.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald

 * Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald is named after, an American novelist often described as the embodiment of decadence.
 * Zelda in the series and S.S. Zelda was named after the wife of the real life Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, . The two first met at a country club, ever since their first encounter the two of them were inseparable and Fitzgerald would also find literary inspiration in her. But Zelda's family did not approve of Fitzgerald because of his excessive drinking.
 * In real life, Fitzgerald and Zelda never lost their daughter. was his only child and passed away in 1986, years after Fitzgerald and Zelda had passed away.
 * During his era, Fitzgerald was not a popular writer. When, the namesake for his ability (The Great Fitzgerald), was first released it was received well by fellow writers like but, it was snubbed by the public and most literary critics during the time. For the rest of Fitzgerald's life, The Great Gatsby never sold well and his final royalty check for the book was about $13.13. This was referenced in the series as Fitzgerald had implied that he was poor at one point in his life before being a conglomerate.
 * The character T. J. Eckleburg is named after one of the characters in The Great Gatsby and the Eyes of God may be a reference to T. J. Eckleburg's billboard in the story. The billboard stands on the Valley of Ash on an old billboard and symbolizes God staring down upon and judging American society as a moral wasteland, though not mentioned explicitly. Instead, throughout the novel, Fitzgerald suggests that symbols only have meaning because characters instill them with meaning.
 * Zelda faced mental health issues (schizophrenia) similar to the Zelda in the series, during this time, Fitzgerald would complete his final novel,.
 * Because of financial difficulties, Fitzgerald also had helped write screenplays for Hollywood.
 * When Fitzgerald passed away at age 44 due to alcoholism, a poet and friend of Fitzgerald named reportedly cried and murmured "the poor son-of-a-b***h", a line from Jay Gatsby's funeral in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
 * The name of Chapter 34 of the Bungo Stray Dogs manga, The Last Tycoon, is named after what would be Fitzgerald's fifth novel also named "". The book was published posthumously with the help of as Fizgerald passed away before he could finish writing it.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft

 * Howard Phillips Lovecraft is named after, an American writer of weird fiction and horror fiction, most well known for being the creator of the.
 * Lovecraft is known for inventing the genre of or "cosmic horror". A genre which emphasizes the fear of unknown and the incomprehensible.
 * In one of Lovecraft's correspondences, one of the main influences in he cited in his writings is Astronomy along with the stories his grandmother used to tell him which may have been influenced by classical Gothic literature, though his biggest literary influence comes from the works of as his works are referenced in many of Lovecraft's works.
 * His story, mentions  by Poe.
 * Lovecraft's works were not always received well due to them being published in pulp magazines where most view the works there as "cheap entertainment". He was mostly unknown during his lifetime and died penniless but, now he is considered to be one of the most prominent writers of the early 20th-Century.
 * The basis of his powers in the series, Great Old One, is a reference to and the Cthulhu mythos overall. Which tells of ancient eldritch being and horrors beyond what the human mind can perceive. Lovecraft's true form seems to resemble the Cthulhu from the same story.

Other Writers
Some authors and/or their works are referenced in Bungo Stray Dogs but, they do not appear as characters in the series.


 * : The prison where Osamu Dazai and Fyodor Dostoevsky is currently held, Meursault, is named after the main character in Camus's.
 * : The Ability The Madness of the Jewel King is named after the play.
 * : The ship Boswellian was named after him.
 * : Adam Frankenstein is named after the, Dr. Wollstonecraft is named after her middle name (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
 * : Decay of Angels was named after the last novel in his tetralogy titled "".

Locations

 * The city of Yokohama is based off the real life city of . The main difference being the Yokohama in the series is spelled with (ヨコハマ) rather than using  (横浜). Most of Bungo Stray Dogs takes place around the  prefecture.
 * The Port Mafia Base seems to be inspired by the.
 * The real-life Bar Lupin is a bar located in, the bar is famous for its long and rich history with many writers turning it into their meeting spot. Famous writers who have visited the bar include , , , and.
 * Bar Lupin is named after, a gentleman thief created by French novelist.
 * Freedom Restaurant is named after Jiyūken (自由軒,), a restaurant in Namba, Chuo Ward, Osaka which specializes in curry. The real life is a famous patron of the restaurant and the restaurant has appeared in some of Oda's writings.
 * Manhasset Security is named after which became the inspiration for "East Egg" in 's.

Mechanics

 * The design Schwalbe Ritter seems to be be based on.