Yasunari Kawabata

Kawabata Yasunari
Born:	14 June 1899(1899-06-14) Osaka, Japan
Died:	16 April 1972 (aged 72) Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan
Occupation:	writer
Genres:	novels, short-stories

This is a Japanese name; the family name is Kawabata.

Yasunari Kawabata (川端 康成, Kawabata Yasunari^?, 14 June 1899 - 16 April 1972) was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still widely read. Image File history File links Kawabata_Yasunari. ... is the 165th day of the year (166th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Osaka )   is a city in Japan, located at the mouth of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay, in the Kansai region of the main island of HonshÅ«. The city is the capital of Osaka Prefecture. ... is the 106th day of the year (107th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Kamakuras location in Japan Crowds of visitors in Kamakura (Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine) Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in Kamakura (Japanese: 鎌倉市; -shi) is a city located in Kanagawa, Japan, about 50 km south-south-west of Tokyo (to which it is linked by the railway line to Yokosuka). ... This article is about work. ... A literary genre is one of the divisions of literature into genres according to particular criteria such as literary technique, tone, or content. ... Yamada Tarō (), a typical Japanese name (male), equivalent to John Smith in English. ... A family name, surname, or last name is the part of a persons name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. ... is the 165th day of the year (166th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 106th day of the year (107th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is in need of attention. ... The Nobel Prize in literature is awarded annually to an author from any country who has produced the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency. The work in this case generally refers to an authors work as a whole, not to any individual work, though individual works are sometimes...

Born in Osaka, Yasunari was orphaned when he was two, after which he lived with his grandparents. He had an older sister who was taken in by an aunt, and whom he met only once thereafter, at the age of ten (July 1909). Kawabata's grandmother died when he was seven (September 1906, and his grandfather when he was fifteen (May 1914). Osaka )   is a city in Japan, located at the mouth of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay, in the Kansai region of the main island of HonshÅ«. The city is the capital of Osaka Prefecture. ...

Having lost all close relatives, he moved in with his mother's family (the Kurodas). However, in January 1916, he moved into a boarding house near the junior high school (comparable to a modern high school) to which he had formerly commuted by train. After graduating from junior high school in March 1917, just before his 18th birthday, he moved to Tokyo, hoping to pass the exams of Dai-ichi Koto-gakko (First Upper School), which was under the direction of Tokyo Imperial University. He succeeded in the exam the same year and entered the humanities faculty as an English major (July 1920). For other uses, see Tokyo (disambiguation). ... The Yasuda Auditorium on the University of Tokyos Hongo Campus. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

A monument to the birthplace of Kawabata.

Kawabata Yasunari Museum

Kawabata graduated in 1924, by which time he had already caught the attention of Kikuchi Kan and other noted writers and editors through his submissions to Kikuchi's literary magazine, the Bungei Shunju. Image File history File links Kawabata_yasunari_birth. ... Image File history File links Kawabata_yasunari_birth. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1760x990, 937 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Yasunari Kawabata Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1760x990, 937 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Yasunari Kawabata Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to... Kikuchi Kan (菊池 寛), (December 26, 1888 - March 6, 1948) was a Japanese author. ... A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. ...

In addition to fiction writing, Kawabata also worked as a reporter, most notably for the Mainichi Shimbun. Although he refused to participate in the militaristic fervor that accompanied World War II, he also demonstrated little interest in postwar political reforms. Along with the death of all his family while he was young, Kawabata suggested that the War was one of the greatest influences on his work, stating he would be able to write only elegies in postwar Japan. Still, many commentators detect little thematic change between Kawabata's prewar and postwar writings. Headquarters in Tokyo Osaka Office Newsagents shop in Higashi-osaka Printing plant in Settsu The Mainichi Shimbun , lit. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Kawabata apparently committed suicide in 1972 by gassing himself, but a number of close associates, including his widow, consider his death to have been accidental. Many theories have been advanced as to his reasons, among them poor health (the discovery that he had Parkinson's disease), a possible illicit love affair, or the shock caused by the suicide of his friend Yukio Mishima in 1970. However, unlike Mishima, Kawabata left no note, and since he had not discussed it significantly in his writings, his motives remain unclear. This article is about the fossil fuel. ... Yukio Mishima ) was the public name of Kimitake Hiraoka , January 14, 1925–November 25, 1970), a Japanese author and playwright, famous for both his highly notable nihilistic post-war writings and the circumstances of his ritual suicide by seppuku. ...

Artistic career

While still a university student Kawabata re-established the Tokyo University literary magazine Shin-shichō ("New Tide of Thought"), which had been defunct for more than four years. There he published his first short story, "Shokonsai Ikkei" ("A scene from a Séance"). During university, he changed faculties to Japanese literature and wrote a graduation thesis entitled, "A short history of Japanese Novels". He graduated from university in March, 1924. Japanese literature spans a period of almost two millennia. ...

In October of 1924 Kawabata, Kataoka Teppei, Yokomitsu Riichi and a number of other young writers started a new literary journal Bungei Jidai ("The Artistic Age"). This journal was a reaction to the entrenched old school of Japanese literature, specifically the Japanese movement descended from Naturalism, while it also stood in opposition to the "workers'" or proletarian literature movement of the Socialist/ Communist schools. It was an "art for art's sake" movement, influenced by European Cubism, Expressionism, Dada and other modernist styles. The term Shinkankakuha, which Kawabata and Yokomitsu used to describe their philosophy, has often been mistakenly translated into English as "Neo-Impressionism". However, Shinkankakuha was not meant to be an updated or restored version of Impressionism; it focused on offering "new impressions", or, more accurately, "new sensations" or "new perceptions" in the writing of literature^[1]. Yokomitsu Riichi (横光 利一 Yokomitsu Riichi, 17 March 1898 - 30 December 1947) was a Japanese writer. ... Naturalism may refer to: Naturalism (philosophy), any of several philosophical stances wherein all phenomena or hypotheses commonly labeled as supernatural, are either false, unknowable, or not inherently different from natural phenomena or hypotheses Methodological naturalism is the methodological assumption that that observable events in nature are explained only by natural... The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is called a proletarian. ... Art for arts sake is the usual English rendition of a French slogan, lart pour lart, which is credited to Théophile Gautier (1811–1872). ... Le guitariste by Pablo Picasso, 1910 Portrait of Picasso, 1912, oil on canvas by Juan Gris Woman with a guitar by Georges Braque, 1913 Still Life with Fruit Dish and Mandolin, 1919, oil on canvas by Juan Gris Cubist villa in Prague, Czech Republic Cubist House of the Black Madonna... The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893) which inspired 20th century Expressionists Portrait of Eduard Kosmack by Egon Schiele Rehe im Walde by Franz Marc Elbe Bridge I by Rolf Nesch On White II by Wassily Kandinsky, 1923. ... Cover of the first edition of the publication, Dada. ... For Christian theological modernism, see Liberal Christianity and Modernism (Roman Catholicism). ... This article is about the art movement. ...

Kawabata started to achieve recognition with a number of short stories shortly after he graduated, receiving acclaim for "The Dancing Girl of Izu" in 1926, a story about a melancholy student who, on a walking trip down Izu Peninsula, meets a young dancer, and returns to Tokyo in much improved spirits. This story, which explored the dawning eroticism of young love, was successful because he used dashes of melancholy and even bitterness to offset what might have otherwise been overly sweet. Most of his subsequent works explored similar themes. The Dancing Girl of Izu, published in 1927, was the first work of literature by Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata to achieve great popular and critical acclaim. ... Location. ...

In the 1920s, Kawabata was living in the plebian district of Asakusa, in downtown Tokyo. During this period, Kawabata experimented with different styles of writing. In Asakusa Kurenaidan (The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa), serialized from 1929-1930, he explores the lives of the demimonde and others on the fringe of society, in a style echoing that of late Edo period literature. On the other hand, his Suisho Genso (Crystalline Fantasy) is pure stream-of-consciousness writing. Demimonde (French for half-world) is a polite 19th century term that was often used the same way we use the term mistress today. ... The Edo period ), also called Tokugawa period, is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868. ... In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a literary technique that seeks to portray an individuals point of view by giving the written equivalent of the characters thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue, or in connection to his or her sensory reactions to external occurrences. ...

Kawabata relocated from downtown Tokyo to Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture in 1934, and although he initially played a very active role in the social life among the many other writers and literary people residing in that city during the war years and immediately thereafter, in his later years he became very reclusive. Kamakuras location in Japan Crowds of visitors in Kamakura (Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine) Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in Kamakura (Japanese: 鎌倉市; -shi) is a city located in Kanagawa, Japan, about 50 km south-south-west of Tokyo (to which it is linked by the railway line to Yokosuka). ... Kanagawa Prefecture ) is a prefecture located in the southern Kantō region of Honshū, Japan. ...

One of his most famous novels was Snow Country, started in 1934 and first published in installments from 1935 through 1947. Snow Country is a stark tale of a love affair between a Tokyo dilettante and a provincial geisha, which takes place in a remote hot-spring town somewhere in the mountainous regions of northern Japan. It established Kawabata as one of Japan's foremost authors and became an instant classic, described by Edward G. Seidensticker as "perhaps Kawabata's masterpiece". Snow Country (雪国 Yukiguni) is the first full-length novel by the Nobel Prize-winning Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. ... Typical nape make-up Geisha ) or Geigi ) are traditional, female Japanese entertainers, whose skills include performing various Japanese arts, such as classical music and dance. ... Edward G. Seidensticker (born February 11, 1921, in Castle Rock, Colorado) is a noted scholar and translator of Japanese literature, particularly known for his accurate English version of The Tale of Genji (1976) and for his landmark translations of Yasunari Kawabata, which led to Kawabatas winning the Nobel Prize...

After the end of World War II, Kawabata's success continued with novels such as Thousand Cranes (a story of ill-fated love); The Sound of the Mountain; The House of the Sleeping Beauties; Beauty and Sadness; and The Old Capital . Thousand Cranes is a novel by Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. ... The Sound of the Mountain (Yama no Oto) is a novel by Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata, serialized between 1949 and 1954. ... The House of the Sleeping Beauties is a 1983 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. ... Beauty and Sadness is a novel by Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. ... The Old Capital (translated from the Japanese Koto) is a novel by Yasunari Kawabata originally published in 1962. ...

The book which he himself considered his finest work, The Master of Go (1951) is a severe contrast with his other works. It is a semi-fictional recounting of a major Go match in 1938, on which Kawabata had actually reported for the Mainichi newspaper chain. It was the last game of the master Shūsai's career and he lost to his younger challenger, to die a little over a year later. Although the novel is moving on the surface as a retelling of a climactic struggle, some readers consider it a symbolic parallel to the defeat of Japan in World War II. The Master of Go is a novel by the Nobel Prize-winning Japanese author Kawabata Yasunari, first published in serial form in 1951. ... Go is a strategic board game for two players. ... Honinbo Shusai (本因坊秀哉, Honinbō ShÅ«sai, 1874 - January 18, 1940) is the professional name of Tamura Hoju, also known as Tamura Yasuhisa (田村保寿 Tamura Yasuhisa), who was a Japanese professional Go player. ...

His two most important post-war works are Sembazuru (Thousand Cranes) from 1949-1951, and Yama no Oto (The Sound of the Mountain), 1949-1954. Sembazuru is centered on the tea ceremony and hopeless love. The protagonist is attracted to the mistress of his dead father, and after her death, to her daughter, who flees from him. The tea ceremony provides a beautiful background for ugly human affairs, but Kawabata’s intent is rather to explore feelings on death. The tea ceremony utensils are permanent and forever, whereas people are frail and fleeting. These themes of implicit incest, impossible love, impending death are again explored in Yama no oto, set in Kawabata’s home town of Kamakura. The protagonist, an aging man, has no affection for his children and has lost all passion for his wife. He is strongly attracted to someone forbidden – his daughter in law, and his thoughts for her are interspersed with memories of another forbidden love, for his dead sister-in-law. The story is left dangling at the end. Thousand Cranes is a novel by Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. ... The Sound of the Mountain (Yama no Oto) is a novel by Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata, serialized between 1949 and 1954. ... A tea ceremony is a ritualised form of making tea. ...

Kawabata left many of his stories unfinished, sometimes to the annoyance of readers and reviewers. This was done intentionally, as Kawabata felt that vignettes of incidents along the way were far more important than conclusions. He equated his form of writing with the traditional poetry of Japan, the haiku. For the operating system, see Haiku (operating system). ...

As the president of Japanese P.E.N. for many years after the war (1948-1965), Kawabata was a driving force behind the translation of Japanese literature into English and other Western languages. Logo of International PEN International PEN, the worldwide association of writers, was founded in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere; to emphasise the role of literature in the development of mutual understanding and world culture; to fight for freedom of expression; and to act as...

In 1968 Kawabata became the first Japanese to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. In awarding the prize, the Nobel Committee cited three of his novels, Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, and The Old Capital. The Nobel Prize in literature is awarded annually to an author from any country who has produced the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency. The work in this case generally refers to an authors work as a whole, not to any individual work, though individual works are sometimes...

1. ^ Okubo Takaki (2004), Kawabata Yasunari--Utsukushi Nihon no Watashi. Minerva Shobo

Selected works

Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Dancing Girl of Izu, published in 1927, was the first work of literature by Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata to achieve great popular and critical acclaim. ... Year 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa written by Nobel Prize - winning author Yasunari Kawabata, The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa was originally serialized in a newspaper before eventually being compiled into a novel in 1930. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Snow Country (雪国 Yukiguni) is the first full-length novel by the Nobel Prize-winning Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Master of Go is a novel by the Nobel Prize-winning Japanese author Kawabata Yasunari, first published in serial form in 1951. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Thousand Cranes is a novel by Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. ... The Sound of the Mountain (Yama no Oto) is a novel by Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata, serialized between 1949 and 1954. ... The Lake is a 1954 novel by Japanese Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata. ... Year 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The House of the Sleeping Beauties is a 1983 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Old Capital (translated from the Japanese Koto) is a novel by Yasunari Kawabata originally published in 1962. ... Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Also Nintendo emulator: 1964 (emulator). ... Beauty and Sadness is a novel by Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. ... Also Nintendo emulator: 1964 (emulator). ... One Arm or Kataude 1 かたうで is a short novel by Nobel Prize winning author Yasunari Kawabata, published in 1964. ... Palm-of-the-Hand Stories is the name Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata gave to the 140 stories he wrote over his career as a writer, and was used as the title of a collection of translations of 71 of these. ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

• Keene, Donald (1984). Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era; Vol. 1: Fiction, "Kawabata Yasunari" pp. 786-845

Donald Lawrence Keene is a noted Japanologist, scholar, teacher, writer, translator and interpreter of Japanese literature and culture. ...

External links

• Nobel Prize site
• Yasunari Kawabata (Spanish)
• Fan site
• Literary Figures of Kamakura