Southeast Review of Asian Studies

Volume 31 (2009), pp. 29095

Yin-Yang in Snow Country

MASAKI MORI
University of Georgia
In this scholarly note, Masaki Mori shows how yin-yang is a latent structural basis of
Kawabata Yasunaris (18991972) Yukiguni (Snow Country), published between 1935 and 1947, thereby ascertaining the novelists Asian afliation in a broad sense.

Yin-Yang as a Non-polarized Dichotomy

As the terms light and darkness suggest, the Chinese system of yin-yang
(in-yo in Japanese) explains the workings of the universe by placing its
premise on the sharp contrast that a set of usually two elements, such as day
night, summerwinter, and manwoman, reveal.1 Far from being a straightforward binary opposition as it might be construed in the West, however,
yin-yang reveals a complex interplay on the constant ow, at once oppositional and complementary, in the correlation of two contrasted aspects
within a certain force eld of operation. Kawabata Yasunaris
(18991972) Yukiguni (Snow Country), published between 1935 and
1947 with minor revisions until 1971, provides a working example of a nonpolarized dichotomic system, directly mentioning yin-yang at a symbolically crucial juncture. More signicantly, the interdependent tension of
light and darkness plays out metaphorically between two principal female
characters. In spite of its pseudo-dialectic resolution at the end as a result of
these womens rivalry, the Japanese piece ultimately proves its cultural
heritage of East Asia against a backdrop of the Western binary mode of
thought.
Kawabata & Traditional Japanese Themes
Kawabata is known to have written extensively about traditional Japanese
culture. Many of his later novels, such as Senbazuru (Thousand Cranes,
194951) and Koto (The Old Capital, 196162),2 readily exemplify this
deep interest that stems from his close reading of classical pieces, such as
Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji, ca. 1000). He clearly declared
2009 Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies

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his cultural afnity in his 1968 Nobel Prizeacceptance speech, which he

titled Utsukushii Nihon no watashi (Japan, the Beautiful
and Myself ). Accordingly, in spite of substantial inuence from Western
arts and literature in his young days, Kawabata tends to be considered a
quintessential Japanese writer. One question here is what renders him an
Asian one, apart from his biographical prole.
Critics have already pointed out Buddhist elements, such as samsara
(the endless cycle of death and rebirth) and impermanence, which underlie
his works, locating him within a broad Asian context. In Snow Country, for
instance, Buddhist inuences are prevalent with a direct reference to a nunnery and a strong undertone of ephemerality innate to such motifs as eeting relationships, the fragility of life, and changing seasons. The passive,
contemplative acceptance of inevitable change obviously derives from the
Buddhism-induced, medieval Japanese worldview of mujokan (the
sense of impermanence) rather than from Daoism, which approaches vicissitude with a more dynamic, positive stance. In turn, such embrace of
change accounts for the classical aesthetics of mono no aware
(the pathos of things), with which the entire story is imbuedalbeit twisted
for the dilettantish consumption of the protagonist Shimamura .
By contrast, another Asian inuence, that of the yin-yang system, is little noticed as a structural basis of his representative work, although it constitutes an integral part of traditional Japanese culture, embossing its mark
on Kawabata as well. In fact, Kawabatas novel does mention yin-yang once,
when Shimamura makes a day trip by train from the hot spring resort,
where he sojourns, to a few nearby towns that used to produce a special fabric called chijimi (a type of cotton crepe). The production of ne chijimi,
now obsolete and forgotten, required both nimble, diligent hands of unmarried girls between fourteen and twenty-four and direct exposure to
snow in the very cold weather. Shimamura, who wears it as his summer
underclothes, feels special attachment to this textile because of the young
female weavers labor and the sense of coolness it offers. An old local history book, Hokuetsu sekifu (The chronicle of snow in northern
Koshi province, 1836) by Suzuki Bokushi (17701842), is cited a
few times to explain the cool feeling one can savor in summers heat when
wearing a garment made of chijimi.
Chijimi production requires snow at every stage of the process over a
long, cold winter. Shimamura sends his chijimi garments to the snowy region every winter to have them bleached via a traditional method that lays
them open to snow and the cold air after overnight soakings and early morning washings for several days. According to the history book, the chijimi
thread is difcult to work except in the humidity of the snow . . . and the
dark, cold season is therefore ideal for weaving. The ancients used to add
that the way this product of the cold has of feeling cool to the skin in the

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M. Mori

hottest weather is a play of the principles of light and darkness (Kawabata

1956, 154). This yin-yang inherent in chijimi is closely linked to the symbolic structure of the entire novel through two principal female characters:
the geisha Komako , whom Shimamura visits at the hot spring resort,
and the mysterious girl Yoko , who also attracts his attention.
The Yin-Yang of Komako & Yoko
Although yin is traditionally identied as female and yang as male, there is
no need to follow the gender specicity, because yin and yang represent not
ontological entities but aspects of the dynamism or a matter of degrees of
contrast to be viewed as a relation rather than as a quality in a certain
working of the universe (Cheng 2009, 75). In other words, there is nothing
that is essentially yin or yang; whether something is yin or yang depends on
what particular relationship is being expressed (Ames 2003, 847). In the
present case, Komako, who interacts with Shimamura most of the time,
stands for the aspect of yang or light as the visible, while Yoko assumes
that of yin or darkness largely as the invisible with interspersed appearances (Cheng 2009, 74). They reveal a number of sharp differences. Komakos vital, physical being as Shimamuras mostly sexual interest sharply
contrasts with Yokos fragile, un-physical presence in his perception of her
segmented beauty. One stands for passion of the desiring/desired, touched
yet paradoxically clean body, whereas the other is reduced to the intangible,
virginal purity of a clear voice and a cold, distant light. The contrast is also
apparent in their respective names, occupations, nancial obligations, and
levels of maturity.
Two mirror scenes early in the novel, each of which shows a reected
image of one of the female characters set against the surroundings, illustrate
the two womens marked difference. In the rst mirror scene, on a train
window at deepening dusk, Yokos eyes glimmer ephemerally with a small
re of the distant hill while the rest of her translucent, superimposed image
oats amid the indistinct, constantly moving wilderness, suggesting her
aerial beauty. At sunrise the following morning, Shimamura sees Komakos
face and the snow outside reected together on a mirror in his hotel room,
with her vividly red cheeks set against the surrounding snow. Emphasizing
the solid contour of her body, this mirror-reected image distinctively relates her to the whiteness of snow and the color red (see Mori 2004).
It is important to notice, however, that the two women are not presented as polar opposites in spite of their emphasized differences. Rather,
they closely associate with each other in a relation of reciprocity and resonance of yin-yang dynamics (Cheng 2009, 74). Both Komako and Yoko
combine, in inverse proportions, a quality of heat-induced intensity with
the snowy nature of coldness, which itself exemplies the yin-yang system,

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thereby complementing each other. For instance, in spite of the cold touch
of her hair and the snow-like layer of white powder on her face, Shimamura
often notices inherent warmth, even heat, in Komakos body and character,
as symbolized by the redness of her bare neck and cheeks. Yoko, on the
other hand, initially keeps Shimamura away, partly with the earnest stare of
her glistening eyes. But her tender, motherly care of others, such as a dying
patient and a small child, sometimes mitigates such frigid aloofness, like
the glimmer of a distant re through her pupil in the rst mirror scene.
Curiously, despite of their strained relationship, they are concerned for
each other, even sharing the same dwelling for a while. They are also close
in age, although the text initially refers to Yoko as the girl and Komako
as the woman due to Shimamuras subjective assumption.
Furthermore, their mutual relationship as well as characterization does
not remain statically xed. As the story unfolds in its second half, each of
them undergoes certain changes. Symbolized by many objects, such as dying moths in the autumn, Komako transforms from a teenage apprentice
geisha to a full-edged one in her early twenties, as Shimamura observes
her slight, yet inevitable thicker neckline. No longer keeping her distance,
Yoko comes to see him face to face. The only direct reference to her exposed physicality (calf ) occurs during her fall in the ending re scene. The
two womens intimate rivalry intensies, with each expressing undisguised
antipathy to the other as well as earnest concern for her future. This paradox associating the two women denes the storys symbolic structure (see
Mori 2007).
The chijimi episode with a reference to yin-yang must be understood in
this context. In Shimamuras associative mind, chijimi stands both for Yoko
and for Komako. The fabric was woven by young girls like Yoko, whom he
actually imagines would have sung at work over the handloom if she had
been born decades ago. Likewise, in his imagination, aided by the information that the old book provides, the bleached white linen outdoors turns
vermilion with the surrounding snow at dawn, similar to Komakos face in
the second mirror scene. Most importantly, the fabrics paradoxical coolness in the midst of summer has a metaphorically signicant afnity to the
combination of heat/warmth and a certain sense of coldness that the two
women exhibit.
In a word, Yoko is Komakos inseparable counterpart, not in appearance or temperament but in the uidity of her competing yet complementing functions. Two of them together constitute a whole of Shimamuras
perceived snow country, the only locus that offers the cleansing effect that
he seeks as a man of keen modern sensitivity. His aesthetically inclined
mind transforms the snow country into a circumscribed eld of beauty beyond a long tunnel, in which their power dynamism plays out, at once vying for his attention and forming a still unimpaired whole of his desired

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M. Mori

dreamland. In this sense, although they appear as two individual characters

for the sake of the plot, on another level, Yoko and Komako represent different aspects of female beauty in Shimamuras omnipresent perception
apart from the reality of the two women and their locality.
Since the two women reveal common elements along with sharply contrasted differences at any given time while their close-knit relationship as
well as their characterization undergoes change, their mutual relationship
closely approaches the yin-yang system. In the interdependence of proximate things (Ames 2003, 846), Komako is manifest as the aspect of light
and vital life force, while Yoko stays mostly latent as the aspect of darkness
and a potential source of purication. As such, Yoko stands for the invisible, pre-existing background of a thing or the virginal phase of womanhood, from which Komako the experienced has emerged as the visible
thrust of the formation of a thing (Cheng 2009, 74).
This yin-yang dynamic accounts for Komakos otherwise inexplicable
behavior in the ending. When Yoko faces serious injury or possible death
due to her fall, Komako disregards her own safety and rushes into the re
in order to rescue Yokos unconscious body, while asserting that the girl is
on the verge of insanity. On a symbolic level, it is the inseparable other that
sheherself acting in a deranged mannertries to salvage at the critical
moment, because she cannot be her own self without the counterpart,
thereby demonstrating the underlying yin-yang relationship between them
for the last time.
Yin-Yang & Kawabatas Place in the Topography of Asian Culture
Yin-yang is mentioned only once in a quotation from the old local history
book to explain the coolness one can feel when wearing a chijimi garment in
midsummer. In addition, Kawabata stated that he read the old book after
he had written most of his novel but before he added a concluding chapter
originally titled Sekichu
kaji (A re in snow, 1940) that begins
with the chijimi episode (Kawabata 1949, 38889). Nevertheless, yin-yang
turns out to entwine the two women implicitly throughout the story. As in
the symbol of light and darkness, two competing yet complementing elements are present in a constant ow to achieve desired purgation of the protagonists excessive modern self-consciousness, while giving coherence to
the apparently irregular plot structure. Thus, the yin-yang that underlies
Snow Country ascertains Kawabatas place in the topography of Asian culture beyond widely recognized Buddhist inuences.
Notes
1

Yin-yang is often combined with wu-xing (ve agents or phases). Yin-yang

wu-xing offers a complex system that operates through cyclical change involving the ve

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295

elements of wood, re, earth, metal, and water. This paper considers the cyclicality of
wu-xing as unessential for the discussion at hand and thus focuses on the contrastive
nature of yin-yang.
2
For a review of J. Martin Holmans 2006 translation of Kawabatas Koto, see Thorndike (2008).

References
Ames, Roger T. 2003. Yin and yang. In Encyclopedia of Chinese philosophy, ed. Antonio S.
Cua, 84647. New York: Routledge.
Cheng, Chung-ying. 2009. The yi-jing and yin-yang way of thinking. In History of Chinese
philosophy, ed. Bo Mou, 71106. Vol. 3 of Routledge history of world philosophies. New
York: Routledge.
Kawabata Yasunari . 1949. Dokuei jimei [A sole shadow of my life]. In
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[The complete works of Kawabata Yasunari], ed. Inoue Yasushi , Nakamura Mitsuo , and Yamamoto Kenkichi , 267547. Tokyo: Shincho
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. 1956. Snow country, trans. Edward G. Seidensticker. New York: Vintage International, 1996.
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