CHAPTER SEVEN Kawabata Yasunari e [DN 22 Tong and distinguished literary career, Kawabata __ Yasunari (1899-1972) produced an immense number of the- retical and critical writings. Some of them, like An Introduction to the Novel, Studies in the Novel, and The New Composition Reader, dealt directly with the nature of literature. Others, like his literary columns for newspapers and magazines, discussed in- dividual writers and their works. For a student of Kawabata the latter are far more interesting. His theoretical works borrowed a Sreat deal from Western scholars, critics, and theorists. But his Teviews show his own instinctive capacity to distinguish good writing from mediocre, Characteristically, he looked at the work rather than its creator; he never hesitated to praise/a good story no matter how obscure the writer, or to condemn a bad novel no matter how famous the novelist. In consequence, he came to be considered the foremost discoverer of new literary talent in modern Japan. Writers whose debuts he helped include such well-known names as Okamoto Kanoko (1889-1939), Ibuse Masuji (b. 1898), Ishizaka Yojird (b. 1900), Kajii Motojiro (1901-32), Funabashi Seiichi (b. 1904), Hj Tamio (1914-37), Toyoda Masako (b. 1922), and Mishima Yukio.* This fact alone is enough to convince one * Okamoto Kanoko, one of modern Japan's leading women writers, was especially skilled in depicting young women reared in old, traditional families. IbuseMasuji, known for such tragicomic works as “The Salamander,” No Constltations Today, and Lieutenant Lookeast, is a highly respected con- temporary novelist. Ishizaka Y6jird, initially a schoolteacher, distinguished himself by his novels vividly portraying girls of school age. Kajii Motojixd, a meticulous stylist in the fashion of Shiga, was at his best in sketches of nature and human life viewed through the eyes of a sensitive young man, FunabashiKawabata Yasunari a very clear view of what literature is and nis novels may appear incidental in form Jose examination, one discovers that the ns ina Window pre Reflectio? sae appears near the opening of Snow County. uch ser Tokyo dilettante, is aboard a train going to ju 270 the north of Japan. Sitting: diagonally op- unt) yiful girl. Heer name is Yoko, though he does ire hit? is, As dusk falls on the dreary landscape outside, «know U"jow begins to mitror things inside the train, = wih it continues (© show the darkening country- P', startied when, suddenly, a light out in the mura : ’s eye, reflected in the window. He is sponta” ed by its beauty. seg narrated from Shimamura’s point of view. The Siow ere at the outset OF the novel, is suggesting to the reader ce view represents. Shimamura isa typically jaded eae tual. He is tired of living a monotonous life, like "ain tired of watching the monotonous landscape +h boredom can be broken only by the sight of some re ary beauty, like that of Yoko's eye sparkling in the train Shimamura is interested in that beauty, and in that rin lone. Stow Country covers Sbimamiura’s Ife aves a 4paH verry thee years, yet he does not narrate all the events that sn during that time. Hie picks out only the ones that have this « peauty, All the others are not worth recounting. vrabata repeatedly made the same point in his critical essays. jous example is one of his lectures at the University of in 1969, appropriately entitled “The Existence and Dis- passenger i “sing by: SUC al window Smai w ike Kawabata in his effort to capture the beauty of traditional tut his heroines seem more earthy, sensual, and urbane than Pres Hoje Tamio wrote some moving stories based on his experience "jeri for lepers. Toyoda Masako was for a time an idol for all grade- el students interested in creative writing. Japanese wome Kawabata Yasunari 175, covery of Beauty.” The main theme of the lecture is succinctly ex- pressed in a little incident he describes at the beginning of the lec- ture, an incident he himself experienced in Hawaii. Kawabata was staying at the Kahala Hilton Hotel, which has a dining area on the terrace. As he went out there in the morning, he would see several hundred glasses placed upside down on the tables. The glasses shone brightly in the tropical sun, their bases glittering like dia- monds and their sides gleaming more softly and delicately. Kawa- bata, who had never seen anything like it, was delighted with the spectacle. In his lecture, he suggested that literature recorded nothing but such encounters with beauty. ‘The parallel between this episode and the opening scene of Snow Country is unmistakable. To Kawabata, an artist was a seeker and discoverer of beauty. More specifically, a writer was a person who recorded his encounters with beauty. Snow Country is a record of such encounters. What sort of beauty did Kawabata have in mind? He did not consider the mundane life of an average citizen good material for literature, He was opposed to the Japanese version of naturalism. “No work of art is born from observation of sufferings alone,” he said, and concluded: “New ‘realism’ does not make good sense, whether it means a realistic representation of rural life or of urban life. If the new ‘realist’ stand is right, it would only indicate that the writers who take that stand today are leading a deprived ex- istence.” Life in the real world was a mixture of things true and untrue, pure and impure, sincere and insincere. A novelist leading a spiritually rich life would be able to pick out only those things in life that were true, pure, and sincere, and then rearrange them to produce an order of reality more beautiful than the everyday kind, A man living a spiritually deprived existence would not be capable of doing so. ‘This explains Kawabata’s generally unfavorable attitude not only toward most Japanese naturalists but also toward Dazai, whose life and works he thought were “covered by gloomy clouds.” It also accounts for his low appraisal of both Kafai’s During the Rains, which he thought revealed the author's “infirmity,” andthat critics frequently 1 sword, itis a “longing.” Deploring the fact he once explaine called him a decadent waiter or a nibilist, awabata Yasunari q an's Tale, about which he said “the bli = i et Me nly whe (Fania) sles athe Mind {an ideale of. Hurman bins could ea is of Hie ong his favorite wate (| tot Ia Or binds a ete iat si uae rr presmably be fot aff ent ney Kawabata describes a young bache ai WT yes seemed to him seriously lacking in vital quali swith many pet animals and birds and i Arges eo pace hime a joocr to SEipetae ase to improve the breed of each according aa Be cage ates 3 a ac fori OR ‘nan article entitled “Pippa Nosh cancer cer appensin stg sna sve " Bit He cnr by Karat, hen dynamic. I i ? ergy generated by striving after an ideal. To wse hi favorite circles, we hear a Jot of loud noise and in write” jitism for its jew of life is gen- sng am rg ole contac with Bs werk eee ie et is ee have never writen a story that has decadence or i tain theme, What seems s is in eruh a kind of 1nging fo" i ritually cand ang ae : ng in 3 Ey nis view of ie is more postive, that Petone weary of the noe Hes } Sh Th opie Kawabata ero logs for something #0 dst ily, uninitiated readers took Kawabata Yasunari "7 ge pie HUME : ter A pe seu Boer sha itseens unattainable, Cosequent : Taeuber of Kavatncsvere 7) rth had Jose al ch at confuse th pt unt ‘vaste of effort,” and saw him asa mai ore beautifully, when it Tongs pot be attainable, but the effort df effort is the very source of parison of i to fire 1 keeps burning ‘dand nothing else. Pens © PE ts because they reflected a positive Iie But if burns more purely. fora dane ideal The ideal may so tl SEs pen if Hs Ua ae Kawabata was: reminded of Rob- to attain it is beautiful. This kin Tt had the same joie de vivre, “pure fife” as conceived by Kawabata. His com} Carcojas ata appromine: us if burns itself out s poor oral easy 0 pe sid that, for Kawabata, the bes Ie tani ic either auains its ideal or eo Nie a es and pure. He Bais ecroing 0 Took trove, Cathet re io various erat a his writings. Bor- Tarik book reviews ad discover which books earned BS WOT 3 oma fellow Wty Ne ee eas ees aire “The book that scms most deserving Of OT ie pea of CE “observed that all great artis Be pariiseet ot nontcton called The Record! of B stam. Elsewhere he termed it “pure life,” “genuine vitality,” bby Yamaguchi Sato, The author was ‘a young nurse who fell in love ie wil served as one of the vr aplent asoldir wounded and crippled ino 7) ‘Against as eray Teen Ba that die Pe bet tgs en er and in he He OA by i eo ie ad condemned AS did not. raise who lt he was no fit co marry she ES ahead or bata, however dlfered’ from Shiga in one significant way: nd marred him, The book was her diary Fecor the joys and aati dese wild animale Fos SG the life of a sturdy ponies of Her fe with Bim. In an extradin tong and en ris nacaal sein Was ‘ultimate model for buman Ahusiastic review, Kawabata wrote: ln ora chia wae nt 0) a wild might be rte ove a mariage rte acer emul TO Woe“ In our 1 aoe genuine ie they were not conscious sce tr ent mortal ne md on sho ae hal wo perfec thems: Huan Ba 2 Se pce. Late ot ort eae eco cm yy cmparvon, appear simple Resin Sd wholesome. id hey ey could conceive ofitaor di Japan animal co realize ts potential because thKawabata Yasunari ve he penfect couple, and thelr relatonsh «met al ove, at ia, sophia ra we dei ot Sc ove ot confined to the relations rot Pipe last 7 soldier and his nurse, OF even between husband and see nll 1 al union, Loving devotion exit even in eve ve escent hey to, experience bis But Mrs Yama- re cr om ed deen o snc se a Bete rane agony mwa ae Bea The rues he eve by wondering i the Kind of mar pat cone chi is leading could lst. “am sure she will fs Yatmake ic last,” he says. “But it would not matter “entually fail. She has loved as much as is ob yea has found bappines a8 & woman in het life zal) OS Tapped soldiehusband. IE the marriage should s vy ihat would be an act of God, occurring after ony posible bad been done: Mrs, Yamaguchi will or fe tothe full, And a beautiful if ffs: Already, ar po) ove stands a testionony to tat” nicest aking resemblance between Mrs: Yamaguchi and Thar 68 iy. Yoko isa “nurse” tending her lover, Yukio, «cia long time and will soon die. She loves him in- ithe more so because he is sexually impotent; in this ne sekeeps its maidenly purity. Because of Yukio’ illness, ‘established fabric store in the ancient capital. By its very nature their love for each other is sisterly, like Yoko's love for Saichiro, and it burns all the more passionately because of their difference in upbringing, . In The House of the Sleeping Beautics, physical love is ruled ‘out by the fac that its hero, Eguchi, isa nearly impotent old man. The house in question is actually a brothel of a very strange and ‘unusual kind: young girls are drugged to sleep throughout the night so that old men can gaze on and fondle their naked bodies ‘Thanks to the drug, the old men can enjoy the illusion that the girls find them desirable, though there is no lovemaking in the hormal sense. What the old men are really paying for is a chance to recapture their youth. For old Eguchi, this takes the form of reminiscing to himself about his past associations with women. All ‘we earn ofthese women and their love is what he remembers about them. Since memory beautifes all things, because of the long dis tance between the things recalled and the person who remembers them, Eguchis past love affair are all purified as they come back tohim. In all these instances, Kawabata used the character of a young ‘woman to embody his concept of ideal love, a longing pure and Without stain, impossible to consummate. Obviously this was be- cause he felt that a young woman, more than anyone else, was Capable of this type of love. She could love a man, no matter how far away he might be, no matter how unattainable he might be. Toward the end of Snow Country Komako observes, “Nowadays, only women have a capacity for real love.” “Nowadays, yes,”Kawabata Yasunari rut that’s how its always been,” she re 2 eal re se p88 [gt 32" KOM tho is @ famous novelist, is moved to i Pye nAFTANON T ceurish stories written by Takiko, a 1g 2 yell esl "Tow cea woman i 800 nae, and then ponders: A tories were litle more than records of her hehe love she gave out unconditionally itenkds, and lovers. Ths fat deeply moved teigiven more lofty, more profound, oF asterpieces of literature old and sy out some sre had sooty epreson Ett Takiko’s stories difered from all those besa Wester, Sof love existed in actual life T thought, Enc eva. Tne ok at ie straight. As works of iteratare Fen co cabTENET Form and style, and under normal eieuma- Fro hing OY oem senouly. But it aened @ me in ea ie eae at Leal eae jesse eonditionally and limitlessly given, is like that areorel all the other Kawabata heroines discussed hoi fo place a young woman in the center of his A. bie symbotired his ideal, but because she wes eemely inher sles efforts to fll chat rroper cpio sok cava pte of livin reapable wl. some Kawabata stories without young. heroines, rer is small. Yet even in those instances love, or not is at work, One beautiful instance is a brief mpc Moon.” in which dhe youthfal hero wants t0 collet “Tipnity to the moon. The object of his love is 30 vinnot hope for fulfilment. And so he keeps his saeon with the kind of moral intensity that Kawa- cwise the central character of “The Youth” id boy who loves the narrator—admittedly young. {with a passion so pure and wholesome that it ve fect on others. His “brotherly” love is later di- the Creator, a divine figure central to a nature- vn of which he and his family are followers. This Jimost feminine features, is in Kawabata Yasunari 183 ‘A teenage schoolboy a Sixteen-Year- Old, rary debut. The fact compared by the author to a maiden. also the central character of “The Diary of the short story with which Kawabata made bis 1 boy's affection, almost invisible bue ever-present under the 0% {aces is direced toward his alling grandfather, the only kin be hes ‘The young man is a “nurse” to the dying man, and his Jove 02 the more sincere Because he knows the dying man is incapable returning it. Neliberaimalden nora youngster appears in The Mater of G°y Yyeta similar ype of love is present in it, too. Hon‘inbd shosa) the master in the book's ttle, plays the game of go with the passic® 0! Penetrating a masterpiece of art. Like 2 maiden who adores aman from a distance, he thinks of the game as existing Om © igher plane of reality, and devotes his whole personality 10 at taining its there living the purest atensest nd of life. “Even ‘when he played mahjong or pool, he took the same attitude as im playing go and entered a state of trance ....” the narrator s2Ys OF Shisai. “One could therefore say that the master was always =e and pure. Unlike an ordinary person in a distracted state, the ‘master seemed actually to have lost himself somewhere in the far distance.” Shisai does everything he can to attain his ideal; he dares a chronic heart ailment, and even death. The beauty of that devotion constitutes the main impact of The Master of Go. ‘To generalize, then, it can be said that Kawabata's ideas on the sclationship between life and art are characterized by his concern with the pure beauty generated from the impossible longing of a romantic mind. In his view, the artist’s task is to depict the beauty of a person pursuing a high ideal and living his—or more usually hhetlife to the full because of that pursuit. A young woman, ‘Kawabata thought, was the most likely person to do this, although f young man or an artist was not incapable of such a pursuit if his ideal was a high one and his heart was pure. ‘Living for an ideal, while beautiful and pure, is also extremely dangerous; a person, in attempting to attain the unattainable, is ising his life. That person cannot live life to the full without ‘being prepared to die at any time, Death, therefore, looms every-Kawabata Yasunati vata’s heroes and heroines fia raf ery Thus Yoko di ‘pina, oe end of Stow Cont, Eels de fr 25 Thane ay oats rpough They Bell brutally murdered. The a THowpamed) dies at tend of The Hout of the oe sr of Go begins ae ends witha reer hich happened shorty after the im mabe in he novel: PT ‘beauty, as conceived 7 ile beauty. The beautiful ones sab perish jones live forever, 25 ‘observes at the vnaster oe oC awabta 8 npr ei ton Hotel Tele Bel we eee pe aly moment the uh ee igs re oat ee dherelves were tangparet on ad sa Kawabata to describe the clean beasty 4 akable. Furthermore, they were de oa gahting Hike Sar, whih as ln sta NOt coume the inanimate gles were not ran idea bute person Wi Gk hem pad ben hinkingabout The Tale of Cen aaa yon te beauty of shining Hse He di “he relationship between the casi cena © 5 roman) an Say is BY cana nce mn ee dled a re and ere Th all Ch cde ope bo ae a ance area beautiful maiden who came from the moon. set he tale as an expression ofthe authors ong: «ren, as Lady Murasaki had also done centuries seereed, he aaid, when he recently came upon the hholars who interpreted the tale a5 a hee ie, He elt ofeoday’s Japanese sc rane ends with Forio's dppearance fem eV SEAL cent wih mers er words ofthe previous NE cr soe, Me rp fac hatte aie not reveled te ious on the Wave, Bei ibd Kawabata Yasunari 185, embodiment of man’s “longing for the infinite, the eternal the pre!" The eeral virgin ofA Tale of « Bamboo-Cuitr i name) {he Shining Princes andthe hero of The Tale of Gers called the Shining Prince. Ie would ave been quite natural for Kav tat fading atthe planes sain ince sun, chink of thew od ‘Japanese romances. FT pens lei Kawabaus’s store, cen, are pried by Oe Tonging forthe Infaic, which ves them 2 particular We of penny. For dem, everyday ie is ransgured: has both Be lc andthe profandiy of fairytale. “I ave produce’ cosy ever wopks tha stay clove to faci,” Kawabata wrote: TH SE “ppliss to his wellknown revelation that “Komske existed in IBr gu Yoko didnot.” Yoko was 2 product of his imaging 97 aaa ia Shining Priness. Korako, on the over band was £0 ffealed portrait of areal person, a young gestae a) in Se cag th book bc te ome PET fer uy, Jost ow such Kawabata did deaioe realife Bes Day J erm hs esay abou the making of “TH 1 ee ere vor anc ofthe mon ira fs avaba works Beaters betvesn 2 Yoel) Meson Tae {ihe author, ashe inself admis) and 2 toUPE °F traveling enter- I ee dance of iaocne beaver among them: MS he Bae aca rae yircien yeas inter, the ral CUTENCE TT ade ning, Th dancer's cher brother and his we suffered fate hgnant tumors apparently caused By wenetea ia ‘The from maa changes bandages atthe public bath he before aabetats eyes The dancer's mother looked asf se never bathed Say dancer herell had a ceproporionstly $720 3 ieee Cem al by deers omiting Ome er este econ: He was ke Stmeamarain S727 pee selected only thote event and persons) characteristics @P- 1 ey exemplifying the kind of ethereal beauty chat neTeE ceased to fascinate him. “A Composition Teacher 0 Ghost Writer ond 9 Etre then, the proper function of the literary In Kawabat’s view, v gduee the pure beauty generated PY arise was to discover and reKawabata Yasunari ite lived to the full. The artist combined two rs ie re beauty, and an abili sone Hc ee pe Beauty, and an ability to represent gsc’ 28 Tet us examine these two abilities and thelr ters one BY One: ons are best qualified to discover pure beauty? le children, young vel ypes of re hak of de ru yal dying eR. ‘ vn so ese hat sal cide BE} see pure oa Tmantie thinkers, Eastern and Western, have said san Pye sort child's mind is fresh, gentin, innocent sossing t Gjouded by conventional modes of perception, and "tnt dulled by repeated exposure to the ways of the asin ing a young child sees isa new wonder, Thus when . ‘xpress itself in a plece of composition, the reader ec Fe a eeufally reflected in a clear mirror. “The prime sat ps composition les in is simple heart’ ~ Kawabata need "Despite the fact that a child lives a fairly egocentric of iting emits rays of innocent wisdom because it has a ‘y children’s composition we are reminded that iy nature good and beautiful, that our language is ior expressing human goodness and beauty.” sowed an unusual interest in children’s composition. > promote nationwide contests in creative writing. leschool children, and often served on the screening He also helped to compile 4 Compendium tion and contributed a preface to it. In the in of that preface he declared: “A chil’s compo- vest of all creative writings. It shows us lterature’s than its destination.” He went on to urge that on be read not only by students and teachers but also hho were neither. “All adults," he wrote, “should be sding children’s composition; they should contem- he simple, pure life expressed therei cdilection for amateur authors, as well as his new writers, can also be attributed t0 the imple, pure life.” Amateur writers nt no les 5 187 Kawabata Yasunari hhave more innocent eyes and fresher sensibilities than professional novelists, who tend to suffer unconsciously from affectation in both perception and expression. “I hate a professional,” Kawabata ‘once snapped, “in whom an amateur has stopped living.” His literary reviews were filled with rebukes aimed at writers who had fallen into professionalism. In contrast, he always had warm praise foran amateur writer's work as yet unspoiled by affectation. It was fon account of this sympathetic attitude toward amateurs that he ‘eventually came to be considered the foremost discoverer of new Literary talent in modern Japan, He took delight in reading un- established writers’ works, which many critics would have con sidered a waste of time, He was always willing to serve on com- sitters that selected literary prizes; no one served longer, for stance, on the selection committee that biannually gave the Akuta- _g2wa Prize to a promising writer. At one point he even ventured fo say that many writers fail to surpass their maiden works no ‘matter how long their literary carcers might last thereafter. This ‘was co becaure they started off as amateurs; a maiden work was ‘yaluable because the writer was still an amateur, because he could still see with a child's eyes. Kawabata gave such lavish praise t0 The Records of My Love because of its childlike quality. Referring {that book, he remarked: “This is less an amateur writer's work than a dasstoom composition by an adult’—and he intended that remark to be high praise, To follow Kawabata’s logic: a profes sional writer’s work was seldom as good as an amateur’s, which in turn was seldom as good as a child's. Te was no wonder that Kawabata was envious of Sat Hachiro (1903-73), who in his opinion was the only writer in contemporary Japan who could write a story from a child’s point of view. “Most ‘orks of juvenile literature written by adults are disgusting,” wrote Kawabata. “If we ignore them as we should, we will be left with only one writer capable of writing a story touching on the reality ‘of young people's lives, That is Sato Hachir6.” Only Sat was able + Sut Hachird, son ofa bestselling novelist, produced a voluminous amount ot pocas and tris for chen, He was avo very succesful as writer of popalrsongsKawabata Yasunari ‘a child’s eyes. What about Kawabata him. say vous a Fe 0 eo have much talent for Writing juvenile iter w pdont yer But.” he continued“ have always been sli vs it gat it not only Because this helps me to earn iyo Ae have alway fet that work of thiskind mi Sng eT to my art as a novelist.” He published two typ rotor es for boys and girls, Kawabata's Collected ws of 5 anes Of eran 1950, and A Collection of Kawabata's Stories "ois in 1968. But many of the other stories that he ious juvenile magazines still remain uncollect. in vat “ust ’ © jal! his enthusiasm for juvenile literature, Kawa: von po draw a ne between i and literate proper pnalsed "om his aforementioned remark, he considered so 5s geen a means to restore vitality to hisart of ficon, sting fr poll. Not a single story for children is included in 23 of his collected works, which he edited himsel.* ct pert was important a creative writing Pa vot chou (arr ee eae ease acto ele erate Was lacking tn someting that tal diference betwen juvenile Hteratare and a: proper was clearly explained by Kawabata when he dis Topp of Toyoda Matos Youre ee ater Sy ore sill’ ox por tat alo venience of this school's writings isso obvious that no one needs seine oa yet in one respect her work puzzles me. In brief, aeariGes the reader with a strangely “hollow” impression, secon admiration while reading ity and yet when he fies [LSU Smost no tice of ft in bis mind. "Theoretially a sa: frersture should not be like this. 1 begin to gee frightened ichplst the meaning ofthat hollow impression. But perhaps deat he wrong way. Her book gives the reader an impression fiuly dierene from chat of literature proper, preciely because ‘composition. That qualitative diference is perhaps what “before the entire edition wat p irc all che volumes of prose 8 soil unedited By hime Kawabata Yasunari 189 pusles me and gives me a hollow impression. 1f Toyoda is a genius she {sa genius of a rare kind: she has no aspiration. For a literary genius ‘must of necessity be impregnated with a spiritual heightening. Litde of that, hewever, can be reeogaized in her composition. “The key words ere are “aspiration” and “spstual heightening” Anadule writer, being himset buried in the mire, mast aspire for putty; that aspiration generate a spiritual heightening within Nim. A eild (or a writer with x cilike mind) has chat purty alredyand has no need ro Tong frit, Aci’ composition there fore express no longing, and an adult reader ike Kawabata, who expec to nd spiritual agpiration in a Titerary work, pine by is sbsence and fees diated after reading it Te follow then, that a writer of adot literature should ideally have not ony a ctl’ pure heart but also an adult's yearning for puriy In Kavabat's opinion, one ofthe persons most likely t fave thee qulifations was young woman. This i not so" Pring when we reall his contention chat maidens and young tromen were equipped witha capacity to love without the less Expectation of ectving a revard in etur, A maiden had a pare hearehich grew even purer aeloved a dying man ora brother. When such perio produced a literary work, it would reflect not balythe write’spure heart but alo her aspiration, her Yonging, to Become purer. Asa esl, the reader of such a work would not find it hollow instead he would be moved by ts aspiration and iene: Kawabata utilized this dea as Iterary device in some of his works In*"The Mele" fr ample the nazar isa young woman wo longs to five her husband "pure love,” the same Kind of love thegweie mother and ners aa Kite gil. The husband refuses toaccnpt that love, which thereupon grows even more intense and pute. The same mechanism i at work in "Lyi Poem,” except thatthe man whom the young female orator loves not only => {ones to accep her love but arses another woman and then dies forever citing off all hope that her love wil be fulfilled. Again, jn Morning Cloud te narrator sa teenage gel who nortates a tere loe for her teacher of Japanese, a beautiful young, womanKawabata Yasunari rer, among other thi 5 of the imy POssLe lve emboli Senator sing a vision of her teacher digest sn : fon se main clouds. In all dhese instances Renae ‘yam Hi naMaor Deas in his ewrayne pent a8 ideal storyteller, an ideal writer of eae a other stories by Kawabata, sock ae The a be ee et pen ‘The reader ses, fon wi, 3 young woman pouring out her maidenly afeeaey tao hing man, oF on a iam already marred to her bet fieaa, not so apparent, a similar device cam also\be observed ty ai of Kavabat’s novels, such as The Old Gapital and The ofthe Flowers ‘variation ofthe same device is sen in Snow Country, Shima. so, fom whose point of view all the novel’ actions are tld) ots Young woman; yet he can be termed a “maiden” since the iy of his sppration resembles a maiden’s, AS‘ young man etal loved the Kabuki dance, But when ths "love afi” pro- cedelio he point at which he iad to have a physical relationship « habuki (he felt he had to throw himself actively into the dance movement), he shrank back and gave it all up. He then squires new sweetheart: Western ballet, This time he was more ‘ow tot chat he never actually witnessed a ballet per. Jon the stage. He just dreamed of the ballet like a maiden, og of 2 distant lover. This maidenly quality within him sain reson why Komako loves him. Kawabata, by using 2 his mouthpiece, was able to let the reader see that yin the novel. vality is present in Kikuji, a young man who provides in Thousand Cranes. He aspires for an ms too beautiful and distant for him to attain: he n eternal maiden whose beauty is symbolized ‘Kawabata Yasunari_ agi by athouand cane p Pepe estate tere Kayatata Mel paid tn ne Sint canes gee this loing rena oe Sopa eet the morning or creing sy, Janey Tomchenieant at he pana he hon ook. IniheNeweorsty se cee orleans double this longing is expres through the peron of Ki ‘uji, who aspires for Purity all the more because he fecls he is ‘openly enmcbed inthe evils ofthe past Hs vinginal quay Sade even clearer in Ploeron th Wve in whieh he tog Yabiko but shies aay from physically touching her He a ren evn after mariage Kavalatas preietion forthe msenly quality ina weiter i also elected fn his work atte and reviewer. 3 and lage he apPeat to have been pasta to female writers We have seen how athtsasilly he reviewed The Records of My Love by Mee Yamaguchi, At commiuce mectings to select Akutagowa Prise stories he someines recommended ach obi authorees at Kawakami Kikuko, [hela Michiko, Oka Yoko, and Saito Metko, and each instance he was overruled by other commitce mem tm This was in sharp contax wi is recommendations of male novels in which ee other members generally agreed wth him nation to Okamoto Kanoko and Toyoda Mako, he helped such women waiter at Orn Fuji, Yamatawa Vache, and Ghjo Fumiko to ge pubihed, A panoge that appears in his esay ‘recommending Mrs. Okamoto is expecially revealing ofthe eason ‘why he so enjoyed authoresss like her: ‘Needles toy, ll he benuifal women conjured up by Mi. Okamoto ‘ue eysullizaton of fe and symbolize the ermal virgin nd mothe. “They enade rays of sot elgous ight Thi wat Lea wen ‘once sid "Her Noves, while ooted deep in the ground, biom as ‘aalanly af they Delonge to the water or the cloud” Thove wore, Yomevae raeabling the Viegin Mary or the Mona Lia, ae products tf the Wenera undidon tat idolued women, Japanese iterature has Trai no such tadition—or, i one argues fe had one in The Record ofKawabata Yasunari pe A Tale of a Bamboo-cy ret cn ean tat bas 10g since withered aways ae Tale of Geng, (oa aa se SL Gen son why Mrs. Okamoto was able to eed fer pure beauty. Kawabata concluded ihe say bysaye Pa oto,” he wrote, “sce a realm that T hayes "In Me, longing for pa Sot nied 1 young women, ever ee PE be fond vo. pecially in Ong mee: ayaa i‘ a sy entitled “The Eyes of a Dying Srarasisiea hen fom a sicie note of ARstageate att pee Stomach pra fan eel seen mate oss end bea Bar nage iene sa gh ge Loftus bey aed ih Aaa afad am convinced,” he wrote, “that to the ears ofan ascea Sep {else eomparene arg nang me mm it may sound activities lies in. woter Akuagawa nor Kawabata volunteered to explain e scr why a dying man should be endowed with such an artes ic But the reason can be surmised, at least as far as Kawabats is concerned. It has to do with the fact that a dying penon i ysl inactive, if not incapacitated. He may be mentally nor, nl and capable of forming a desire, yet he is lacking in the piysial capacity to fulfil that desire. In other words, he is best life o be a dreamer, a person who Rarbors an imposible ream. His dream always remains a dream, since he cannot take +4 rindpal igure in the Japanese mythology as embodied in The Record lr sa female, the Sun Goddess Reference has already Been woman worship as portrayed in The Tale of Genjiand Tale of 193 l since it is seen through “the eyes in be said of The Houte of the Sleep- is” are all the more beautiful because fhevate een through the eyes of old Eguchi, who knows his eave arenumbered, Asaccitic to, Kawabata Paid high respect to the works of dying 5, Thus he much admired Akutagava's "Cogwheel," despite he fact that Akutagawa was not among his favorite writers be ‘cause he saw behind ie “the eyes of a dying nan.” He called Ania ‘te by Tokuda Shisei (1873-1948), “the greatest novel of modern Japan.” though it was left unfinished at the author's death, Re- fetring to “An Unpleasant Feeling” and “By the Abyss of Death; by Takami Jun (1g07-65), he implied that these works were master- Pieces because the author was dying of cancer, and that for him this fact could be considered a stroke of luck.* Kawabata also {Tokuda Shtse, one of the “four pillars” of Japanese naturalism, was a ater arist at epicting the hard-prewed lives of idle sad eget People in a deuched,realtic manner. Though gery avens 0 naturainn, Kaveabata made an exception for Tokuda and paid the hignesvepect to him Takami Jo, basally a writer of iehsRomam produced'a number of auto oraphial stores ful of his penetrating obseraton onthe life around hi ‘is friendship with Kawabata seems to have been through exzlterary sel Htc in the main, such a5 the projec ofthe Japan PEN Club and the exab. lishment of an institute in modern Japanese Utcratute,Kawabata Yasunarj ce 2 een effectively prevented from livi in spite of the gin society." Theil le beaut be key eve Me ees of 2 dying man. Feed tat ih Kavabatals ew thes ay op we Nf hileen, young women, and dying men-—yere po sh Se the “pure beauty” that comes of life lived to ag, ed stl gs, both in prose fiction and in literary erties, 2. wc view Tt does not necessarily follow, howeten at coat ese classes of people to be the best writers; in fact, it sagen srange if he had, since they generally la de articulate what they see, They had to ¢ Te IL Ati € helped son i pmeonel such sil. A Te eld had gobo Jt on er 2700Ng woman ya Pa ut OS 3 man, by a funeral orator, gist eld mist be sisted ya compotion ot fe explanation. A child has clear eyes to see and ce, yet it has to Tearn how asimple to express what it sees and ¢ is manmade and social; writen Japanese, in pare i tes o be earned, since it is considerably different from vl onal Japanese.* When a child produces a piece of com: sit consciously or unconsciously uses expressions it hay irom the teacher. “To be sure, composition is expressive ind sentiments," wrote Kawabata in his preface i compendium of Model Composition, “yet it is also a manifes- oc of the teacher's mind and character. That is the way 1 fuels I1ead this collection. These pieces are not products n alone. Passages that seem to have come most july from a child's pen can also be said to have been co- ed by its teacher.” rence between written and spoken Japanese 2 certain type of auxiliary verb, with whieh © later are concladed, Theoretically itis possible to write val Japanese. and in fact some people do (Tanizakt called this the woNiaiaive” ae we saw in Chapter 9), but ie is far from common Kawabata Yasunari In regard to the def Na leficiency of young women as write famous pasge by Kawabuts in nese 195 there is {uiSss norte Ikaant Shinebur, who wrote both drama and prove Scion, tras cle to Kawabntaasa member he Nev Senualit group Nook! SOD, Then satay for bis popular samurat stories, shared with Kawabata an in tense in the fame of for Jlchiya Guaburo, another Neo-Sensualst, elped ae etre magarine. Kataoka Teppei was a Neo- Earn Inerary movement and then id Ken, a novel 2 well wesley reformer froteeaays and pros fiction that appealed expe 2 sat or pecaue of ther ldeafitie moralism, ‘Takeda Rintard was ‘BineaE fowtaying opprosedplebean lie in Japan during the oxo. Aono Guakial Pea ana Journals was one of the lading theorists in the later arene ehe pricaran literary movement, 1 Sel ea versatile and pro- Poaceae post novel exsays, social criti, Ierary theorist, Pro- eae o¢Eogish, and translator of James joyee and D. H. LawrenceKawabata Yasunari 598 - 5 soz nova’ ela sor str could beeen a soe ans The Mate of 60 ihr wren Fa mean eg srt er ely cing 6 pode a meres aa St 2g a ore metaporelsene, now Cosy se rl an else man vor easy ves aco a for Romo, more eal) maen woe a ow death nthe second half ofthe nove Lies, st ans enlist womanly Beauty of Ms Ot, wo Foe sn te mil ofthe novel sh the vial bay co io fades ot of ight athe en Te Sound of te oa ould bread asa noel enogiring Yano ses whom ee ee eee re csr sori "Memorial Poe i ite obviwly& Banat pele fndcaten Tobe included i hit egy also ee Diary ofa SwtcenYear Ol" "An Undertaker,” “The seer a Rght*Teters to My Father and Mosher,” “Even pat They Fell The Gold Win “The Year En” "Tame thelist seems fo goon forever jars," “Nature” ‘Beauty, Sincerity, and Sadness (On January 9, 1968, Japan's leading long distance runner, Tso) bpuraya Kokichi, killed himself at the age of oventjseven. He) ‘lashed his throat at his lodgings in Tokyo. His suicide notes we published in the newspapers. One ofthe notes was addressed o his parents and relatives, whom he had visited over the New Year's Pitation, 1¢ was written in a simple, almost pedestrian style, be: faning with “Father, Mother, 1 enjoyed your forororice-* Ten eyed your dried persimmons and rice cakes, 00." The note went to thank his many brothers and sisters and their spouses, one ee forthe hospitality they had given him during his lat vist reco named each of his seventeen young nephews and nieces, and ham to become respectable people when they grew up. ThE SE rovoe ts made of Nod of yam own in Jaan. The yam. grad ad ore ate oe on ed ee or tse. 19 some ava of pth pial can re ow vents am = cv Hie Kawabata Yasunari 19 note concluded: “Father, Mother, I am far too tired to keep on running, Pease forgive me, I don’t know how to apologize to you forall the pain and trouble you went toon my bebalf. wish I}ad been living with you.” Kawabata was deeply moved upon reading this suicide note ‘Alter citing it in its entirety, he offered co explain why: “In the ‘imple, plain style and in the context ofthe emotion-ridden note, the stereotyped phrase ‘L enjoyed’ is breathing with truly pure Iie: Tt creates a rhythm pervading the entire suicide note, Tt is ‘beautiful, sincere, and sad." Kawabata then observed chat thi aielde note was not inferior to similar notes written by reputable verter despite the fact that Tsuburaya was an athlete who boasted To special talent in composition. Kawabata even felt ashame of is can writings, he sid, when he compared chem with this note “Suviously, Kawabata saw the doomed Tsuburaya as an ideal ‘wster To him, Tsuburaya was both dying man and child. He was ene vymaiden,” fm the sense that he was a dreamer always dream: Jog of anew athletic record. What i interesting here, Howene, ioe anpunge in which Kawabata described the sicie notes AW sed tobe saying, should impress the reader {deal work of art, hese aespelng beautifl, sincere, and sad, just Uke Tauburaa's notes, Tet us take each ofthese terms in order. Ic has already been noted chat beauty, especially pure Beauty, ea canned by Kawabata z an important Uerary elect. Bosh eae shining eyes and the glases sparkling in the Hlawalian sup sich beauty Jane been mensfoned as examples of things from which, aa eeey The beauty is "pare in dhe sense that itis generates Graal energy wasteully consumed, an energy used to reach out tra eal far beyond is reach. It slike the beauty of a maidens tere cepabe of faving a person with no expectation of Bayi ae Sconsummated This kindof beauty neossarly bas a dreary ration for the wnattainable. like quality, since its based on an asp eal person intereed ony i the attainable wosld BE a rrgag todo with it, Fredness, or naivett also associated Wh rotary person experienced i the ways ofthe world ends fo lo eae ares ne Knows his imitations and is prone so adjust is aim)