Yasunari Kawabata

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Lore & Background

Kawabata was born into a well-established family in Osaka, Japan, on 11 June 1899. Orphaned by age four, he lived with his grandparents. His grandmother died in September 1906, when he was seven, and his grandfather in May 1914, when he was fifteen. He then moved in with his mother's family, the Kurodas. In January 1916, he moved into a boarding house near his junior high school. After graduating in March 1917, he moved to Tokyo just before his 18th birthday. He was admitted to the First Higher School in September 1917. After graduating, he secured admission to the Faculty of Letters at Tokyo University and matriculated in July 1920, studying English literature. He later changed to Japanese literature and graduated in March 1924. While a university student, Kawabata re-established the Tokyo University literary magazine Shin-shichō, which had been defunct for more than four years. There he published his first short story, "Shokonsai ikkei" ("A View from Yasukuni Festival") in 1921. In October 1924, Kawabata, Riichi Yokomitsu, and other young writers started a new literary journal Bungei Jidai (The Artistic Age). This was part of the Shinkankakuha movement, which focused on offering "new sensations" or "new perceptions" in literature. He started to achieve recognition for "The Dancing Girl of Izu" in 1926. He met his wife Hideko in 1925, and they registered their marriage on 2 December 1931. He relocated from Asakusa to Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 1934. His novel Snow Country was started in 1934 and first published in installments from 1935 through 1937, establishing him as one of Japan's foremost authors.

Reader's Guide

Kawabata's significance lies in his role as the first Japanese author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded in 1968. His works, such as Snow Country, Thousand Cranes (serialized 1949–1951), and The Sound of the Mountain (serialized 1949–1954), explore themes of impossible love and impending death, often set against Japanese cultural practices like the tea ceremony. He was a central figure in the Shinkankakuha movement, which rejected both Naturalism and proletarian literature in favor of an "art for art's sake" approach influenced by European Cubism, Expressionism, Dada, and other modernist styles. In 1933, Kawabata protested publicly against the arrest, torture, and death of the young leftist writer Takiji Kobayashi in Tokyo by the Tokkō special political police. He served as president of Japanese P.E.N. for many years after the war (1948–1965), driving the translation of Japanese literature into English and other Western languages. He was awarded the Goethe (the source cuts off, but the Goethe award is mentioned).

Did You Know?

• Kawabata was orphaned by age four, lost his grandmother at seven, his older sister when he was 11, and his grandfather at 15.
• He re-established the defunct Tokyo University literary magazine Shin-shichō while still a student and published his first short story there in 1921.
• Kawabata was engaged to Hatsuyo Itō in 1921, but she broke off the engagement after only one month for unclear reasons; an unsent love letter to her was found at his former residence in 2014.
• He publicly protested the arrest, torture, and death of leftist writer Takiji Kobayashi by the Tokkō special political police in 1933.
• Kawabata served as president of Japanese P.E.N. for 17 years (1948–1965), promoting translation of Japanese literature into Western languages.