Snow Country
Encyclopedia
is the first full-length novel by the Nobel Prize-winning Japanese
author Yasunari Kawabata
. The novel established Kawabata as one of Japan's foremost authors and became an instant classic.
(Kozuke no kuni
) and Niigata
(Echigo no kuni
) Prefectures. Sitting at the foot of mountains, on the north side, this region receives a huge amount of snow in winter because of the northern winds coming across the Sea of Japan
. The winds accumulate moisture over the sea and deposit it as snow while running up against the mountains. The snow reaches four to five meters in depths, sometimes isolating the towns and villages in the region from others. The lonely atmosphere suggested by the title is infused throughout the book.
dilettante and a provincial geisha
that takes place in the remote hot spring
(onsen
) town of Yuzawa
(Kawabata himself did not mention the name of the town in his novel).
The hot springs in that region were home to inns, visited by men traveling alone and in groups, where paid female companionship had become a staple of the economy. The geisha of the hot springs enjoyed nothing like the social status of their more artistically trained sisters in Kyoto
and Tokyo
and were usually little more than prostitutes whose brief careers inevitably ended in a downward spiral.
The liaison between the geisha, Komako, and the male protagonist, a wealthy loner who is a self-appointed expert on Western ballet
, is thus doomed to failure. The nature of that failure and the parts played by others form the theme of the book.
As his most potent symbol of this "counter-Western modernity", the rural geisha, Komako, of his novel Snow Country embodies Kawabata's conception of traditional Japanese beauty by taking Western influence and subverting it to traditional Japanese forms. Having no teacher available, she hones her technique on the traditional samisen instrument by untraditionally relying on sheet music and radio broadcasts. Her lover, Shimamura, comments that, “the publishing gentleman would be happy if he knew he had a real geisha—not just an ordinary amateur—practicing from his scores way off here in the mountains.”
But on his way to the town, Shimamura is fascinated with a girl he sees on the train, a young girl named Yoko who is caring to a sick man traveling with her. He wants to see more of her, even though he is with Komako during his stay. Already a married man, it doesn't faze him that he is thinking about Yoko while being public with Komako.
, both for its many delicate contrapuntal touches and its use of brief scenes to tell a larger story.
As Shimamura (the protagonist) begins to understand his place in the universe, the idea of mono no aware
is also quite apparent.
Snow Country is one of the three novels cited by the Nobel Committee in awarding Yasunari Kawabata the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the other two works being The Old Capital
and Thousand Cranes
.
Kawabata again returned to Snow Country near the end of his life. A few months before his death in 1972, he wrote an abbreviated version of the work, which he titled "Gleanings from Snow Country," that shortened the novel to a few spare pages, a length that placed it among his Palm-of-the-Hand Stories
, a form to which Kawabata devoted peculiar attention for more 50 years. An English translation of "Gleanings from Snow Country" was published in 1988 by J. Martin Holman
in the collection Palm-of-the-Hand Stories.
Another Japanese novel, also titled Snow Country, but spelled in katakana
as opposed to the original kanji
(both books are Japanese), references this work. In the homage to the original, a Japanese student undertakes translating a book from English into Japanese for summer homework. The student does not realize that he is in fact translating a translation of the original work.
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
author Yasunari Kawabata
Yasunari Kawabata
was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award...
. The novel established Kawabata as one of Japan's foremost authors and became an instant classic.
Name
"Snow country" is a literal translation of the Japanese title "Yukiguni". The name comes from the place where the story takes place, where Shimamura arrives in a train coming through a long tunnel under the border mountains between GunmaGunma Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the northwest corner of the Kantō region on Honshu island. Its capital is Maebashi.- History :The remains of a Paleolithic man were found at Iwajuku, Gunma Prefecture, in the early 20th century and there is a public museum there.Japan was without horses until...
(Kozuke no kuni
Kozuke Province
was an old province located in the Tōsandō of Japan, which today comprises Gunma Prefecture. It is nicknamed as or .The ancient provincial capital was near modern Maebashi. During the Sengoku period, Kōzuke was controlled variously by Takeda Shingen, Uesugi Kenshin, the late Hōjō clan, and...
) and Niigata
Niigata Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Honshū on the coast of the Sea of Japan. The capital is the city of Niigata. The name "Niigata" literally means "new lagoon".- History :...
(Echigo no kuni
Echigo Province
was an old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It was sometimes called , with Echizen and Etchū Provinces. Today the area is part of Niigata Prefecture, which also includes the island which was the old Sado Province. This province was the northernmost part of the...
) Prefectures. Sitting at the foot of mountains, on the north side, this region receives a huge amount of snow in winter because of the northern winds coming across the Sea of Japan
Sea of Japan
The Sea of Japan is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, between the Asian mainland, the Japanese archipelago and Sakhalin. It is bordered by Japan, North Korea, Russia and South Korea. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure from the Pacific...
. The winds accumulate moisture over the sea and deposit it as snow while running up against the mountains. The snow reaches four to five meters in depths, sometimes isolating the towns and villages in the region from others. The lonely atmosphere suggested by the title is infused throughout the book.
Development
The novel began as a single short story published in a literary journal in January 1935, its next section appearing in another journal the same month. Kawabata continued writing about the characters afterward, with parts of the novel ultimately appearing in five different journals before he published the first iteration of the book. An integration of the initial seven pieces with a newly conceived ending, this appeared in 1937. Kawabata re-started working on the novel after a three-year break, again adding new chapters, and again publishing in two separate journals in 1940 and 1941. He re-wrote the last two sections, merging them into a single piece. This was published in a journal in 1946. Another additional piece arrived in 1947. Finally, in 1948, the novel reached its final form, an integration of nine separately published works.Plot introduction
Snow Country is a stark tale of a love affair between a TokyoTokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
dilettante and a provincial geisha
Geisha
, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...
that takes place in the remote hot spring
Hot spring
A hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are geothermal hot springs in many locations all over the crust of the earth.-Definitions:...
(onsen
Onsen
An is a term for hot springs in the Japanese language, though the term is often used to describe the bathing facilities and inns around the hot springs. As a volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of onsen scattered along its length and breadth...
) town of Yuzawa
Yuzawa, Niigata
is an onsen town located in Minamiuonuma District in the mountains of the Chuetsu region of Niigata Prefecture, Japan.-Demographics:...
(Kawabata himself did not mention the name of the town in his novel).
The hot springs in that region were home to inns, visited by men traveling alone and in groups, where paid female companionship had become a staple of the economy. The geisha of the hot springs enjoyed nothing like the social status of their more artistically trained sisters in Kyoto
Kyoto
is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
and Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
and were usually little more than prostitutes whose brief careers inevitably ended in a downward spiral.
The liaison between the geisha, Komako, and the male protagonist, a wealthy loner who is a self-appointed expert on Western ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
, is thus doomed to failure. The nature of that failure and the parts played by others form the theme of the book.
As his most potent symbol of this "counter-Western modernity", the rural geisha, Komako, of his novel Snow Country embodies Kawabata's conception of traditional Japanese beauty by taking Western influence and subverting it to traditional Japanese forms. Having no teacher available, she hones her technique on the traditional samisen instrument by untraditionally relying on sheet music and radio broadcasts. Her lover, Shimamura, comments that, “the publishing gentleman would be happy if he knew he had a real geisha—not just an ordinary amateur—practicing from his scores way off here in the mountains.”
But on his way to the town, Shimamura is fascinated with a girl he sees on the train, a young girl named Yoko who is caring to a sick man traveling with her. He wants to see more of her, even though he is with Komako during his stay. Already a married man, it doesn't faze him that he is thinking about Yoko while being public with Komako.
Characteristics, acclaims and sequels
Edward G. Seidensticker, noted scholar of Japanese literature whose English translation of the novel was published in 1957, described the work as "perhaps Kawabata's masterpiece." "According to him, the novel reminds of haikuHaiku
' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
, both for its many delicate contrapuntal touches and its use of brief scenes to tell a larger story.
As Shimamura (the protagonist) begins to understand his place in the universe, the idea of mono no aware
Mono no aware
, literally "the pathos of things", also translated as "an empathy toward things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera", is a Japanese term used to describe the awareness of , or the transience of things, and a gentle sadness at their passing.-Origins:...
is also quite apparent.
Snow Country is one of the three novels cited by the Nobel Committee in awarding Yasunari Kawabata the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the other two works being The Old Capital
The Old Capital
The Old Capital is a novel by Yasunari Kawabata originally published in 1962. It was first translated into English in 1987 by J. Martin Holman...
and Thousand Cranes
Thousand Cranes
is a novel by Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. This was the first time any Japanese author won this prize.-Plot:...
.
Kawabata again returned to Snow Country near the end of his life. A few months before his death in 1972, he wrote an abbreviated version of the work, which he titled "Gleanings from Snow Country," that shortened the novel to a few spare pages, a length that placed it among his Palm-of-the-Hand Stories
Palm-of-the-Hand Stories
is the name Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata gave to more than 140 short stories he wrote over his long career, the earliest published in the 1920 and the last appearing posthumously in 1972...
, a form to which Kawabata devoted peculiar attention for more 50 years. An English translation of "Gleanings from Snow Country" was published in 1988 by J. Martin Holman
J. Martin Holman
James Martin Holman, Jr. is a literary translator, professor, puppeteer, and puppet theater director. He received a BA in Japanese from Brigham Young University and did graduate work in Japanese literature at the University of California, Berkeley.Holman lived in Japan for more than ten years as a...
in the collection Palm-of-the-Hand Stories.
Another Japanese novel, also titled Snow Country, but spelled in katakana
Katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
as opposed to the original kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
(both books are Japanese), references this work. In the homage to the original, a Japanese student undertakes translating a book from English into Japanese for summer homework. The student does not realize that he is in fact translating a translation of the original work.