Yasunari Kawabata the first Japanese Nobel Prize winner, have his own literary style. His novels are very short, concise and very deep, often lamenting the disappearance of the curtain. His famous books like Snow Country, The Old Capital and so on. I think nobody captures the untold emotions better than Kawabata. His novels, even though they are understated, have a masterful way of conveying the darkness of the human heart in a way that you cannot forget. In the Old Capital an art form of traditional Japanese and finally just a poetic and beautiful description of the city of Kyoto. In this paper, I will try to bring some light on various dimensions of this excellent author through his masterpieces, especially ‘The Old Capital’.

Yasunari Kawabata is the first noble laureate for literature in Japan. He received the Nobel Prize for his three excellent literary works, and The Old Capital is one among them. Through this paper, readers can get a clear view of the oriental Japanese culture. The art, festivals, old beliefs and most importantly one can get an idea about the Japanese mindset. It is a try to introduce how Yasunari Kawabata’s writing differs from others. Kawabata offers Japanese and worldwide readers a new sensation or new perceptions in literature.

For this paper many literature and studies have referred and discussed through out the paper. 

In this paper, researcher wanted to discuss a novel that she feel is underrated in the context of his work, which is ‘The Old Capital’ also known as Koto. When Kawabata was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, the Swedish Academy cited three novels as a justification for the choice or maybe as examples of Kawabata’s mastery of the art of narrative. They cited ‘Snow Country’. ‘Snow Country’ is basically the novel most people enter the world of Kawabata. They cited ‘Thousand Cranes’. Which is also quite expected, it makes sense. These are some of Kawabata’s most famous novels, and many people will say that ‘Snow Country’, ‘Thousand Cranes’ and ‘The Sound of Mountain’ make up a sort of trilogy, so that makes sense. But then the third novel that the Swedish Academy cited was ‘Old Capital’. Why would they cite this novel? Not many people read it anymore. We can say yes, this is one of Kawabata’s underrated novels. And I will say this I do not consider it to be a masterpiece, but I think this is one of his best novels that calls for our attention.

Let’s discuss the first characters and the plot a little bit. There are many memorable characters in this novel, but basically the novel focus on Chieko Sada, who is the daughter of a kimono designer. Her father, Takichiro, the kimono designer, finds himself in a very interesting situation. Because he has secluded himself in a convent in the hope that he will receive inspiration for this excellent kimono design. So, he is waiting to be inspired. That is a very interesting situation in itself. Now, Takichiro has a friend, his name is SosukeOtomo, he is a weaver, and what he does is, whenever Takichoro has a design, this weaver tries it out and sees if it is going to work or not. Now this weaver, SosukeOtomo has a son. His name is Hideo, and Hideo is a possible marriage match for Chieko. So, you can see here how these two families are tied together, they are bound both by trade and by the possibility of marriage. This is something that Kawabata, isgood at establishing these ties between families, between people, and between characters, that are almost impossible to break free from. Now there is one little detail about Chieko that is very important to keep in mind. She is not her parent’s biological daughter. She is a founding. And this is somewhat of a burden for her. This is something that she is constantly reminded of and that she carries as a burden. The story itself for the Old Capital begins when Chieko and her friend spot, quite by chance, a girl who looks exactly like Chieko. Readers can also say this novel is a story of doubles, but as we are going to see, this is not necessarily a story of doubles. I wanted to focus on three features of the Old Capital. Three elements that this novel provides for us. The first is, it is a complicated series of human interconnections. The second one is, in this novel an art form is portrayed that is considered to be traditionally Japanese. Kawabata discussed the Japanese appreciation for art. And finally, the descriptions which Kawabata uses to describe nature, what we have are just poetic and beautiful descriptions of the city of Kyoto.

Regarding interconnections, if one read ‘The Sound of Mountain’ and if one read ‘Beauty and Sadness’ one can easily find it which we are discussing in this novel. The Old Capital you are going to find another example of Kawabata’s ability to arrange his characters in a sort of spider’s web. And as a result of the ties that bind them.

Regarding the second point, which is a tradition or an element that is culturally Japanese. Here we have the Kimono design, if we take other works of Kawabata, like ‘The Master of Go’, the game ‘Go’ there plays a very important role. In ‘Thousand Cranes’, it is the tea ceremony. Similarly, the role that those things play in those novels, and in this novel ‘The Old Capital’, we have the kimono design. One could also say for instance, ‘The Snow Country’ focuses on the whole Geisha culture, which is another traditional Japanese element. So, we can see why Kawabata considers such a Japanese author, as many people describe him. And finally, we also have a beautiful description of the city of Kyoto. Which are really in sharp contrast with the dark and tormented inner lives of the characters. One could also see a connection with ‘Snow Country’ here. The beautiful descriptions Kawabata provides in ‘Snow Country’, of the landscape, of the mountains, of the snow and all of those things and think about also the sadness that lies within the characters. 

Let’s look a little bit at The Old Capital in the context of Kawabata’s work. Kawabata, I understand, considers ‘The Master of Go’ to be the masterpiece, which is quite an interesting choice. ‘The Master of Go’is his most symbolic work. His most allegorical and his least suggestive. In the novel, the game of Go is an allegory for the clash between two generations, between two ways of life, symbolized by the old and new. So, the Old Capital is not allegorical, I would not say, or if it is, then the allegory is left up to the individual readers. One can interpret that. In the Master of Go the allegory is much more obvious. One can pretty much see what the author is trying to do. In this sense, I would say that ‘The Old Capital’ is a much more typical novel, typical of Kawabata, than ‘The Master of Go’. So, it is more closely related to his other novels, from ‘Snow Country’, to ‘Thousands Cranes’, to ‘The Sound of Mountain’. Maybe I am thinking Kawabata favoured Master of Go precisely because of that, precisely because it is kind of a rear bird in his body of work. Like most of Kawabata’s work ‘The Old Capital’ has been adapted into several films several times. And there was one version from 1963, by Noboru Nakamura. This adaption of ‘The Old Capital’ was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. ‘The Old Capital’ is a brilliant novel, in these novels, readers are going to find all the elements that make even one may go to find more than that. One can find more philosophical and existential complexity that would also have been found in most of his other novels.

Kawabata is an excellent writer and unforgettable novelist. And I would say that One of the questions that Old Capital poses or that may be inspired by reading this novel is ‘What would Chieko’s life have been like if she had been raised under different circumstances’. She is a founding. Is her twin sister Naeko what she would have been if things had gone according to plan? In a way ‘The Old Capital’, what this novel shows us in a sense, is a character who gets the chance to meet alternative versions of themselves. A quite a fascinating situation that we have here. And the question that I asked myself as I was reading it ‘Does environment make me who I am?’. I think this is one of the central questions of the novel. What role does the environment play? If you change the circumstances of your upbringing. If you change a little thing, maybe moving to a different place or something like that of course everything change completely. And in this novel, we get, once again, a character that actually gets, in a way, the chance to meet that other possible version of herself. So, that is one of the things that fascinated me about The Old Capital. I would few novels, even a few novels by Kawabata, to include such complex issues. So, that’s why I say also that, this is an underrated piece in Kawabata’s corpus. Kawabata is very subtle, most of the time, he is subtle as a stylist. I think this is where we have to kind of make a difference. He is subtle as a stylist, but the complexity under the surface is really breathtaking. And you see a great example of that in the old Capital. So, once again underrated novel, when you consider the implications, we can entertain while we are reading this book.

1. 川端康成「古都、新潮社、1962.

2. Seiki, Shoichi Kawabata Yasuari no Buntai / S. Saeki// KindaiBungakuKanshoKoza, Vol.13, 1959. -P.306-315.

3. Akira, J.T. Kawabata: Achievements of the Noble Laureate / World Literature Today, Vol.63, 1989. P. 209-212.

4. Yasunari Kawabata – Nobel Lecture (1968) “Japan, the Beautiful and Myself”.

5. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_ prizes/ literature / laureates /1968 kawabata-llecture.html.

6. Gilbert, R. Kigo and Seasonal Reference: Cross-Cultural Issues in Anglo-American Haiku Publication / R. Gilbert // Kumamoto Studies in English Language and Literature 49. – P. 29-46.