View source for Snow Country

{{Short description|Novel by Yasunari Kawabata}}
{{Other uses|Snow country (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox book|
| name             = Snow Country
| title_orig       = {{noitalics|{{nihongo||雪国|Yukiguni}}}}
| author           = [[Yasunari Kawabata]]
| translator       = [[Edward Seidensticker]]
| country          = Japan
| language         = [[Japanese Language|Japanese]]
| genre            = [[Novel]]
| publisher        = 
| pub_date         = {{ubl|1935–1937 (serialization)|1948}}
| english_pub_date = 1956
| media_type       = Print ([[Paperback]])
| oclc             = 3623808
}}

{{nihongo|'''''Snow Country'''''|雪国|'''Yukiguni'''|{{IPA|ja|jɯkiꜜɡɯɲi|IPA}}}} is a novel by the Japanese author [[Yasunari Kawabata]]. The novel is considered a classic work of [[Japanese literature]]<ref name="asenlund">{{cite news|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2015/01/03/travel/kawabatas-footsteps-snow-country/|title=In Kawabata's footsteps to 'Snow Country'|last=Asenlund|first=Dan|date=3 January 2015|work=Japan Times|accessdate=18 October 2015}}</ref> and was among the three novels the Nobel Committee cited in 1968, when Kawabata was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1968 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1968/summary/ |website=nobelprize.org |access-date=6 January 2021}}</ref>

== Writing process ==
Gwenn Boardman Petersen uses ''Snow Country'' as an example of how Kawabata often composed his works. While writing that Japanese novelists often publish "their works in serial form and under various titles" she observes Kawabata is "further noted for his habit of rewriting, adding segments, and making changes in titles and content alike."<ref>Petersen, ''[[The Moon in the Water: Understanding Tanizaki, Kawabata, and Mishima]]'' (Honolulu: [[University Press of Hawaii]], 1979), p. 125</ref> The first segment, titled {{nihongo3|"Mirror of the Evening Scene"||Yugeshiki no Kagami}} appeared in {{transliteration|ja|[[Bungeishunjū]]}} January 1935. Kawabata later wrote that he could not finish his manuscript by the submission deadline of this literary journal, and decided to keep writing and submit a second version of this segment, titled {{nihongo3|"Mirror of a White Morning"||Shiroi Asa no Kagami}} to the general-interest magazine {{transliteration|ja|[[Kaizō]]}} several days later.

Kawabata continued to write about the characters, and five more segments were published over the next years: {{Nihongo3|"Story" or "Tale"||Monogatari}} and {{nihongo3|"Futile Efforts"||Toro}} appeared in the journal {{transliteration|ja|Nihon Hyoron}} in the November and December 1935 issues; {{nihongo3|"Miscanthus Flower"||Kaya no Hana}} appeared in {{transliteration|ja|Chuo Koron}} August 1936; {{nihongo3|"Pillow of Fire"||Hi no Makura}} in {{transliteration|ja|Bungeishunjū}} October 1936; and {{nihongo3|"Handball Song"||Temariuta}} was published in {{transliteration|ja|Kaizō}} May 1937. He combined these segments into a "complete" ''Snow Country'', making numerous changes to the texts as they appeared in the journals, which was published in June 1937.<ref>Petersen, ''The Moon'', pp. 125, 195</ref>

Kawabata restarted work 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, 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.

Kawabata himself visited the Yuzawa {{transliteration|ja|[[onsen]]}} and worked on the novel there. The room in the hotel where he was staying is preserved as a museum.<ref name="asenlund"/>

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 particular attention for more than 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''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Gleanings from Snow Country|work=Palm-of-the-Hand Stories|author=Kawabata, Yasunari |publisher=J. Martin Holman|date=1988}}</ref>

== Plot ==
[[File:Matsuei.jpg|thumb|right|[[Onsen geisha]] Matsuei, on whom Kawabata is said to have based the character Komako in the novel.<ref>Fox Butterfield, [https://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/25/archives/snowcountry-japanese-feel-less-isolated.html "Snow‐Country Japanese Feel Less Isolated"], ''New York Times'', first published 25 January 1975</ref>]]''Snow Country'' is a stark tale of a love affair between a [[Tokyo]] dilettante and a provincial [[Onsen geisha|geisha]] that takes place in the remote [[hot spring]] (''[[onsen]]'') town of [[Yuzawa, Niigata|Yuzawa]].<ref name="asenlund"/> (Kawabata did not mention the name of the town in his novel.)

The novel opens with the protagonist of the novel, Shimamura, riding a train to a remote [[onsen]] town. Shimamura is a rich, married man, who inherited his wealth, and a self-professed [[ballet]] expert (although he has never seen one in person). During the train ride, he observes a young woman (who is later revealed as Yoko) caring for a sickly man (named Yukio). He observes the woman through a reflection in the train window, and is particularly enthralled by her eyes, as well as the sound of her voice.

Shimamura's purpose for going to the onsen is meeting a young woman, Komako, with whom he had a brief encounter during his previous stay. Although she wasn't employed as a [[geisha]] during his first stay, her situation is changed during his second visit. Shimamura is attracted to the young geisha, although his affection proves to be inconsistent and uncertain over time. However, Komako falls in love with Shimamura, which goes against the geisha tradition of meeting the customers' demands without any emotional attachment. Throughout their conversations, a number of things about Komako's life are revealed: her becoming a geisha to pay for Yukio's hospital bills, their rumored engagement, Komako and Yukio's strained relationship, how she came to live with Yukio and his mother, and her life as a full-time geisha.

The climax of the novel happens during one of Komako's visits to Shimamura's room at the onsen inn. During their conversation, Shimamura calls her a "good woman", instead of a "good girl". This change of wording used to describe Komako reveals that the two of them could never be together, while Komako's hopes of a better and happier life with Shimamura remain just a delusion.<ref>{{cite web |title=Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata |url=https://japanpowered.com/book-reviews/snow-country-by-yasunari-kawabata |website=japanpowered.com |date=March 2020 |access-date=6 January 2021}}</ref>

At the very end of the novel, a fire occurs in the town warehouse, which was at the time being used as a cinema. Shimamura and Komako come to observe the fire, and see Yoko falling lifelessly from the warehouse balcony. Komako carries Yoko's body away from the burning warehouse, while Shimamura slinks back, observing the night sky and “roaring milky way.”

==Major themes==
===The modern and traditional===
Snow Country was written during a period of [[Japanese militarism]], and a number of modern inventions can be seen in the novel, which include a [[train]], a [[snowplow]], and an electric avalanche warning system. Kawabata saw no conflict between the modern and the traditional, but saw modern inventions as part of the traditional Japan. This can be seen in the train scene, at the very beginning of the novel, during which the protagonist observes the beautiful eyes of the female passenger. The electric light of the train thus facilitates traditional aesthetic expression. Various modern inventions are treated as a normal part of life in the rustic onsen town.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=DeVere Brown |first1=Sidney |title=Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972): Tradition versus Modernity |journal=World Literature Today |date=1988 |volume=62 |issue=3 |page=376 |doi=10.2307/40144283 |jstor=40144283 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40144283 |access-date=6 January 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Beauty===
This novel, like others Kawabata wrote, vividly depicts the psychic cost of aesthetic appreciation, as well as its effect on minds susceptible to beauty. The protagonist of the novel is often taken out of the real world and into the dream world of his own mind after witnessing beauty. Furthermore, this beauty makes him oblivious to the world around him (e.g., after observing Yoko's eyes in the train or seeing the [[Milky Way]] during the fire at the end of the novel). This beauty often leads to Shimamura acting cold or cruel, as when he calls Komako a "good woman" after observing her in the moonlight.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Phillips |first1=Brian |title=The Tyranny of Beauty: Kawabata |journal=The Hudson Review |date=2006 |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=420–421 |jstor=20464602 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20464602 |access-date=6 January 2021}}</ref>

The depictions of beauty in the novel also include an element of sadness: loneliness in the beauty of nature, sadness in Yoko's beautiful voice, wasted beauty of Komako, as well as the wasted effort in an act of love.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cahyaningati |first1=Desi Tri |title=Portraying the Wabi Sabi Philosophy of Beauty in Kawabata's Snow Country |journal=Dinamika: Jurnal Sastra Dan Budaya |date=2018 |volume=6 |issue=1 |page=637 |doi=10.25139/dinamika.v6i1.1181 |s2cid=191983933 |url=https://ejournal.unitomo.ac.id/index.php/dinamika/article/view/1181 |access-date=6 January 2021|doi-access=free }}</ref>

== Reception ==
[[Edward Seidensticker]], noted scholar of Japanese literature whose English translation of the novel was published in 1956, described the work as "perhaps Kawabata's masterpiece." According to him, the novel reminds one of [[haiku]], both for its many delicate contrapuntal touches and its use of brief scenes to tell a larger story. <!-- reverted this part to the revision as of 18:19, 25 February 2006, with some amendments. This way, I can understand the connection between "haiku" and the novel, but not with "structure" and "poetic form" -->

''Snow Country'' received favorable reviews both at time of its publishing, and over the following years. [[The Times]] stated: "He has fashioned an idyll out of unpromising material," while Eileen Fraser of the ''Times Literary Supplement'' said of "Mr. Kawabata's beautifully economical novel," "This is a finely written book, excellently translated." [[Jason Cowley (journalist)|Jason Cowley]] has called ''Snow Country'' "...perhaps his finest work."<ref>{{cite web |title=Snow Country by Kawabata Yasunari |url=https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/kawabata/snowcountry.htm |website=complete-review.com/ |access-date=6 January 2021}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography==
* {{cite book
    | last = Kawabata
    | first = Yasunari
    | author-link = Yasunari Kawabata
    | title = Yukiguni
    | publisher = [[Iwanami Shoten Publishing]]
    | date = 1952
    | isbn = 4-00-310813-2 
    | edition = Japanese pocket}} Revised in 2003.

== Publication history ==
{{Portal|Japan|Novels}}
*1956, ''Snow Country''. New York: Knopf. OCLC: 3623808. Paperback. (translated by [[Edward Seidensticker|Edward G. Seidensticker]]).
*1957, ''Snow Country''. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle. OCLC: 29197673. Paperback.
*1986, ''Snow Country and Thousand Cranes''. UK: Penguin. {{ISBN|0140181180}}. Paperback.
*1996, ''Snow Country''. New York: Vintage. {{ISBN|0-679-76104-7}}. Paperback.

== External links ==
* {{cite web|website=TravelJapanBlog.com|url=http://traveljapanblog.com/wordpress/2008/10/snow-country-雪国/ |title=Notes on the translation from Japanese to English|date=October 2008}}

{{Yasunari Kawabata}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1935 short stories]]
[[Category:1948 novels]]
[[Category:Japanese-language novels]]
[[Category:20th-century Japanese novels]]
[[Category:Novels by Yasunari Kawabata]]
[[Category:Novels set in Japan]]
[[Category:Novels set in hotels]]
[[Category:Novels about geisha]]
[[Category:Shōwa-period works]]