Yasunari Kawabata Research Paper

Love is Powerful yet Painful

“Each lonely scene shall thee restore;/For thee the tear be duly shed,/Belov’d till life can charm no more,/And mourn’d till Pity’s self be dead” -William Collins

In the act of loving a person, people tend to be more afraid of hurting their significant other that they end up hurting themselves instead. Thus causing us to alienate ourselves or even feel like we are all alone. In the books that Yasunari Kawabata has written, there is a lot of emotion that comes from his own past experiences. He is one of the writers who have shown that writing comes from the heart, and that it comes from feelings or pain that have been endured. In the House of Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories, Thousand Cranes, and Palm of the

As he knew that the girl and him could not be together and that committing suicide would be the only way for them to stay connected, it broke his heart. Eguchi did not want to go back to Tokyo where they had nothing for themselves. To him death seemed like the only logical reasoning. Furthermore, the toll that is taken upon Eguchi as he reminisces also begins to engulf him in the depths of his loneliness. “Kawabata emphasizes the ability of the human mind to accentuate the relationship of an individual with the existential world” (Mccoy). It is amazing what the mind is truly capable of. With Eguchi his mind wanders to all the crevices within his head of affairs or loves that he’s had. The love he feels as he remembers, it is nonetheless more powerful than ever before.

“The image of the camellia was especially strong. The marriage of his youngest daughter had been the most painful. Two youths had been in competition for her, and in the course of the competition she had lost her virginity. The trip had been a change of scenery, to revive her spirits” (House

Ota can not tell the difference between Kikuji and his laid father. “’Can’t you see the difference between my father and me?’ ‘You mustn’t say that’ her eyes were closed, and her voice was soft. She was not yet ready to return from the other world” (Thousand 62). Mrs. Ota has created a fantasy world in which Kikuji and his father are one person, and now that Kikuji has said something it has brought Mrs. Ota to back to reality. She has a feeling of pain as she talks with her eye closed and her voice soft, almost as though she does not want to hear what the truth is. As Mrs. Ota begins to realize what she has done, she says, “’Forgive me. The things I’ve done. The things I’ve been guilty of.’ A tear spilled over from the corner of her eye. ‘I want to die. It would be so pleasant to die now’” (Thousand 63). Here Kawabata does a splendid job of creating an atmosphere of loneliness and pain, as Ota is now pleading for forgiveness for bringing Kikuji into her mess. At the same time, Kawabata demonstrates how loving a person can take a significant toll on the one who loves, thus Mrs. Ota being the person who loves. After Mrs. Ota commits suicide, Kawabata writes, “He was haunted by the thought that he was falling in love with Mrs. Ota, now that she was dead. And he felt that the love was made known through the daughter” (Thousand 81-82). Talking to Mrs. Ota’s daughter, Fumiko allowed for Kikuji to feel the love he has formed for her. Many say that