Yasunari Kawabata

Novelist. Born in Osaka on June 14, 1899. The eldest son of a doctor, father Eikichi, and mother Gen. His father died in 1901 (Meiji 34), and his mother the following year, so he was raised by his grandparents in Shukunosho, Toyokawa Village, Mishima County, Osaka Prefecture (present-day Shukunosho, Ibaraki City). His grandmother died when he was about to enter elementary school, his sister died when he was in the fourth grade, and his grandfather died in May when he was in the third grade of junior high school, leaving him a complete orphan. He was taken in by his mother's family and, with the help of relatives, he finished Ibaraki Junior High School, then went on to the former First Higher School and Tokyo Imperial University. In 1921 (Taisho 10), during his first year at the university, he founded the sixth issue of Shinshicho with Ishihama Kinsaku, Suzuki Hikojiro, and others. His work Shokonsai Ikkei, published in the second issue, was recognized by Kikuchi Kan and others. In the same year, he became engaged to a 16-year-old girl, Ito Hatsuyo, only to have the engagement broken off one month later when she changed her mind. The many deaths around him, his experience as an orphan, and the pain of unrequited love all played a part in shaping the fundamental character of Kawabata's literature. In 1941, he graduated from the Japanese Literature Department. In October of the same year, he founded the magazine Bungei Jidai with Yokomitsu Riichi, Kataoka Teppei, Nakagawa Yoichi, and Kon Toko, attracting worldwide attention as the emergence of a new literary movement. Critic Chiba Kameo called this group the Shinkankakuha, and along with proletarian literature, which was also clearly emerging at the time, this group came to define one of the two major literary trends of the early Showa period.

Kawabata published realistic works such as "Diary of a Sixteen-Year-Old" (a diary from his junior high school days, published in 1925) and "The Dancing Girl of Izu" (1926), but more than that, he wrote many poetic works in which reality was reconstructed and newly crystallized within his subjective perspective. Through such works, he tried to shake off the previous literary style, which was immobilized by groaning in the face of an uncontrollable reality, and to present a fresh way of life in which one risks one's life in the moment. Examples include palm-sized novels such as "White Flower" (1923), "Twenty Years" (1925), and "The Hitting Child" (1928), as well as the modernist work "The Crimson Gang of Asakusa" (1929-1930). However, from the neo-psychological novel "Crystal Fantasy" (1931), nihilistic aspects became more noticeable. The world's trend of nationalism, in which both proletarian and modernist literature were suppressed, is also related to this. His tendency towards emptiness was at its deepest in his works "Birds and Beasts" (1933) and "Rainbow" (1934), in which he spoke as if spitting out the emptiness of human life. However, from around "Snow Country" (1935-1947), he shifted to a style of writing in which he watched with sadness the lives of those who tried to live out their lives to the fullest, even if it was futile labor, and he found a lull. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1937 (Showa 12), he wrote works such as "Plateau" (1937-1939), in which he viewed war as fate, but also reflected on the position of the individuals of each country who were toyed with by war, and prayed for a peaceful future in which the world's races would intermarry and merge.

Towards the end of the war, he turned his thoughts to the Japanese classics, which were on the verge of extinction, but just after the defeat, as his friends and acquaintances died one after another, he stated, "As a person who is already dead, I have no intention of writing a single line about anything other than the pathetic beauty of Japan" (1945, "In Memory of Shimaki Kensaku"). However, he gradually recovered, and produced postwar masterpieces such as "A Thousand Cranes" (1949-1951), "The Sound of the Mountains" (1949-1954), and "The Master" (1951-1952). While making use of the traditions of the classics, "A Thousand Cranes" depicts the dreams of Kawabata as he nears old age, "The Master" depicts his resolve, and "The Sound of the Mountain" depicts a real man who is concerned with balancing the two. However, in his later years Kawabata's works, such as "Waterside" (1954) depicting Ginpei, a devilish man who cannot help but follow beautiful women blindly, and "Sleeping Beauty" (1960-1961) depicting the dark nature of an old man, attempted to delve into a kind of madness. It seems that Kawabata was aiming for the tension between the madness that penetrates the demonic world and the Buddhist world that one passes through it to emerge.

In 1948 (Showa 23), he became the fourth president of the Japan PEN Club. In 1957, he hosted the International PEN Club Tokyo Convention. In 1961, he was awarded the Order of Culture, and in 1968, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. However, on April 16, 1972, he committed suicide by gas as a rebellion against his own fame. Kawabata was also a skilled critic, and some of the writers who made their mark thanks to his critical eye include Hori Tatsuo, Hojo Tamio, Okamoto Kanoko, and Mishima Yukio.

[Tetsuya Hatori]

"The Complete Works of Kawabata Yasunari, 35 volumes, supplementary volume 2 (1980-1983, Shinchosha)" "Kawabata Yasunari Research Series, 10 volumes, supplementary volume 1 (1976-1983, Educational Publishing Center)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

小説家。明治32年6月14日、大阪に生まれる。医師の父栄吉、母ゲンの長男。1901年（明治34）父、翌年母が亡くなり、大阪府三島郡豊川村大字宿久庄(しゅくのしょう)（現茨木(いばらき)市宿久庄）で祖父母に育てられた。小学校入学の年祖母、4年のとき姉、中学3年の5月に祖父が亡くなり、まったくの孤児になった。母の実家に引き取られ、親戚(しんせき)の世話になりながら茨木中学を終え、旧制第一高等学校、東京帝国大学と進んだ。帝大1年の21年（大正10）石浜金作、鈴木彦次郎らと第六次『新思潮』を創刊。2号に載せた『招魂祭一景』によって菊池寛らに認められた。この年、16歳の少女伊藤初代と婚約し、1か月後彼女の心変わりで破約になるという事件があった。身辺の多くの死、孤児の体験、失恋の痛手などは川端文学の根本的性格を形づくるうえで作用した。24年、国文科を卒業。この年10月、横光利一、片岡鉄兵、中河与一、今東光らと『文芸時代』を創刊、斬新(ざんしん)な文学の出現として世の注目を浴びた。評論家千葉亀雄がこの派を新感覚派とよび、それは、当時やはりはっきりした姿を現してきたプロレタリア文学とともに、昭和初期の二大文学潮流を形づくることになった。

　川端は『十六歳の日記』（中学時代の日記。1925発表）、『伊豆の踊子』（1926）など写実味の勝った作品も発表したが、それよりも、現実を主観のなかで組み立て直し新しく結晶させた詩的な作品を多く書いた。そういう作品を通して、ままならぬ現実に呻吟(しんぎん)して動きのとれぬような前代の文学のあり方を振り払い、瞬間に命をかけて生き抜く、清新な生き方を提出しようとした。『白い花』（1923）、『二十年』（1925）、『叩(たた)く子』（1928）などの掌(たなごころ)の小説、モダニズムの作品『浅草紅団(くれないだん)』（1929～1930）などがその例である。しかし新心理主義の小説『水晶幻想』（1931）のころから虚無的側面が目だつようになった。プロレタリア文学もモダニズム文学もともに圧殺され、国家主義的傾向が強くなる世の成り行きも関係している。虚無の傾向は『禽獣(きんじゅう)』（1933）、『虹(にじ)』（1934）のころにもっとも深く、そこには人間的生のむなしさが吐き出すように語られている。しかし『雪国』（1935～1947）あたりから、徒労なら徒労のままの人生を懸命に生き抜く命を、悲しみのうちに見守るような作風に移り、小康を得た。1937年（昭和12）の日中戦争以後、戦争を運命のようにみながら、しかし戦争によってもてあそばれる各国個々人の立場に思いをはせ、世界各民族が混血融合する平和な未来を願い祈る『高原』（1937～1939）のような作品も書いた。

　戦争末期には、まさに滅びようとする日本の古典に思いを寄せたが、敗戦直後、次々の友人・知己の死のなかで、「私はもう死んだ者として、あはれな日本の美しさのほかのことは、これから一行も書かうとは思はない」（1945「島木健作追悼」）と述べた。しかし、しだいに回復し、『千羽鶴(せんばづる)』（1949～1951）、『山の音』（1949～1954）、『名人』（1951～1952）など戦後の名作が生まれる。それらは古典の伝統も生かしつつ、『千羽鶴』には老い近い川端の夢が、『名人』には覚悟が、『山の音』には両者の平衡に心を砕く現実人の姿が書かれている。しかし、『みづうみ』（1954）では美しい女の後をやみくもにつけずにはいられない魔性の男銀平を、『眠れる美女』（1960～1961）では老人の陰微な性を描き、晩年の川端の作品は一種狂気につき入ろうとしたところがある。魔界につき入る狂気と、そこをくぐり抜けて出る仏界と、両者の緊張関係の内に、川端の目ざすところはあったようである。

　1948年（昭和23）日本ペンクラブ第4代会長に就任。1957年に国際ペンクラブ東京大会を主催。1961年文化勲章受章、1968年ノーベル文学賞受賞。しかし昭和47年4月16日、自らの名声に反逆するような形でガス自殺を遂げた。川端はまた批評家としても優れ、その批評眼に認められて世に出た作家には、堀辰雄(たつお)、北条民雄(ほうじょうたみお)、岡本かの子、三島由紀夫などがいる。

［羽鳥徹哉］

『『川端康成全集』35巻・補巻2（1980～1983・新潮社）』▽『『川端康成研究叢書』10巻・補巻1（1976～1983・教育出版センター）』

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例