Yasunari Kawabata

Japanese novelist (1899-1972) · Japan · Writers · Died at 72

Yasunari Kawabata is read about 1,939 times a day, in 111 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 390 days, one point a day.

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The first Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1968, for prose so spare and lyrical it reads like ink wash painting - subtlety as craft, restraint as power.

Writers Writer / Author Literature Fiction Screenwriting Poetry Japan Asia

A life in dates

1972Died16 April 1972Order of the Rising Sun, 1st classAward1968“Seeing the moon, he becomes the moon, the moon seen by him becomes him. He sinks into nature, becomes one with nature.”In their words12 December 1968On the poetry of Myōe and ideas of Saigyō HōshiRead the whole statement

“That spirit, that feeling for one's comrades in the snow, the moonlight, under the blossoms, is also basic to the tea ceremony.”In their words12 December 1968Nobel lecture (12 December 1968) as translated in Nobel Lectures, Literature 1968-1980 (1993), Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, EditorRead the whole statement

“Among those who give thoughts to things, is there one who does not think of suicide?" With me was the knowledge that that fellow Ikkyu twice contemplated suicide.”In their words12 December 1968Nobel lecture (12 December 1968) as translated in Nobel Lectures, Literature 1968-1980 (1993), Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, EditorRead the whole statement

Nobel Prize in LiteratureAward1962Mainichi Publication Culture AwardAward1961Order of CultureAwardPerson of Cultural MeritAward1960Officer of Arts and LettersAward1959Goethe Plaque of the City of FrankfurtAward1958Kikuchi Kan PrizeAward1954Noma Literary PrizeAward1952Japan Art Academy PrizeAward1951“Maybe vagueness has been good for me. The word means two different things in Tokyo and Osaka, you know.”In their wordsCh. 18, p. 76.Read the whole statement

“That play of black upon white, white upon black, has the intent and takes the form of creative art. It has in it a flow of the spirit and a harmony of music.”In their wordsCh. 38, p. 164.Read the whole statement

1948“In the depths of the mirror the evening landscape moved by, the mirror and the reflected figures like motion pictures superimposed one on the other.”In their wordsSnow Country 『雪国』 [Yukiguni] (1948)Read the whole statement

1944Kikuchi Kan PrizeAward1899Born11 June 1899

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Yasunari Kawabata 1938

1929 bungei group

Fumiko Hayashi's funeral 1951

Gilt-bronze Three-pronged Vajra Pestle, Nara National Museum 1406-0

HatsuyoIto1

HoriTatsuo-At Karuizawa-with Kawabata Yasunari-1943

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In their own words 10

Yasunari Kawabata

10 statements, newest first

Seeing the moon, he becomes the moon, the moon seen by him becomes him. He sinks into nature, becomes one with nature.
Dec 12, 1968, On the poetry of Myōe and ideas of Saigyō Hōshi, Own words
That spirit, that feeling for one's comrades in the snow, the moonlight, under the blossoms, is also basic to the tea ceremony.
Dec 12, 1968, Nobel lecture (12 December 1968) as translated in Nobel Lectures, Literature 1968-1980 (1993), Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor, Own words
I have an essay with the title "Eyes in their Last Extremity". The title comes from the suicide note of the short-story writer Akutagawa Ryunosuke...
Dec 12, 1968, Nobel lecture (12 December 1968) as translated in Nobel Lectures, Literature 1968-1980 (1993), Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor, Own words

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Awards

Order of the Rising Sun, 1st class1972

Nobel Prize in Literature1968

Mainichi Publication Culture Award1962

Order of Culture1961

Person of Cultural Merit1961

Officer of Arts and Letters1960

Goethe Plaque of the City of Frankfurt1959

Kikuchi Kan Prize1958

Noma Literary Prize1954

Japan Art Academy Prize1952

Kikuchi Kan Prize1944

In their orbit

Spouse: Hideko Kawabata

About this person

Yasunari Kawabata was born on 11 June 1899 and built a career as a novelist and short story writer whose style turned on what wasn't said: prose that shaded meaning rather than declared it. That approach, lyrical and precise, earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, making him the first Japanese author to receive it. His works found readers far beyond Japan and have held them since. He died on 16 April 1972.

Country

Japan

In common with Yasunari

Mariko KagaAlso in With Beauty and Sorrow (1965)

Machiko KyōAlso in Thousand Cranes (1969)

Setsuko HaraAlso in Sound of the Mountain (1954)

Shigeru TsuyuguchiAlso in Woman of the Lake (1966)

Kaoru YachigusaAlso in Snow Country (1957)

Shima IwashitaAlso in Twin Sisters of Kyoto (1963)

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