Yasunari Kawabata

Yasunari Kawabata (?? ?? Kawabata Yasunari, June 14, 1899 - April 16, 1972) was a Japanese novelist whose spare, lyrical and subtly shaded prose won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. He became the first Japanese, and third Asian (after Rabindranath Tagore and Shmuel Yosef Agnon), to win the award. His works have had broad and lasting appeal, and are still widely read internationally.

Biographical details

Kawabata was born in Osaka, and was orphaned when he was two; he then lived with his grandparents with his sister. Kawabata's grandmother died when he was seven, his sister when he was 9, and his grandfather when he was fourteen, causing him to move to his mother's hometown. He attended Tokyo Imperial University, graduating in 1924.

Related Topics:
Osaka - Tokyo Imperial University - 1924

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In addition to writing, he was also employed as a reporter, most notably by the Mainichi Shimbun of Osaka and Tokyo. Although he refused to participate in the militaristic fervour accompanying World War II, he was also unimpressed with the political reforms in Japan afterwards. The war was definitely one of the most important influences on him (along with the death of all his family while he was young); he said shortly afterwards that from then on he would only be able to write elegies.

Related Topics:
Mainichi Shimbun - Tokyo - World War II

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He committed suicide in 1972. Many theories have been advanced as to his reasons, among them poor health, a possible illicit love affair, or the shock caused by the suicide of his friend Yukio Mishima in 1970. However, unlike Mishima, Kawabata left no note, and since he had not discussed it significantly in his writings, his motives remain unclear.

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