Original language:
Japanese Translated from: Russian
Authors: Kawabata, Yasunari
Translated by: Mickienė, Aldona
ISBN: 978-9955-24-589-6
Published in: Vilnius
Published on: 2007
Publisher: Alma littera
The Novel ,,Thousand cranes“ is a poetic story about a young man named Kikudzi, relations between people and the remarkable beauty of Japan. The Novel takes the reader to Japan, a town called Kamakura, the place where the main character of the book- Kikuji- lives. He is a man in his early twenties, seemingly his looks as plain as the other people in this town. As everyone else, he wakes up everyday and takes off to work, attends tea ceremonies. However his life is not as simple as the reader could expect it to be.
The story consists of 4 parts: thousand cranes, sandpipers on the waves, the trip, saying goodbye and young family . The story has just few detailed described occurrences because the author chose to expose the feelings of the characters rather to describe events. In the book desire is always in the battle with moral beliefs, as well as guilt with hesitations. The author gives the impression that he does not reveal everything in order to persuade the reader to feel the book deeper as he normally would.
The story starts when Kikuji is doubting to attend tea ceremony, which he was invited to in the honor of his dead father. When he finally gets there the history about his families past is told and the reader is informed about two mistresses Kikudzis father had. The first one was Tikaka Kurimoto, the women who invited him to the ceremony, she also gave lectures about tea ceremonies to the people of Kamakura. Seeing her Kikuji immediately remembered the first time he met this women and it was the hideous mole as big as a mans hand under her left breast. According Kikuji the mole was as dark and repulsive as the womens personality.
The second was Ms. Oyota , she was kindhearted and open-minded women, she also had a daughter named Fumiko. The tea ceremony was like a start off point of the story and it was very important for Kikuji because two of his fathers mistresses, Fumiko and Inamura Yukiko, a girl with a thousand cranes kerchief, who later on, after all the people he lost, became his wife, attended the ceremony. Kikuji lost a lot. First of all Kikuji had lost both of his parents, then Ms. Oyota – the women who he fell in love with, after the night they slept together, committed suicide after understanding what a horrible thing she did.
And after all of these disasters, Fumiko was his biggest support and after a while he discovered having warm feelings for her, but the girl knew that their relationship was too complicated and started from the grief, so she disappeared and never came back. The author appointed a whole chapter in the book for her saying goodbye letter. Intentionally the author lets the reader know that Fumiko actually send the letter to Kikuji just after announcing that he had already married Yukiko. The book end almost the same as it started, with the conversation between Tikaka and Kikuji leaving the reader in obscurity what will happen next.
Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) is one of the best Japanese writers, well known for being the first artist in Japanese literature history who received the Nobel price for his novel ,, Thousand cranes“ . Wanting to represent his countries culture is the one thing that makes his works extraordinary.