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Snow Country (Penguin Modern Classics) (English Edition) Details
Shimamura is tired of the bustling city. He takes the train through the snow to the mountains of the west coast of Japan, to meet with a geisha he believes he loves. Beautiful and innocent, Komako is tightly bound by the rules of a rural geisha, and lives a life of servitude and seclusion that is alien to Shimamura, and their love offers no freedom to either of them. Snow Country is both delicate and subtle, reflecting in Kawabata's exact, lyrical writing the unspoken love and the understated passion of the young Japanese couple.
Reviews
I recently reread Ruth Benedict??s classic study on Japan, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, and realized that I was ??underweighted? as they say in the portfolio business, in my Japanese reading of late. Amazon, bless her/his heart, had a few suggestions to remedy that deficiency, including the works of Japan??s first winner of the Nobel Prize for literature: Yasunari Kawabata. Certainly, the title appealed, during a winter virtually devoid of that white stuff here in New Mexico.In the 1956 introduction, to his work that was written in the mid-30??s, Kawabata states: ??The west coast of the main island of Japan is probably for its latitude (roughly, from Cape Hatteras to New York, or from Spanish Morocco to Barcelona) the snowiest region in the world. From December to April or May only the railroads are open, and the snow in the mountains is sometimes as much as fifteen feet deep.? And sure enough, Google will show you that region, which also includes the entire island of Hokkaido, where the winds from Siberia, racing across the Sea of Japan, pick up the moisture, and dump it, when they hit the coastal mountains.The natural world is very much a part of this novel. The snow, yes, but also during the other seasons, the dragonflies, the moths, the mountains themselves, covered with their cedar trees. And, ??once upon a time?? the autumn meant something other than football and power rankings ?? it meant the annual pilgrimage to see the crimson maple leaves, a wonderful counterpoint to the other famous annual event ?? hanami- the viewing of the cherry blossoms.The core of the novel is the relationship between Shimamura, a wealthy dilettante from Tokyo, who periodically visits the snow country, and a hot-spring geisha, Komako, who lives there. Yoko is a significant third character, who, in the opening pages, is taking care of a dying patient on the train as Shimamura arrives, once again, in these snowy realms.France and Japan. Two countries that seemed to have evolved cultures that are, perhaps, 20% more into ??joie de vivre? than other cultures. And they seem to know it, relish it, and even recognize their ??partner? on the other side of the globe. The French side I??ve enjoyed, the Japanese side I??ve only tasted. On the latter side, I??ve found the concept of the ??geisha? profoundly troubling. It is a profession, for women. Skills developed. Rules of performance. A service rendered. Normally that service does not include sexual fulfillment. Alas. It is an accomplished ritual designed to appeal to a man??s ego, to flatter him, make him feel confident in himself.Ah, but in the rural areas, it seems that the duties of the ??geisha? are a bit more expansive and include sexual fulfillment. Komako is 20 years of age. She is a ??professional,? has clients, has her pride, her emotions. Should other people in the village see her early in the morning leaving Shimamura??s hotel room? is one of the concerns. Did she enter the profession to help pay off the medical bills of her fiancé, and was he really her fiancé? And why is the Tokyo dilettante attracted to Komako??s rustic charms? All are questions woven throughout the novel, with only glimpses of answers provided.Overall, I thought that was a deficiency in the novel. I wanted Kawabata to bore deeper into the very essence of the relationship of one man and one woman, tucked into the bucolic joys of rural Japan, utterly oblivious to the gathering storm of war. Instead, and it is a joy, Kawabata spent a bit too much time at the hot springs baths. And do all women have a bit of the ??geisha? in them, urban or rural? Questions that additional reading of Japanese novels might answer. For this one, 4-stars.
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