thousand cranes
first us edition, 1959.
set against post-war japan, the novel follows kikuji as he encounters his father’s former lover at a tea ceremony. the two become romantically entangled, drawn into memories that evoke pain, shame, attachment, and loss—all shadows of his father’s past. through symbolic objects like a shino tea bowl stained with lipstick, kawabata reflects on the weight of family secrets and the fragility of human connections.
in the ritualistic, precise gestures of the tea ceremony, kawabata brings out the tension between beauty and decay, capturing the effects of tradition on a rapidly changing japanese landscape. his characters embody different facets of grief, duty, and repressed desire. thousand cranes contemplates how individuals are bound by, yet helplessly adrift in, the legacies they inherit.
new york: alfred a. knopf. hardcover. book condition: mild shelfwear to spine, mild toning to front-paste down. fine. jacket condition: mild shelfwear, mild soiling to back-panel. unclipped($3.00). very good+. Item #443
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