Thousand Cranes

By Kawabata Yasunari

Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker

(1949-1951, 1952, translated 1958)

Vintage

(Novel)

Mr. Kawabata presents the novel, a study in sensuality and loneliness, in five parts: “Thousand Cranes, “The Grove in the Evening Sun,” “Figured Shino,” “Her Mother’s Lipstick,” and “Double Star.” Set in Kamakura, Japan after World War, “Thousand Cranes” focuses on Kikuji, a young, directionless man reeling from the early death of his father and mother. On this particular day, an invitation to attend a tea ceremony hosted by Kurimoto Chikako takes him back in time to eighteen years ago when his father took his eight-year-old son to Chikako’s home. They entered her bedroom, surprising her as she tended to a palm-sized birthmark on her breast. The image has a profound impact on the young boy: it became an unforgettable symbol of revulsion and attraction, and it also introduced him to the world of masculine pride and deceit, for he soon realized that his father brought him there to show off “his woman.” He also witnessed his father lying to his wife about the relationship, and in his silence, he realized he became complicit. Soon after, Kikuji’s father grew tired of Chikako and took up with the widow Ota. And Chikako then allied herself with Kikuji’s mother in order to expose the father’s infidelity. But that was all years ago, and on this day old Chikako has invited Kikuji to tea to meet a woman who is carrying a package wrapped in the “thousand crane” pattern. He imagines a restful exercise in beauty but is struck dumb when he enters the tea room to discover his father’s mistress, Ota, and her young daughter Fumiko. The meeting at the tea ceremony sets Kikuji to wander from woman to woman, seeking some solace or understanding of his father, himself, and the world.

“They had gone to an inn on the hill opposite the Engakuji, and they had had dinner, because she was still talking of Kikuji’s father. Kikuji did not have to listen. Indeed it was in a sense strange that he listened so quietly, but Mrs. Ota, evidently with no thought for the strangeness, seemed to plead her yearning for the past. Listening, Kikuji felt expansively benevolent. A soft affection enveloped him. It came to him that his father was happy.” (33)