Winner of the 1968 Nobel Prize for Literature, Kawabata Yasunari wrote novels that expressed the transitory nature of love and beauty. This program traces Kawabata’s life and career, focusing on his importance in Japan’s Neosensualist movement and the development of his finely tuned, elegiac sensibility. Personal and historical events that shaped the author’s creative journey—including the loss of his family in childhood, Japan’s militarism and defeat in World War II, and Kawabata’s friendship with Mishima Yukio—provide a framework for discussions of The Izu Dancer, Snow Country, The Sound of the Mountain, Kyoto, and other novels. Kawabata’s untimely death and the role of suicide in Japanese culture are also explored. (50 minutes)