June 17, 2015
I skimmed the translator's introduction after I finished this short novel. Seidensticker compares Kawabata to haiku writers, and there is definitely a poetic vibe to the story. The main character Shimamura observes the beauty of the world around him and the women with whom he interacts. Kawabata doesn't give us a whole lot of background on his characters, but the little details that he drops are rather telling.
The story revolves around a couple of overlapping love triangles. Komako is a geisha in a small mountain village in northern Japan. The introduction helped to put her situation into context. Unlike urban geisha of the time, rural geisha don't have much chance at a future outside of that line of work. What they do is not seen as an art like it would have been in the urban tea houses; a geisha like Komako is more or less a prostitute, but still has a good social standing as they entertain guests who come for the hot springs. Shimamura, a wealthy man who never has to work, is one such visitor. His solo trips (three total) to this hot spring village are not explained; like, why did he end up there, in a place with little cultural attraction, when he's so into the arts? The introduction once again helped this to make more sense.
So Shimamura and Komako are drawn to one another, and she seeks him out whenever he's in town. On his second visit, he becomes interested in a situation involving Komako, her old friend Yukio (who dies of an illness around the time that Shimamura heads back to Tokyo), and Yoko, Yukio's young lover who accompanied him back to his hometown. Shimamura is fascinated by Yoko, much to Komako's consternation.
But the most important relationship is the complicated one between the two women. Yoko respects but does not like Komako...at least that's what she tells Shimamura. Komako's feelings are much harder to place. She is jealous, sure, and even says that she thinks Yoko is insane. But she pulls Yoko from the fire in the warehouse at the end. We don't know if Yoko is dead or alive, but Komako's feelings towards her are best illustrated in this final scene. It may be that, if Yoko survived, these two would continue their complex relationship for the rest of their lives.
I almost do want more about these three main characters, but I appreciate the story as is. It's short but complex and beautiful. I'm most intimidated by these kinds of books, even now. So it's all the more important that I read such books; if anything, these blog posts are a way of digesting what I've read.
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