Word: kawabata
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Japanese, and few authors have so compellingly evoked the subtle, precise beauty of his homeland. His prose is clear, deceptively simple; yet the images scattered through his narratives link together to produce deep, sudden insight into the souls of his characters - and of Japan. Until last week, however, Yasunari Kawabata was all but unknown in the West. Then, to the surprise of many, he was awarded this year's Nobel Prize for literature for his contributions, as the citation put it, to the "spiritual bridge spanning between East and West...
...first Japanese ever to win the literary award and the first Asian to be so honored since 1913, when the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore was selected. Kawabata, 69, stepped into the limelight calmly. "I feel I am very lucky," he told the caller who brought the news. "It is a great honor." Later, he showed concern that "too great a fuss" might be made. "For authors," he said, "honors can some times become unbearable burdens...
Reischauer said Kawabata's writing follows in the Japanese modern literary tradition. The "intensely personal" work, Reischauer said, deals with "individual psychology, rather than social-political problems...
...selection of Kawabata, an author little known to Western readers, surprised those expecting the choice of more voguish Western writers such as Gunter Grass or Andre Malraux...
John K. Fairbank '29, Director of the East Asian Research Center, termed the choice "grand," adding however that he has never read any of Kawabata's works...