Word: kawabata
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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...
...Nobel Prize, Reischauer said, has been confined by a "parochial viewpoint" to the Western languages. Reischauer met Kawabata on several occasions while ambassador to Japan...
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...