Yasunari Kawabata And Japanese Traditional Beauty

Kawabata Yasunari (from 1899 to 1972) is an Japanese present-day well-known writer and also the first Japanese recipient of the Nobel prize. From his initial The Sixteen-year-old Diary in 1914 to his suicide in 1972, Kawabata Yasunari had been active in Japanese literary world for more than half a century. The particular experience of being an orphan and the complex and changeful times got his works deeply rooted in Japanese tradition. Meanwhile, he was also a pioneer of the modern art current spreading all over the world. All this caused his works' complexity and multi-ply. From the essence, his works rooted from the Japanese traditional beauty. His reference and assimilation of western modern literary didn't ease his pursuit for traditional beauty, but reversely deepened his exploration and got the traditional beauty gloss. Hereby, the paper, proceeded with his works' essence, is to dig up the root of his pursuit for Japanese traditional beauty, and relied on his works to research his heritage and pioneer for traditional beauty.The paper has 4 chapters.The first chapter proceeded with the personality and the era, is to systematically probe into the origination for modern authors to cling to traditional beauty.Kawabata Yasunari, an orphan, had been absorbed in the classical literary from his young age. Some works such as Makuranosousi, Tsurezuregusa and Taketorimonogatari were his favorite, particularly Gennjimonogatari. Additionally, he liked Ejimakiseki's lechery works. Abroad reading at his young ages laid a solid basis for his writing. The beauty of distress, lechery, adoration for virgin and affection for the nature in his works had close connection with his abroad reading. Moreover, deaths of his families made the shadow of death impressed on his young soul. To overcome his fear for death and to seek the lost intimacy in families, he accepted Buddhist metempsychosis. The establishment of this traditional concept had two significances: one side it could enable Kawabata Yasunari in the intercourse with the world to seek the lost sensibility and relieved from the dense orphanage temperament; on the other side, it got Kawabata Yasunari to understand the traditional idea of "emptiness" and "nihility". In a world of metempsychosis, life likes a passing traveler. However, here the soul could be broader. The width mind, beyond individual life's limit, got Kawabata Yasunari devoted to the world of "emptiness" and "nihility" rather than clinging to the reality. Therefore, the experience of being an orphan was an inherent root for his clinging to traditional beauty and made the traditional beauty be his inner deposit, which essentially limited his works' orientation.Additionally, the war firmed his belief to inherit tradition. In 15-year war, Japan's political situation was extremely complex and oppressed humanity. In such a condition, Kawabata Yasunari got into oscillation and attempted to seek path to exceed. So shouldering inner suffering, in the intersect of art and living at war, with a leisure forget-myself attitude, he focused his eyes on hometown. In the classical world represented by Germjimonogatari, he realized the war's fruitlessness and got a free soul in the emptiness and nihility which was beyond war. After war, many of his friends in the literary world died from the suffering of war, and Japan's morals and customs got him distressed and regretful. Before inbursting American civilization, Japan got into self-denial and deserted the ethical tradition, which caused the lost ethical spirit. Faced with this, Kawabata Yasunari closely sensed the only path to Japan's rebirth was to inherit the ethical tradition and to seek the soul's hometown, absorbed inspiration and force, and made the traditional beauty gloss. It was his effort that made Japanese literary bear the ethical traditional beauty, which opened the window for the Noble Prize. It shined not only Japan's literary but Japan's rebirth and built up the ethical self-confidence. Therefore, to inherit the ethical tradition and to guard the soul's hometown was not only the best sacrifice for his dead teacher but a need of times.The second chapter is to concretely dissertate the natural beauty embodied in his literature. As for Japanese natural beauty, the natural beauty should be firstly introduced. Favored and fostered in the beautiful island country, Japanese cherish a soulful affection and a special conciliatory feeling for the nature. From the ancient times, Japanese writers took the nature and four seasons as their friends. They could keenly grasp the alteration of seasons from the subtle change and sense the rhythm of natural lives. Affected by tradition, Kawabata Yasunari had a keen sense for seasons. In writing, he exquisitely described the nature in a tenuous style and hinted character's affection and fate with alteration of seasons. In the unification of man's naturalization and nature's humanization, Kawabata Yasunari's works fully reflected the oriental traditional conception of integrity of nature and man. Additionally, Japanese was much perceptive to the nature's color. Red, black, white and blue was four primitive colors of Japanese color language and has specific aesthetic sentiment and moral connotation. Edified by sensitive culture, color had an important symbolic meaning in his works, generally, he often symbolized beauty of love, dream and living and death with red and white, while represented death, distress and antinomy of ugliness in reality and beauty in dream with black and white. In a word, He was not only accomplished in catching and describing the natural beauty, but in digging the deep-seated signification hidden in the natural beauty. The alteration of natural scenery in four seasons and lighting and shading of the natural color was closely connected with the character's feeling and fate. So His literature developed from the early comeliness and immaculacy to the metaphase melancholy and gloominess, up to the evening nihility and dejection. Though the sensibility changed, the integrity of man with nature prolonged from the start to the end.The third chapter is to systematically and deeply expatiate the beauty of traditional spirit as the soul of his literature. Lechery, distress, nihility, loneness and mystery were major traditional aesthetic consciousness in Japanese literature. Kawabata Yasunari inherited the soul of traditional beauty, and devoted his sensibility, which made them blossom in his literature.Sex was manifested frankly in Japanese classical literary and the literary tradition of lechery was increasingly formed. This lechery idea not only met the physiological desire but realized love which was much desired, and accordingly trended to a religious and aesthetic idea. Affected by traditional literary, Kawabata Yasunari's works contained lechery and integrated his particular emotion in it. The experience of orphanage got him admiring and desiring women's body and adoring virgin and maternity. Therefore, in his works female integrated glabrous beauty of body, chaste beauty of soul and beauty of maternity, so in the unharmony of reality and ideal, Kawabata Yasunari graded female to a status of Buddhism which was holy, untouchable, and merciful. She caressed anyone who yearned for love with maternal gentleness. So beauty Buddhism was a symbol to retrieve itself, and lechery beauty in Yasunari Kawabata's works was shaped in sense and sanctity.Distress, originating from aristocrat culture in Heian times, was an important idea through Japanese traditional culture and aesthetic consciousness. Sensitive taste of an orphan and edification of classical literature got him acquainted with close connection between beauty and grief. In writing, he took short-lived uncertain love as chief content, sorrow and anxiety as chief tune, which patterned his works with beauty and sadness. Generally, Kawabata Yasunari developed pathos of first love, grief and resentment of female and glorified sheer grief. Such grief was subject to beauty and beauty restricted art atmosphere of grief, which constructed a limitless elegant traditional tone for Yasunari Kawabata's works and showed verve of distress. The experience of being an orphan enriched him with searching for life. Meanwhile, affection by his grandpa and edification by the Buddhism had been with him, which endowed him with eyes of impending death with which he had been peering at the nihil world. It was with these eyes that he was beyond life and death and recognized the truth of life through phenomena. By this, Kawabata Yasunari regarded Buddhist mystery and nihility as the literature's fairyland and described beautiful Buddhism and devildom to hunt after the life's truth. Clinging to devildom and longing for Buddhism contained his attempt to save self with traditional Zen and his care for the life end. Mishima Yukio said Kawabata Yasunari as eternal traveler. The life of Kawabata Yasunari indeed liked a traveler between reality and dream. With fearless spirit, exploring human nature and poetic style, he led people to a serene world which believed in destiny.The fourth chapter is to discuss his new exploration for traditional beauty. At the initial stages, namely the times of DaZheng, it was an abundant and unique times which was apparently severed, but actually connected with tradition. Affected by western modern literature trend, Kawabata Yasunari launched neo-sense movement and became a bannerman. Hereafter, he transferred to research in neo-psychologism and detailedly read Joyce's works. Certainly, at that time his thought and writing practice was somehow extreme. However, after temporarily drastic counterworking, western modern literature was blended into Kawabata Yasunari's works. When the neo-sense school declined, Kawabata Yasunari furthered its subjective sense to sensibility scope from lower perceptive scope and integrated it with Japanese traditional natural beauty and human feelings. Additionally, Kawabata Yasunari didn't stop purely model western consciousness but integrated the concept of psychological space time and exploring with unconsciousness with traditional nihility, emptiness and research for devildom. So from a general aspect, the exploration in neo-sense school and neo-psychologism didn't block his pursuit for traditional beauty, weakened classical beauty in literature while shined traditional beauty. Meanwhile it was such an exploration got his literature to bear modernity, cosmopolitan and not to lose the soul of traditional culture.In conclusion, Kawabata Yasunari literature was solidly rooted in Japanese traditional culture. From the course of his writing, in the years of modern art overwhelming the whole world, younger Kawabata Yasunari had trended to western modernism. However, in the contrast between oriental and occidental culture, he was fully amazed that it was needed to use literary art to enrich tradition and not to deviate from the ethical cultural tradition. In war times, particularly after Japan's unconditional surrendering, faced with declining ethical culture, Kawabata Yasunari firmed his belief in inheriting and innovating tradition. So, his exploration for western modernism didn't bar his pursuit for ethical tradition and lower the dominant status of traditional beauty in literature. Reversely, the exploration during these times provided him with new scope for inheriting tradition. By this, Kawabata Yasunari gave prominence to the value and significance of traditional beauty in modern society. So the paper is from the traditional beauty which was the root of Kawabata Yasunari's literature and ended with his exploration for western modernist literature at his young ages.