Yasunari Kawabata

1899 – 1972 · Japan · Literature

Nobel Prize in Literature, 1968

First Japanese literature laureate; Snow Country and The Old Capital.

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Talks and interviews

Continuity of ideas

Who shaped Yasunari Kawabata, and who they shaped

Inherited from1

  • Murasaki Shikibu

    973 – 1014 · Literature

    Kawabata's Nobel lecture claims Genji's aesthetic of transience as his inheritance.

Passed the work to1

  • Kenzaburō Ōe

    1935 – 2023 · Literature

    Ōe's Nobel lecture defines his work against Kawabata's 'beautiful Japan'.

Sources and references

Numbered markers in the text above point to the entries below. Each links to a primary document, archival collection or scholarly reference where the claim about Yasunari Kawabata can be checked.

  1. 1.
    Nobel Prize record — Nobel Prize in Literature, 1968

    The Nobel Foundation · Primary source

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Nearby in the annals