Snow Country
Kawabata's best-known and most widely acclaimed novel, and a central expression of his lyrical style.
Author guide
Yasunari Kawabata Books in Order
Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972) was a Japanese novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and literary critic associated with the modernist New Sensationalist movement. His spare, lyrical prose drew on Japanese aesthetic traditions while engaging with modernist narrative techniques. His major works include Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, The Sound of the Mountain, The Master of Go, The Old Capital, and The House of the Sleeping Beauties. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968.
novelsnovellasshort storiesessaysliterary criticismmemoirjuvenile fiction
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
The Dancing Girl of Izu
A concise early novella that introduces his recurring themes of longing, impermanence, and beauty.
Palm-of-the-Hand Stories
A representative collection of the extremely short fiction Kawabata considered the essence of his art.
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (33)
- The Dancing Girl of Izu
novella · 1926
- The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa
novel · 1930
- Makeup and Whistling
novel · 1933
- Crystal Fantasy
novella · 1934
- The Waltz of Flowers
novel · 1936
- Snow Country
novel · 1937
Schildering van de liefdesverhouding tussen een geisha met haar ongecompliceerde levensinstelling en een tot diepere menselijke gevoelens onmachtige intellectuele estheet.
- Awakening Womanhood
novel · 1937
- The Beautiful Journey
novel · 1942
- The Plateau
novella · 1942
- Komadori Hot Springs
novella · 1945
- The Hot-Spring Inn
novella · 1946
- The Rainbow
novel · 1947
'In this masterpiece Kawabata, his brush dipped in silver, renders all the excruciating anguish and beauty of post-war Japan' Edmund White With the Second World War only a few years in the past, and Japan still reeling from its effects,…
- Thousand Cranes
novel · 1952
A luminous story of desire, regret, and the almost sensual nostalgia that binds the living to the dead—from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner and author of Snow Country. "A stunning economy, delicacy of feeling, and a painter’s sensitivity…
- The Boy
novel · 1951
- The Dancing Girl
novel · 1951
- The Remarried
novel · 1953
- Sun and Moon
novel · 1953
- The Town by the River
novel · 1954
- The Sound of the Mountain
novel · 1954
"By day Ogata Shingo, an elderly Tokyo businessman, is troubled by small failures of memory. At night he associates the distant rumble he hears from the nearby mountain with the sounds of death. In between are the complex relationships…
- The Master of Go
novel · 1954
Go is a game of strategy in which two players attempt to surround each other’s black or white stones. Simple in its fundamentals, infinitely complex in its execution, Go is an essential expression of the Japanese spirit. And in his…
- A Go Seigen Chronicle
nonfiction · 1954
- The Rainbow Repeatedly
novel · 1955
- People of Tokyo
novel · 1955
- The Best Friend
novella · 1955
- The Lake
novel · 1955
- Tamayura
novella · 1955
- Being a Woman
novel · 1957
- A Road with Wind
novel · 1959
- The House of the Sleeping Beauties
novella · 1961
- The Old Capital
novel · 1962
- Beauty and Sadness
novel · 1965
The successful writer Oki has reached middle age and is filled with regrets. He returns to Kyoto to find Otoko, a young woman with whom he had a terrible affair many years before, and discovers that she is now a painter, living with a…
- One Arm
novella · 1965
- Dandelions
novel · 1972
A fascinating discovery, Kawabata’s unfinished final novel Dandelions is a great master’s last word A fascinating discovery, Dandelions is Kawabata's final novel, left incomplete when he committed suicide in 1972. Beautifully spare and…
Nonfiction (5)
- The Study of the Novel
literary-criticism · 1936
- The Structure of the Novel
literary-criticism · 1941
- Travel Landscape
travel-writing · 1948
- Journey to Izu
travel-writing · 1954
- Falling Petals, Flowing Water
memoir · 1966
Short fiction (24)
- Emotional Ornament
short-story-collection · 1926
- My Specimen Room
short-story-collection · 1930
- Photographs with Flowers
short-story-collection · 1930
- Lyric Song
short-story-collection · 1934
- Beasts
short-story-collection · 1935
- Short Story Collection
short-story-collection · 1939
- New Year's Three Days
short-story-collection · 1940
- Sleeping Face
short-story-collection · 1941
- Those I Love
short-story-collection · 1941
- Morning Clouds
short-story-collection · 1945
- Love
short-story-collection · 1945
- Hibari
short-story-collection · 1946
- The Girl in the Evening Glow
short-story-collection · 1946
- One Grass, One Flower
short-story-collection · 1948
- A Hymn to the Heart
short-story-collection · 1948
- The Lyricism of Wings
short-story-collection · 1948
- White Full Moon
short-story-collection · 1948
- Twenty Years Old
short-story-collection · 1948
- Flower Diary
short-story-collection · 1948
- Night Dice
short-story-collection · 1949
- Hill of Heat Haze
short-story-collection · 1949
- Sorrow
short-story-collection · 1949
- First Snow on Fuji
short-story-collection · 1958
- Palm-of-the-Hand Stories
short-story-collection · 1923
Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, the novelist Yasunari Kawabata felt the essence of his art was to be found not in his longer works but in a series of short stories--which he called "Palm-of-the-Hand Stories." Written…
Essays and speeches (6)
- The Pure Voice
essay-collection · 1936
- Writing
essay-collection · 1942
- Women's Writing
essay-collection · 1945
- The Gate Under the Moon
essay-collection · 1967
- Japan, the Beautiful, and Myself
essay · 1969
- The Existence and Discovery of Beauty
essay-collection · 1969
Children's books (8)
- A Girl's Heart
juvenile-novel · 1937
- The Girl's Honor Student Detective
juvenile-fiction · 1937
- Otome no Minato
juvenile-novel · 1938
- Flowers of the School
juvenile-fiction · 1946
- Manyo Sisters
juvenile-novel · 1952
- Flower and Kosuzu
juvenile-fiction · 1953
- The Swallow Girl
juvenile-fiction · 1955
- The Mysterious Lamp
juvenile-fiction · 1959
Frequently asked questions about Yasunari Kawabata
Who was Yasunari Kawabata?
Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short-story writer who became the first Japanese recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in Osaka in 1899 and died in Zushi in 1972.
What was Yasunari Kawabata’s early life like?
After his parents died when he was young, Kawabata was raised in the countryside by his maternal grandfather. He later studied at Tokyo Imperial University from 1920 to 1924.
How did Yasunari Kawabata begin his literary career?
Kawabata helped found the literary magazine Bungei Jidai, which promoted a new movement in modern Japanese literature. His recognized writing career began with the short story “Izu dancer,” published in 1927.
Sources: nobelprize.org (opens in a new tab)ndl.go.jp (opens in a new tab)
What influenced Yasunari Kawabata’s writing?
His work drew on Japanese classical literature, particularly The Tale of Genji, as well as Zen and Buddhist ideas about beauty, nature, and impermanence. His early career was also shaped by the modernist Shinkankakuha, or “new sensation,” movement.
Sources: nobelprize.org (opens in a new tab)ndl.go.jp (opens in a new tab)
What awards did Yasunari Kawabata win, and what is his legacy?
Kawabata received the Goethe Medal in 1959, Japan’s Order of Culture in 1961, and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968 for his narrative mastery and expression of the Japanese mind. He is remembered as Japan’s first Nobel literature laureate and as a major figure in the international recognition of Japanese literature.
Sources: nobelprize.org (opens in a new tab)nobelprize.org (opens in a new tab)gov-online.go.jp (opens in a new tab)