The Old Capital
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Summary
The Izu Dancer tells of a relationship that ends without resolution, brimming throughout with the poetry and lyricism of youth, and has been praised as "the world's first love."
The Old Capital depicts the joys and sorrows, separations and reunions of a pair of twin sisters, while unfolding a long scroll of Kyoto's customs. It not only evokes Japanese readers' aesthetic emotions and cultural nostalgia, but also lets foreign readers appreciate the charm and beauty of Japan—it can be called the literary postcard of the city of Kyoto.
Reunion is the work at the turning point when Kawabata, after passing through a period of creative stagnation and after the end of the Second World War, took up his pen again and entered a new stage of creation. Although short in length, it is rich in content; it is not only an anti-war work, but also a work that criticizes reality and warns the future.
Editor's review
Kawabata's writing has the typical qualities of the mono no aware aesthetic, and this is particularly fully expressed in The Old Capital. The Kyoto he depicts, from spring cherry blossoms to winter snow, from the Gion Festival to the Jidai Festival, every scene carries the emotions of the characters and the changes of the times. The two sisters are like mirrors of Kyoto: one adopted into a wealthy merchant family and inheriting the old capital's elegance; the other raised in a mountain village and maintaining a simple natural life. Their meeting and separation symbolize the subtle and inevitable tension between tradition and modernity, nature and the human world.
As a relatively brighter work from Kawabata's later years, The Old Capital has less of the isolation of Snow Country and more attachment to life and culture. The detailed descriptions of traditional crafts, festival rituals, and garden architecture not only provide a profound cultural background for the story but also make Kyoto itself a silent yet important character. While feeling the characters' fate, readers can also appreciate Kawabata's deep understanding and poetic presentation of Japanese classical aesthetics.
The value of this work lies in its transcendence of the narrative of individual fate; it becomes a carrier of cultural memory. In an era of rapid modernization, what Kawabata protects through The Old Capital is not only the appearance of a city but also an aesthetic consciousness and philosophy of life. Reading this book is like taking a slow journey through Kyoto, feeling the weight of time and the transience of beauty between the lines.
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in Japanese literature and the mono no aware aesthetic
- Travel and literature lovers who enjoy Kyoto culture and traditional scenery
- Those seeking a pure literary reading experience with delicate writing and profound atmosphere
- Readers hoping to understand cultural inheritance and identity through a family story
Not a good fit for
- Readers who prefer novels with strong plot and fast pacing
- Readers with little basic interest in postwar Japanese society and cultural background
Reading tips
- Can be read alongside maps of Kyoto's geography and festivals to enhance spatial and cultural immersion
- It is recommended to slow down the reading pace and savor Kawabata's subtle descriptions of natural scenery and characters' psychology
- After reading, you can extend to other representative works by Kawabata Yasunari, such as Snow Country and The Izu Dancer, to appreciate the consistency and variation of his aesthetics
About the publisher
Shidai Literature Publishing House is a literary publisher known for foreign literature and classic works. Judging from the more than 300 titles in the catalog, its publishing focus is on foreign literature, essays and miscellaneous writings, classic works, and world masterpieces, with attention to translation quality and series-based presentation. Representative books include Yukio Mishima's Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Decay of the Angel, and Forbidden Colors in the Zitu Classic Library series, as well as Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Lu Xun's essays, and the four-volume The Sea of Fertility. Its translator resources include Chen Dewen, Gao Huiqin, Lu Qiushi, and Ding Kaite, while the authors involved include Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, Lu Xun, and Jane Austen. The publisher is characterized by translated literature and reissues of classics, balancing popular reading with cultural accumulation; public information about its complete catalog and publishing plans is limited.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 古都
- 春之花
- 尼姑庵与格子门
- 和服街
- 北山杉
- 园会
- 秋色
- 松林苍翠
- 深秋里的姐妹
- 冬之花
- 伊豆舞女
- 一
- 二
- 三
- 四
- 五
- 六
- 七
- 重逢
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About the author
Kawabata Yasunari (1899–1972) was a Japanese novelist and a leading figure of the New Sensationist school, born in Osaka. A prolific writer, he is represented on this site by 147 works, spanning essays and miscellaneous prose as well as foreign literature. His representative works include The Izu Dancer, Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, and The Old Capital; Snow Country in particular exists in multiple editions and translations, a sign of its wide circulation. Kawabata is known for his delicate prose, which interweaves human emotion with natural scenery to express the spiritual character of the Japanese people, and often conveys a sense of the beauty of impermanence in life and death. In 1968 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature, an important landmark in the global recognition of Japanese literature; he died in 1972. Beyond his novels, his essays and miscellaneous writings also deserve attention.
Gao Huiqin is an important Chinese-language translator of Japanese literature. Public information about her is limited, and no clear records of her dates of birth and death, nationality, or educational background are available. Twenty-six of her works are held in the collection, mainly classics of foreign literature. Her representative translations include Kawabata Yasunari's Snow Country and The Old Capital, as well as Rashomon: A Collection of Classic Works by Akutagawa Ryunosuke (illustrated collector's edition). These works show that she has long been devoted to translating modern and contemporary Japanese classic fiction, with selections centering on representative works by writers such as Kawabata Yasunari and Akutagawa Ryunosuke. Her translations strive to preserve the delicate psychological description and understated aesthetic quality of the originals, with elegant and restrained language, serving as an important bridge for Chinese readers of Japanese literary classics.
