Murasaki Shikibu (978~1021 AD) 紫 式部, “The Tale of Genji 源氏物語 ,1008 AD was the first novel in the World History; and, was the topic of an earlier blog post.
Here I present: Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) 川端 康成 “The Old Capital” 古都 , 1987 which was a Japanese novel by the Nobel laureate.
The book “table of contents” is shown BELOW.
The first sentence of each chapter is shown BELOW:
Chapter #1. “Chieko discovered the violets flowering on the trunk of the old maple tree.”
Chapter #2. “Three or four days earlier, Chieko’s father, Sada Takichiro, had secluded himself in a temple hidden deep in a remote part of Saga.”
Chapter #3. “Although Kyoto is a large city, the color of the leaves there are beautiful.”
Chapter #4. “Since the days of the Heian Court, the most noted mountain of Kyoto was Hiezan, and the most noted festival was the Kamo Festival.”
Chapter #5. “Chieko left the shop carrying a large market basket.”
Chapter #6. “One of the last remainders still left in Kyoto of the ‘opening of civilization’ of the Meiji Period – the electric streetcar that ran along the Horikawa Kitano line – was finally to be dismantled.”
Chapter #7. “Having heard of a house for sale at a reasonable price near Nanzenji Temple, Takichiro invited his wife and daughter to go with him to see it – in part just for the chance to walk in the autumn weather.”
Chapter #8. “Of all the festivals of Kyoto, Chieko enjoyed the Kurama Fire Festival even more than the Daimonji.”
Chapter #9. “Chieko almost never wore slacks and a sweater, but today she did, along with heavy, brightly colored socks.”
Here I presented: Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) 川端 康成 “The Old Capital” 古都 , 1987 which was a Japanese novel by the Nobel laureate. The nine (9) chapters are listed BELOW.
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SUMMARY
The “Old Capital” tells the story of Chieko (the protagonist), the adopted daughter of a Kyoto kimono designer, Takichiro, and his wife, Shige.
Since her youth, Chieko has been told that she was kidnapped as a baby by the childless couple in a moment of profound desire. When she is twenty (20) years-old; however, she learns that she actually was a foundling, abandoned by her real parents. Still, the love and affection Takichiro and Shige have given her satisfy her heart, and she has no desire to seek out her biological parents – until she makes a startling discovery before the altar of the Yasaka shrine.
The “Old Capital” (古都, Koto) was a novel by Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata first published in 1962. It was one of three novels cited (other novels “Snow Country” & “Thousand Cranes”) by the Nobel Committee in their decision to award Kawabata the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Naomi 平原直美 Hirahara, “The Summer of Big 罰 Bachi【ばち】(Mas Arai)”, 2003 was the topic of an earlier blog post.
