1 Ibaraki
The place where I first lived in Japan, and the one where I lived the longest, was Ibaraki, a prefecture-level city under the administration of Osaka Prefecture. Yasunari Kawabata, who was lost at an early age, was sheltered at Ibaraki's grandparents' house, and finally lost his loved ones here, and prematurely experienced the impermanence of life. While studying at Ibaraki Junior High School, a teacher he loved tragically passed away. Yasunari Kawabata recounted the funeral and published his debut novel in a magazine titled "The Coffin of the Shoulder-Shouldering Teacher."
Osaka is unknown to everyone, but Ibaraki is unknown. It takes almost an hour from the famous and lively Osaka Shinsaibashi to Ibaraki, and the shopping street here closes around 5 o'clock. Nevertheless, this small town between Osaka and Kyoto is relatively convenient to live in. There are two electric railways that run through the city, one of which is located next to Ibaraki-in Temple, where Yasunari Kawabata held his funeral.
I like Yasunari Kawabata. The original choice of residence was due to Yasunari Kawabata's decision to Ibaraki. When I arrived in Japan, I went through the formalities at the household registration window, took the envelope "Welcome to Ibaraki" and various instructions, and went to the post office to do business. After a long queue, there was a Japanese aunt who had also been waiting for a long time, carrying a pocket of a certain plant skin care product in her hand to talk to me. She glanced at the envelope in my hand and said, "Welcome to Ibaraki, I am also a citizen of Ibaraki." I replied a little nervously, "I'm a foreigner, I just came here." She then asked me why I lived in Ibaraki, and I replied that I liked Yasunari Kawabata. She said happily, "I like Yasunari Kawabata too, and so does my mother." Mom's birthday today, so I bought a hand cream to send her. If you don't mind, this giveaway is for you, cheer on Ibaraki! ”
Most Japanese people have a thin temperament. In the years that followed, I didn't have a similar story with strangers, and even osaka people, who are often described as brash, didn't have any remarkable enthusiasm. The warm encounter with this aunt made me think back often in the future. My first memories of Ibaraki are full of fragrant flavor, and I have to say that in part it was thanks to Yasunari Kawabata.
My original home in Ibaraki was next to the Yasunari Kawabata Literature Museum, and I could glance at the Literature Museum every day when I walked around. It was a plain red brick building, nestled among the sidewalk trees. Although it is free and open, it has a lot of collections and is not sloppy. Mr. Ye Weiqu's translation of the Chinese edition of "Snow Country" is also one of the exhibits. The exhibition covers the footprints of Yasunari Kawabata's life, and the content related to Ibaraki is introduced in detail, and there is also a short video of about 6 minutes of "Yasunari Kawabata and Ibaraki" that can be seen. I later moved once and lived next to the middle school where Yasunari Kawabata was studying. Yasunari Kawabata lives at his grandparents' house and walks 6 kilometers from home to school every day. Now, a variety of supporting facilities have been built around the area, which is very convenient. But presumably it was a dull and boring place, with no entertainment except for studying. There is an old stationery store nearby, full of Showa style. It is rumored that this shop has a lot of history, and perhaps Yasunari Kawabata bought stationery from here when he was in school.
Japanese people love cartoons, and each city has its own representative image. Unlike most cute figures, Ibaraki's image is a red-faced ghost "Ibaraki Boy" holding a stick. He is a ghost recorded in ancient Japanese texts, and it is said that he was born into childbirth, and can walk as soon as he lands on the ground, and has teeth in his mouth and sharp eyes. His parents abandoned him and was raised by a childless barber couple. One day he scratched the face of his guest and discovered his bloodthirsty nature. After being abandoned by his adoptive parents, he felt that there was no love in the world, and followed the evil ghosts of Kyoto to devour the boy and do evil under his hands. According to today's saying, this Ibaraki boy is also a genius teenager with an unfortunate family. Yasunari Kawabata spent his youth in Ibaraki, and there may have been a cause in the darkness.
Ibaraki City Center Ibaraki Doji Stone Statue Author 摄于 Ibaraki City
2 Osaka Tokyo Izu
Yasunari Kawabata was born in Osaka City in 1899 and is now known as Tenman, Kita-ku, Osaka. He was born in a place just east of the famous Tenmangu Shrine in Osaka, which is now an absolute prime location.
Osaka Tenmangu Shrine is very popular, and together with tenmangu Shrine in Dazaifu, Kyushu, it is called the most important two of the "Tenmangu" in various parts of Japan. A large number of people visit the shrine during the examination season. Tenmangu Shrine is dedicated to Michimasa Sugawara, Japan's "god of learning." He was a scholar, poet, and statesman of the Heian period, able to write beautiful Chinese poems at the age of 11, and a young genius. Unfortunately, due to rumors, he was relegated to Kyushu and ended up depressed. It is said that after his death, he was deeply resentful and turned into a wretched spirit, which led to the emergence of the "Tenman Faith" that deified him.
In the Nara period, in 650 AD, Emperor Takatoku built a shogun shrine to guard the northwest of the city, which was later known as the Forest of Tenjin. During the Heian period, in 910 AD, after Sugawara Michimasa was degraded, he visited the Forest of the Gods on his way to Dazaifu to pray for peace. About 50 years after his death, seven pine trees grew overnight before the Tenjin-no-Mori Shrine, and the branches glowed every night. Hearing of this, Emperor Murakami built this Osaka TenmanGu Shrine here to comfort Sugawara Michimasa.
Yasunari Kawabata, who was born next to TenmanGu Shrine, may also have been enlightened by the God of Tenman. But it was difficult to say whether this was a blessing or a curse for him personally. Shortly after his birth, he parted ways with his parents and left his birthplace for Ibaraki at the age of 3. After graduating from high school, Yasunari Kawabata entered the old system of "One High School", the predecessor of the current Faculty of Liberal Arts at the University of Tokyo. Ichigoku is the preparatory school of UTokyo, and Yasunari Kawabata followed this path and entered UTokyo without accident and graduated. At that time, the school's philosophy of governance was "both civil and martial". The "literati" hanging on the front of the school's lecture hall are Michimasa Sugawara, and the "samurai" are the military attaché Sakaue Tamura Maru of the Heian period.
The birthplace of Yasunari Kawabata The author took a picture in Osaka
By the way, Kawabata Yasunari graduated from Ichigoku 5 years earlier, and along the same elite route, there was also a writer I loved dearly, Yu Tatsuo. However, Yu Dafu went from Ichigao to Hachigao in the middle of the way, so he entered Todai only 1 year earlier than Kawabata. There is no need to deliberately compare the two, but you can also feel the commonality of their delicate sorrows. Yasunari Kawabata once said in "Immortal Beauty": "The material mourning of the Heian Dynasty became the source of Japanese beauty." "The Tang dynasty prevailed in the Heian era, and the Heian culture was strongly influenced by the Tang Dynasty culture. Kawabata's "private novels" and Yu Dafu's "autobiography" can be seen as an excellent embodiment of the mutual complaint of nostalgia between Chinese and Japanese cultures.
Yasunari Kawabata's famous work "The Dancing Girl of Izu" was written based on his own experience of traveling to Izu during the holidays when he was in Ichigao. It was the first single trip of his life at the age of 19. In the novel, 20-year-old Ichigao travels alone, meets a group of six wandering entertainers and falls in love with one of the young dancers. Lonely travels, a stirring emotion, a pure story without a plot, has been adapted to the screen 6 times in Japan, and the dancers include such resounding names as Tanaka Atsuyo, Miku Skylark, and Yoshinaga Sayuri. The sixth actor, Momoe Yamaguchi, has made "Izu Dancer" a household name in China. At the age of 15, Yamaguchi Washie was fresh and natural, Miura Yuwa was heroic, and "The Dancing Girl of Izu" was the beginning of their brilliant acting, and it also made the two work together in their lives.
My first solo trip in Japan also went to Izu. As a student, Uddhav also stayed in the hot springs of Atami and wrote poetry. This is not a reciprocal imitation, but it is not entirely accidental. Because if you want to travel decently from Tokyo without going too far or spending too much money, the hot springs of Hakone, Izu, and Atami are naturally a good choice. Although it is a tourist attraction, it is an ordinary countryside after all. With an idyllic scenery that the city does not have, you can get a glimpse of nature's unobstructed face. How can the bright sea surface and the flowing light and shadow not touch the heart of the young and lonely traveler?
Izu Kinosaki Kaigan Nomatsu
3. Echigo Yuzawa Kamakura
"Snow Country" is one of the works that Yasunari Kawabata won the Nobel Prize, and it is also the first work that many Chinese readers think of when they mention Yasunari Kawabata. It is based on the small town of Echigo Yuzawa in Niigata Prefecture. "Through that long tunnel on the border, there is the Snow Country." "National Border" refers to the county boundary between Niigata And Gunma Prefectures. To go to the snow country, you must pass through many large and small tunnels. Doi Station, known as the "First Cave" among Japanese stations, is located near the prefectural boundary. To exit or transfer, you must first climb a 338-meter staircase with 462 steps and then cross a 143-meter-long passage with 24 steps.
"Japan's first jidong" station Dohe, the author of gunma prefecture
The snow country located in such an environment is indeed a snow country. In 1837, the Edo period merchant Suzuki Makiyuki painstakingly wrote the "North Vietnamese Snow Spectrum" to record the snow in his hometown, showing the appearance of the snow country for the first time. Exactly one hundred years after the book came out, Yasunari Kawabata wrote the novel Snow Country in a hotel in snow country, drawing on the North Vietnamese Snow Spectrum.
Snow Country Twilight, by Echigo Yuzawa
Like "The Dancer of Izu," Snow Country is based on real travel experiences. Yasunari Kawabata witnessed a fire in the snow and wrote this plot into the novel. The hotel where he stayed in Echigo Yuzawa for a long time was called "Takahan", and it is still open today. The 1957 black-and-white film Snow Country followed the hotel's real name and was filmed on location. Takamitsu preserves the room where Yasunari Kawabata lived. The records of the hotel, the photos of the film shooting scene of the "Snow Country" movie, and various trivia have become the treasures of the high-level town hall, and a special exhibition room has been opened for the in-house.
Yasunari Kawabata's room, photographed by the author at the Takahan Inn
When I went to the high half to stay, it was winter, and the snow country had a panoramic view. After the heavy snow, the traffic is inconvenient, and very few people actually go sightseeing, and there are no other guests that night. The reserved program for guests is the screening of the movie "Snow Country" in a dedicated room. After soaking in the hot springs, holding a blanket and trapped in the sofa seat, the shop lit a fire and exited. The snow country of the 50s, the actor with the "half-height" lantern on the screen, the snow looming outside the hotel window in reality, and the heat in the room seem to enter a trance dream. People are middle-aged, the youthful sorrows of youth are no longer there, the worries of life, the mutual struggle between romance and reality, hidden under the snow. It is still to say that there is still no end, there is still no beginning, there is no end. Love or not, love hard or not, finally is a parting, life, with sadness and lightness to continue.
There was also a small episode before leaving the high half. I saw a brief description of the hotel and hot spring hanging outside Yasunari Kawabata's room, and Chinese the translation was not smooth, I retranslated it for free. The store also gave me a bottle of snow country honey as a thank you. This translation remains in the snow country, perhaps it can also be regarded as a trace of fate with Yasunari Kawabata.
The final monograph of Snow Country was published when Yasunari Kawabata was living in Kamakura. In 1935, Yasunari Kawabata repeatedly had a fever, so he was invited by the writer Hayashi Fumio to move to Kamakura and lived there ever since. "Sound of the Mountain" and the Nobel Prize work "Thousand Feather Crane" were written in the context of Kamakura. Incidentally, this Hayashi was a left-wing writer who translated his works when he first experimented with prose. However, after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, he actively joined the army and engaged in war propaganda. He wrote articles such as "The Affirmation of the Great East Asian War" and became one of the objects of criticism of Yu Dafu in "The Prostitutes and Scribes of Japan". In contrast, Yasunari Kawabata was much more detached. Admittedly, the times are like this, and no one can completely stay out of the war. Yasunari Kawabata must have experienced tearing and pain in his heart, but the rendering of the war did not flow to the tip of his pen. His writing remains as beautiful as ever, quiet and with a hint of melancholy.
Kamakura, the ancient capital of the samurai family, has always been loved by literati. Literati who had lived in Kamakura for a long time and a short time had to list their names more than one page. In Japanese, a word "Kamakura scribe" was born as their general name. Winner of the 4th Prize at the Japan Bookstore Awards in 2017, there is a story in "Camellia Stationery Shop" created by the "Healing Department" writer Ogawa Clan, which is set in a stationery shop in Kamakura, where the female owner writes letters for people as a professional ghostwriter. A lady chose to settle in Kamakura because of her deep love for Kawabata Yasunari literature, and never married, because in her eyes no one could match Yasunari Kawabata. It is a pity that he was not born in the same era as Yasunari Kawabata. So she asked the shopkeeper to ghostwrite and send her postcard in the tone of Yasunari Kawabata to fulfill her wish.
Tunnel in front of the Kamakura Literature Museum, photographed by the author in Kamakura
In that story, the female shopkeeper went to the Kamakura Literature Museum to see Yasunari Kawabata's handwriting in order to complete the entrustment. The Kamakura Literature Museum is the most beautiful literary museum I have ever seen. It is a place where you can get a glimpse into the life of the Kamakura scribes. Kamakura is secluded, and the Literature Museum is even more secluded. Through a short tunnel and up a ramp, it is the country of literature. At first glance, when you see the faint tunnel, you can't help but think that you can cross to the snow country. However, after entering, it is lush and roses are in full bloom. Completed in 1936 during the Showa era, the building was originally the villa of the Marquis's family, and it is itself the prototype for the villa in Yukio Mishima's novel Spring Snow. In the Western-style building with stained glass, the original manuscripts and personal belongings of the Kamakura scribes are now displayed. In 2020, the museum held a special exhibition "Yasunari Kawabata Beautiful Japan", but unfortunately, in the event of the epidemic, there must not be many people who really went to see Yasunari Kawabata.
Final Kawabata Pass
Yasunari Kawabata, who was in old age, rented a house in Shimomomo in Kyoto, where the latest birth of the Nobel Prize work, "Ancient Capital", was completed. This late guest house and painstaking work shows Yasunari Kawabata's love for Kyoto.
After four years of schooling in Kyoto, I was not a tourist in Kyoto, and I was accustomed to the scenery. Moreover, Kyoto, as a representative of Japanese beauty, seems to have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and there is no need to repeat it. The most unforgettable scenery, but whenever I think of it, is the Kamogawa River. Every day after school, I will walk down the river embankment and follow the Kamogawa River to the school. There are ducks in the Kamogawa River; there are homeless people living in the bridge holes; there are people singing by the river, and some people run indulgently and ride in the dust. From the Kamogawa River, the road through the school leads to The Lower Duck where Yasunari Kawabata lives, and the section of the road is called "Kawabata-dori". The cherry blossoms bloom beautifully during the cherry blossom season.
Ibaraki also has a section of Kawabata-dori with cherry blossoms, and Kawabata-dori is found in many parts of Japan. Yasunari Kawabata is no longer there, and it is the general public who walks around these roads. I don't know if anyone will walk this road in memory of him, I guess there won't be many, but people will smile when they see flowers and clear skies. There are also people who are touched by the faint ordinary beauty, and Yasunari Kawabata will also be at ease.
Cherry blossoms in Kawabata-dori, taken by the author in Kyoto