The famous Japanese literary scholar Yasunari Kawabata once used this sentence to evaluate a writer's literary works: "Peony, the king of gorgeous and splendid flowers."
This writer is Junichiro Tanizaki, the Japanese Junichiro Tanizaki who has always been known as a "ghost talent".
I have seen all kinds of comments or praises from famous celebrities on literary works, but I have never seen a person's work described with such a gorgeous flower as "peony", and it was not until I read "Fine Snow" that I began to understand the meaning of Yasunari Kawabata's words, even in the "Fine Snow" period, Tanizaki Junichiro's style has changed.
Junichiro Tanizaki's pursuit of "beauty" is almost obsessive, whether it is the aesthetic of the demonic "ugly beauty" that was detached from reality in his early days, or the classical Japanese aesthetics that are later stunning and meticulous, under the depiction of Tanizaki Junichiro, a kind of shocking beauty will burst out.
Just like the "peony" in Kawabata Yasunari's mouth.
Tanizaki's works have a strong sense of color, gorgeous and warm, and were early thought by Baudelaire, Wilde and others in the Western aestheticist camp, and were once a typical Japanese "Western" writer.
However, after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, Junichiro Tanizaki moved his family to Kyoto, bid farewell to the bustle of Tokyo, and then began his peaceful and peaceful life in Kyoto, which also became a turning point in Tanizaki Junichiro's creative style, and the beautiful scenery and simple folk style of Kansai became the background of his writing for the rest of his life, and also transformed his works from demonicism to classical aestheticism.
The novel "Fine Snow" was born in such a situation, contrary to the previous demonic style, completely began a new attempt and subversion, which was Tanizaki Junichiro's return to the classics, and also ushered in a peak of literary creation.
In Tanizaki Junichiro's works, many classic female figures have been created, whether it is an independent and free modern woman, or a classical female figure who follows the old ways and etiquette, they have extremely distinct character characteristics, and they are also a kind of understanding and interpretation of "aesthetic beauty" by Tanizaki Junichiro at a large level.
"Fine Snow" is such a female perspective and theme of the depiction of the Japanese middle-class men and women of the custom novel, the novel to the daily life of the four sisters of the Ogoka family as the main line, fragmented and extremely realistic, but does not appear to be nagging, love and things, things and scenes, scenery and affection blend with each other, the image of several women is portrayed more delicately.
In the novel, the Okuoka family is a declining aristocratic family, with four sisters, Tsuruko, Sachiko, Yukiko, and Myoko, who, although they have very different personalities, all have dazzling beauty, but they are not the same, each has its own advantages.
Junichiro Tanizaki describes in the novel:
The three sisters look very similar, each has its own strengths, complements each other, and at the same time has obvious commonalities, so that people can see at a glance that they are three sister flowers of the same mother. First of all, Sachiko is the tallest, followed by Yukiko and Myoko, who are slightly shorter in turn, and the three sisters walk side by side on the road, becoming a scenery of their own. When it comes to clothes, ornaments and temperament, the most Japanese is Yukiko, the most Western-style is Myoko, and Sachiko is somewhere in between. If you compare your appearance, Myoko's face is the roundest, her facial features are well-defined, and her figure is matched, strong and symmetrical; Yukiko is just the opposite, with a long face shape and a slender posture, such as a weak willow wind; Sachiko seems to take the length of two younger sisters. The same is true in terms of clothing, with Myoko wearing dresses, Yukiko loving kimonos, Sachiko wearing dresses in summer, and kimonos in other seasons.
For the beauty of the three sisters, the author also said through the mouth of Sachiko's husband, Sanosuke in the story: The three sisters of Miya, on the Kindai Bridge, are in contention with the flowers.
The eldest sister Tsuruko, who married early, is already the mother of several children, she is responsible for the growth and destiny of the family, although she worries about labor, she is still noble in temperament and plump, and is a typical bridesmaid who grew up in an aristocratic family. Tsuruko is the head of the Ogoka family, she maintains the declining family, while using her own strength to protect her sister, but most of them are in the traditional moral and ethical view, conforming to the old, in many cases, although Tsuruko considers the Ogoka family, in fact, she does not have her own opinion, obeys her husband's orders, after the little sister made "bad customs" things, in a letter to the second sister Sachiko proposed to break off relations with the younger sister or let her move out.
Although the novel's description of the crane is very little ink, but it is a very important character, the eldest sister Crane is the representative of the tradition, although born in everyone's boudoir, but from the girlhood to take care of the sister, after the family to take care of six children, for the whole family to work hard, for the husband and leave the homeland, she actually lived the most bitter.
In the book, Junichiro Tanizaki uses this sentence to say about Tsuruko: "Because she received the most outdated education, she has always retained the temperament of Miss Senkin in the old era. ”
In fact, she did not want to go out of the prosperous life and superior status of the Tsuruko family, although she and her husband had been trying to save the decaying family, but in fact they were nostalgic for the prosperity of the past and were bound by the old moral ethics.
To say that among the four sisters, the most complete and happy life, the most beautiful and the least "extreme", it must belong to the second sister Sachiko.
Sachiko's beauty, although bright but not aggressive, she is not like the third sister Yukiko, is a delicate and quiet traditional classical beauty, nor is it like the little sister Myoko' assertive and independent western modern beauty.
Sachiko's beauty is clear, as is her character and life.
Tsuruko is the head of the whole family, is the main family, and Sachiko can actually be said to be the "parent" in the real sense, born in the heyday of the Umiko family, Sachiko was given the most care and love from childhood, after marriage, she and her husband Sanosuke jointly took care of the family, the two unmarried sisters did not like to live in the main family, so they lived in the second sister Sachiko's home, Sachiko and his wife never had opinions, but took care of them with their hearts, and did their best to busy their marriage.
Sachiko is kind, warm and helpful, and she is devoted to the sake of her sisters, rather than caring more about the family's reputation than the eldest sister Tsuruko. Although Sachiko has passed the age of establishment, she still has the innocence and romance of a young girl, and pays attention to the fun of life, she goes to Kyoto every year to enjoy the cherry blossoms, and she will also travel to the old marriage with her husband, is a good wife and mother, and is also a good sister.
The prototype of Sachiko in "Fine Snow" is actually Matsuko, the wife of Tanizaki, so although Sachiko in the story is beautiful, she is not detached from reality, but is an ordinary beauty, and this beauty is more real and eternal.
The novel is named after "Fine Snow", because the whole novel is based on the blind date story of the beautiful and delicate three sisters Yukiko, who is beautiful and gentle, weak and slender, and is a typical representative of the traditional Japanese beauty that is raised in the deep and unknown to the people.
Yukiko is not only dignified and beautiful, but also versatile, playing the piano, French and other skills can be easily accessible, and is very similar to the mother who is known as the "Kyomei people", with a very traditional "female morality", knowledgeable and diligent, but also too conformist, silent.
Xuezi, who is deeply influenced by traditional education, actually does not have her own opinion in her heart, but it is difficult to get rid of the concept of marriage and strong secular pressure, and she is arranged by her family to go on blind dates again and again, like a puppet, and she sees that she is getting older, but she still stays in the boudoir because of reasons such as door and property.
In addition, Yukiko does not have the means and skills to make a living on her own, but has always been attached to the life of the second sister Sachiko, and after marriage, she also has to rely on her husband's family, and after one after another blind dates, she marries as a step-room, and has never obtained her true love and happiness.
Yukiko is not resigned, but she never shows what she wants in her face, and in the face of blind dates who have been arranged again and again, Yukiko will not show enthusiasm or direct rejection, and no one knows what her silence really means.
Her silence is actually a passive confrontation with these things, the shackles of traditional education and the concept of mendi make her look "rebellious", in fact, Yukiko's "classical beauty" also carries a kind of external softness and inner rigidity, for example, at the end of the novel, after Yukiko finally married a barely good person, she wanted to take the train to follow her husband to settle in Tokyo, but it was very unfortunate that "that day Yukiko was always diarrhea, and did not stop after sitting on the train", Yukiko's resistance has always been so quiet, And her fate is like a cherry blossom about to fall, full of tragedy.
Myoko is the most unique of the four sisters, she is completely "opposite" to the traditional and classical Yukiko, the little sister Myoko likes to be a doll, and later learned to make suits, and relied on her own craftsmanship to achieve economic independence.
Myoko is not only economically independent, her thinking is more independent, she loves freely, and even once eloped for love, and once went to the newspaper to make a lot of noise, but because the name in the newspaper was mistakenly written as Yukiko, it caused a lot of bad influence on her sister, making Yukiko, who had been repeatedly frustrated by her relatives, more unhappy, and also made the two sisters headache.
Probably because when Myoko was born, the family had begun to decline, and she received less love from her parents, which also made Myoko more independent and always worked hard for life, she was not like her three sisters, she was subordinate to her husband and family, but relied on her own ability to break through.
Myoko's ideological concept is also extremely civilized, with a very independent sense of freedom, which is a kind of rebellion in the eyes of her traditional big people, even "debauchery", the same is true for love, she dares to break the concept of the door, she is not bound to identity and social status, but the pursuit of independence and freedom, she can resolutely choose to break up after seeing the true face of the rich man, and start a relationship with the maid who saved her life, after the death of the lover with a huge status difference, Pregnant without marriage and pregnant with the child of a low-status bartender, she has attracted countless accusations and criticisms.
But this is the precious thing about Myoko: dare to love and hate, has a distinct personality, although untamed, but not unreasonable, although highly criticized, but also sympathetic.
Nomura Shogo once analyzed in "The Works of Junichiro Tanizaki< The Characteristics of Fine Snow >": "We can find and understand that Tanizaki longs for and strives to leave that fleeting beauty in real life forever, to reduce it to an eternal and consistent ideal."
The pursuit of beauty has always been a theme in Tanizaki Junichiro's works, the blind female pianist Haruka in "Harukami", and the four sisters in "Fine Snow", although their beauty is different, whether it is the beauty of style, traditional beauty, modern beauty, or the beauty of Japanese typical mourning, in fact, it is Tanizaki Junichiro's exploration of beauty, and try his best to make it eternal.