A Thousand Cranes Case

Returning to Kamakura, a ward near Tokyo, for a tea ceremony with the one time mistress of his father, Kikuji falls into the arms of another of his fathers mistresses. This affair leads him only to fall in love with her daughter. In an impossible relationship, reflected by the contrast and matching of tea bowls, the lives break as easily as the fragile porcelain on the hard stones in his garden.

Yasunari Kawabata's telling of the story in Thousand Cranes is a sorrowful look at the lives of a son who follows his fathers mistakes in love, and in some ways, his fascination with formal tea. The setting for the story is post-war Japan, specifically Tokyo and its surrounding wards. While simple in its description, the images provided in the story vividly remind me of my own time in Tokyo, from Kamakura Temple and Uneo Park, to the simplicity of a tea cottage behind the house that still exist in many of the older homes in the city. Even the description of the kimonos, while minimal in their description paint the imagination. The dark kimono of Yukiko with the Siberian irises or the kerchief with the thousand cranes pattern immediately conjures images of a more formal time in Japan, where the tea ceremony held greater importance than it does with the younger characters in the story.

Kikuji having taken the bed of his fathers second mistress, discovers in her death feelings for her daughter Fumiko. As the story progresses from her mothers funeral, Kawabata clearly establishes, and builds on the feelings of Kikuji for her. These feelings serve to displeasure the first mistress of his father, Kurimoto Chikako. Chikako, the cold, manipulating ex-mistress has her eyes set on another woman for Kikuji, the young Yukiko. His repulsion at Chikako, and his willingness to spite her for meddling in his life only add to the feelings he has for Fumiko.

The tone set by the author, is one of regret and sorrow. Sorrow at the death of a father, sorrow and regret at the neglect of a lover. Sorrow and regret at the son falling into the bed of his fathers former mistress, sorrow and regret over her death. And lastly, sorrow and regret over the inability to give his affection to Fumiko, to receive it, and sorrow and regret over her death. As every detail of the tea ceremony has a meaning, so does every action of the characters in the story. It is these actions that lead to sorrow and regret.

While the shortest of the stories we have read for class, this is the story that most captivated me. A simple story that fascinated me from the first page to the last. A story about love, tradition and suicide that is made all the more fascinating when I learned that the author had committed suicide the same year that I was born. It left me to wonder why he did so, why through his characters he felt the need to chastise those who committed suicide only to condone it for himself. Alas, as we will never learn the true ends of Fumiko and Yukiko's