SOURCE: "Biblical Influence upon Yasunari Kawabata," in Neohelicon, Vol. X, No. 1, 1983, pp. 95-103.

[In the essay below, Takeda identifies Western literary influences on numerous Kawabata short stories.]

Yasunari Kawabata, who died in 1972, was a towering figure in the Japanese literary world. But the number of his readers in the West was always rather limited and his literary fame there alternated between eminence and eclipse until after he received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1968.

His literary works are often considered to be genuinely traditional, but if we read them carefully, we come to the realization that they contain modern elements. It is a fact that Yasunari Kawabata used the traditional Japanese technique of association in his novels. But it would be a mistake to view his literature as nothing more than a continuation of the Japanese tradition. Throughout his life Kawabata had a deep interest in Western literature, particularly 19th and 20th century literature.

Kawabata often used the Bible in his works. He considered the Old and New Testaments as the most important literary classics in Western literature. Direct quotations from the Bible are found in his literary works—novels, short stories, and essays. The quotations are from seven books of the Old Testament and nine books of the New Testament. We can surmise that his knowledge of the Bible was very broad. His interpretations of the scriptural passages are profound. I am intrigued by the following coincidence. When Kawabata wrote in 1936, the short story "Father and Mother", in Japanese "Chichi Haha", he quoted a passage from Song of Solomon, chapter 2, verse 7.

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the hinds of the field,
that you stir not up nor awaken love
until it please.

The shepherd maiden sings this verse in order to plead with the women of the King's court not to cajole her, but to allow her free choice to express her love for anyone her heart chooses. Quoting this verse Kawabata alludes to the protagonist's decision not to stir up nor awaken love in a young girl whom he encounters at a summer resort.

There is an interesting parallel to this quotation from The Song of Solomon in J. D. Salinger's "A Young Girl of 1941 With No Waist At All". In this short story, Barbara, who is enjoying a voyage with her fiance's mother, is proposed to by another man. Barbara is so upset that Mrs. Woodruff, one of the other passengers, takes notice. In remarking to her husband that she wishes Barbara would not be tempted by the proposal, she quotes this same refrain from The Song of Solomon.

It is, of course, merely a coincidence that Kawabata and Salinger quote the same scriptural passage in the same type of situation. But it does show how well Kawabata understood The Song of Solomon. Kawabata's use of other quotations from the Bible plays an important role, for example, in explaining a character's psychology, a protagonist's destiny or a human weakness.

One more example will reveal how precisely Kawabata interpreted Biblical passages. That example is the short story "The Tree of life", in Japanese "Inoehi no Ki", in which he quotes Walt Whitman's poem, "To A Common Prostitute". Even the title of Kawabata's story will remind Western readers of the Bible. "The Tree of life" is repeatedly found in the Old and New Testaments. He undoubtedly chose this title from The Revelation to John, because in the final scene he quotes from 22: 1 and 2 as follows:

Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

When Kawabata wrote "The Tree of life", the Japanese were in the midst of despair and chaos because of enduring hunger and fearful anxiety of the effects of the atomic bombs. They were groping blindly for a way to reconstruct their nation. Works written just after World War II are very dark, lacking in a hope for life. Kawabata symbolizes his hope for Japan's rebirth in his use of this quote. But if we read the whole story we come to understand this passage also symbolizes how a young man and a young woman, both caught up in the turmoil of war, are bound together by love.

This story is tinged both by the darkness of wartime and the emerging light, however dim, of postwar Japan. The contrast is well described and emphasized with quotations from the Bible. In the story, the despair of approaching death drives almost all young officers to the brothels. Military authorities allow this one last pursuit of pleasure. One night three young officers go to a brothel and one of them asks his girl friend to come with him without mentioning where they are going. At the brothel another officer recites to the prostitutes the first line of the first stanza of Walt Whitman's "To A Common Prostitute".

Be composed—be at ease with me—I am Walt
Whitman, liberated and lusty as nature

Kawabata uses this quote skillfully to contrast with the biblical quotations. In a footnote on "To A Common Prostitute" in their 1973 edition of leaves of Grass, Bradley and Blodgett write, "The poet may have thought of this poem as a variation upon the Biblical account of the woman taken in adultery," that is, John 8: [4-7],

They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down; and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them. He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

These passages are known as "An incident in the temple." As I will explain below, Kawabata quotes John 8: 7.

"let him who is without sin among you be the
first to throw a stone at her."

The young girl, who accompanied young officers to the brothel, quotes this passage to him when she is asked what she thinks about the prostitutes. This quotation reveals that she feels that she is as sinful as the prostitutes. Although strictly speaking, she is still a virgin, she feels guilt because she has already decided in her heart to have a physical relationship with the young officer.

Kawabata links Whitman's poem with the Biblical quotation very skillfully. On the surface a short quotation from Whitman's poem and one verse from the Book of John do not seem to be closely related, but a careful reading of the story brings out this interrelationship. Throughout Kawabata's novels we find how adroitly he uses this technique of association.

One of Kawabata's surrealistic short stories has the same title "One Arm", in Japanese "Kataude", as that of Tennessee Williams. This is beautifully translated by Professor Edward G. Seidensticker in the recently published collection The House of Sleeping Beauties. There are some quotations from the Bible in "One Arm", one of which comes from Ecclesiastes. Kawabata describes the anguish a young girl feels when she loses her virginity.

Her anguish was not common to all women in the act of surrender. And it was with her only the one time. The silver thread was cut, the golden bowl destroyed.

This is Prof. Seidenstickers's translation. The last sentence is reminiscent of Ecclesiastes 12: 6. The original Japanese is quite the same as the colloquial translation of the Old Testament.

.. . the silver cord be snapped, or the golden
vial be cracked . . .

Ecclesiastes has its melancholy refrain, "vanity of vanities, all is vanity". Such thought is prevalent in Japanese literature, so Kawabata likes to read this book. The author of this book exalts the beauty of life while he expresses dejection at the sham, hypocrisy, injustice and vanity prevailing everywhere. This contradictory mood of faith and futility is often found in Kawabata's works.

In "One Arm" Kawabata uses scriptural verse very literally to symbolize the loss of virginity, but if we read between the lines, we come to this conclusion: Kawabata wants to lay stress on what he believes man's basic attitude towards woman to be. A man's first feelings of love for a woman are for her purity. He wishes her to remain a virgin forever, yet at the same time he wishes for union. This is the contradiction in man's ego. Impressed with the contradictory mood of Ecclesiastes, Kawabata has used the images 'silver cord' and 'golden vial' to refer to virginity. The weaving of this quote into the narrative is so natural that critics have never noticed it.

Now I would like to discuss why Kawabata was interested in religion and how he acquired his deep knowledge of the Bible. This is closely connected with his biography.

Kawabata was born in 1899 in Osaka, the first son of a medical doctor, but lost his parents very young. He had a single sister four years older, who died when he was ten. Since they had to live separately after his mother's death, he saw her infrequently. Brought up as an orphan, he could not help being obsessed with the thought of death. It is natural that such a child would be interested in religion earlier than other children. While still in high school, he began reading religious books, both the teachings of Buddha and the Christian Old and New Testaments. This interest is reflected in his biographical novel, A Boy, in Japanese Shorten, written in 1948. In his college days his interest in religion compelled him to read even more obscure tracts such as The Egyptian Book of the Dead. Kawabata sometimes went to Protestant churches and read further in the Bible. In his unfinished novel, Life's Brevity, in Japanese Tamayura, written in 1965, the protagonist explains how he came to read the Bible. It can safely be said that this is a reflection of Kawabata's own experiences. A brief quotation from this novel will illustrate this point.

Naoki had frequented a nearby Christian Youth Association while a student at Tokyo University. Of course he had often read the Bible. And he had come across numerous quotations from the Bible while studying English and German. He had also read the Old Testament because of his interest in comparative mythology and folklore. Such a holy scripture as the Bible is always a fresh source wherever and by whomever it is read. Now that Japan has surrendered and he was middle-aged, he thought that his feelings toward the Bible greatly differed from the feelings he had had as a student.

This passage suggests to us that Kawabata pursued his interest in the Bible and that he was deeply impressed by his reading.

When we investigate his earlier works we are impressed with numerous quotations from both Buddhist scriptures and the Bible. He wrote many tiny vignettes. One is entitled "The Weaker Sex", in Japanese "Yowaki Utsuwa", in 1924 and another "The Book of the Dead", in Japanese "Shisha no Sho", in 1928. There can be no doubt that the former is based on 1 Peter 3:7—"likewise you husbands, live considerately with your wives, bestowing honour on the woman as the weaker sex . . ."—and the latter is based on The Egyptian Book of the Dead, because he quotes Chapter 83 and Plate 27.

Finally, I would like to give several examples to show the scope of Kawabata's interest in Western literature. During college, he translated into Japanese John Galsworthy's "The Road", lord Dunsany's "The Oases of Death" and Anton Chekhov's "After the Theater". His undergraduate thesis shows us that he owes his theoretical method mainly to C. T. Winchester's Some Principles of literary Criticism. He also quotes Marie-Jean Guyau's L'art au point de vue sociologique and Charles-Augustin de Sainte-Beuve's Causeries lundi Reflections of his interest in Western literature are not confined to his earlier works. He even read James Joyce's Ulysses in the original in his 30's.

From his encounters with such writers as Joyce and Faulkner, Kawabata became interested in the technique of "stream of consciousness", which he introduced to Japanese readers in his works. He also employed the traditional Japanese literary technique of association which is the essential element of linked verse (in Japanese "renga"). Although they might seem different, these two techniques, one Western and the other Japanese, have common elements, and come together in Kawabata's literary works.

The most important of those elements is the idea of progression and association in feelings, ideas, and language. Perhaps the best examples of Kawabata's use of progression and association can be found in several of his wellknown novels. For example, The Sound of the Mountain, in Japanese "Yama no Oto," and The Ancient Capital: Kyoto, in Japanese "Koto", both of which have been translated into several Western languages.

In conclusion, it is necessary to state that the study of Kawabata's literary works is still in its infancy, even in Japan. More research into Kawabata's literary sources, techniques, and characters is needed if we are to adequately understand his literature. What we must avoid is the simple judgement that Kawabata's literature is "traditional" (dentoteki) or Japanese (nihonteki). As I have tried to show in this paper, Western literature, particularly the Bible, is an integral key to opening the doors to Kawabata's works.