The novel is chilling and wonderful,
soft tranquilizing. Not surprisingly it is regarded as the finest work of
Kawabata’s.
The plot may appear to be quite
trivial…but it’s not. The author turns to mythological and mythical phenomena
of the particles of human existence; the youth, the ageing process, simply life
and death.
The book describes the feelings, the
desire, the lust that will never be consumed. It leads to reflection, the old
man reflects on his life, the way it was, the way it could have been. He
recalls the beauty he experienced, as he does now, looking at the sleeping
young woman he sees more than a beauty …
he sees life, joy, future. Something he will not experience any more, he feels
his time has come, before it happens he wants to feel he lives again. The
overwhelming feeling of melancholy and sadness doesn’t allow him to feel “true
vibrant life”. He feels being closed in a shell.
It is not all about life, but about
to feel sensation, to start fantasying, Kawabata presents a subtle interplay –
a foreplay that starts and finishes, doesn’t go further. The lines are profusely metaphorical, describe
complex and sophisticated individuals. Every person seeks for justification, understanding,
everyone wants to purify its human being, feel being humane. The reflections
strike like a lightening, suddenly not good but bad things are recalled, as if
it was about to be fixed, nonetheless,
it is simply impossible. The author’s messages packed in the lines of words are
sinister. The setting, the inn is grotesque, the gothic interior frightens, one
may feel there is a secret, a mystery buried inside, something that will never
be released. Undoubtedly, the reader would wonder whether to stay there or not,
namely…
“(…)It was as if they (the weaves) were
beating against a high cliff, and as if this little house were at its very edge
(…)”
The transient symbolism tells the
story; the youth is gone, our protagonist knows it, he dreams of his life, of
how young he was, and of how many things he wished he had done. The dream, the
sleep symbolizes the other life, the transient life. Eguchi feels transition –
he feels his approaching death. The season also points out an unavoidable ease
of old life – winter always symbolized harsh, bitter end of life, a pensive
mood of death.
The girls are not only muses, Eguchi
admires them, he sees corpses, he contemplates if the girl would see what he
does … a grey figure, a discolored silhouette, shadowed by the moon light and
night.
Eguchi visits the inn, he sleeps
with young beautiful girls (he doesn’t make love to them) – while the girls are
drugged and tackle with tranquility, Eguchi
admires them, see long-lasting life ahead, recalls women he met long
time in the past. Every visit indicates a different but focal point in his
passing life, different reflection. He witnesses the murder and the suicidal
attempts, evil all around, meticulously hidden, kept out of sight.
While reading page after page the
reader finds opposites, the contraries all the time, the old man and the young,
vital women, their lively bodies during the day, and dead-alike postured when
they are drugged all night long, which is disgusting and obnoxious.
“(…) she sleeps a sleep as of the
dead (…)”
which means life. The needs to see beauty, no matter how grotesque it seems to be … for the last time.
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