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One Arm (かたうで, Kataude) is a short story by Japanese writer and Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata. It appeared in serialised form in the literary magazine Shinchō in 1963 and 1964. It has been considered as a main example of the current of magic realism in Japanese Literature.

Plot

A young woman removes her right arm and gives it to a man (the protagonist) to keep for the night. The story follows his thoughts and actions as he takes it home. He talks to and caresses it, and then decides to replace his own arm with it. The "relationship" the man has with the severed arm serves as a portal into the landscape of memory and emotions.

Translations

The story was first translated into English as One Arm by Edward Seidensticker and published in Japan Quarterly in 1967.

References

1. Mebed, Sharif (2013). "The Abject Female Body: Corpses and Body Parts in "One Arm" and Other Texts by Kawabata Yasunari". Japanese Language and Literature. 47 (1): 1–21. ISSN 1536-7827. JSTOR 24394359.
2. Napier, Susan J. (2020-12-31). "The Magic of Identity: Magic Realism in Modern Japanese Fiction". Magical Realism. Duke University Press. p. 463. doi:10.1515/9780822397212-024. ISBN 978-0-8223-9721-2.
3. Petersen, Gwenn Boardman (1979). The Moon in the Water: Understanding Tanizaki, Kawabata, and Mishima. University of Hawaii Press. p. 191.

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