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| {{short description|1954 novel by Yasunari Kawabata}} | |||
| '''The Sound of the Mountain''' (Yama no Oto) is a ] by Japanese writer ], serialized between 1949 and 1954. Its translation into English by ] was first published in 1970. | |||
| {{about|the novel|the eponymous film|Sound of the Mountain}} | |||
| {{Infobox book | |||
| | name = The Sound of the Mountain | |||
| | title_orig = 山の音<br />Yama no oto | |||
| | orig_lang_code = ja | |||
| | translator = ] | |||
| | author = ] | |||
| | image = TheSoundOfTheMountain.jpg | |||
| | caption = First English-language edition | |||
| | country = Japan | |||
| | language = ] | |||
| | genre = | |||
| | publisher = | |||
| | pub_date = 1949–1954 | |||
| | english_pub_date = 1970 (])<ref name="knopf" /> | |||
| | media_type = Print (])<ref name="knopf" /> | |||
| }} | |||
| {{Nihongo|'''''The Sound of the Mountain'''''|山の音|Yama no oto|lead=yes}} is a novel by Japanese writer ], serialized between 1949 and 1954, and first published as a standalone book in 1954 by ], ].<ref name="knopf">{{cite book|title=The Sound of the Mountain (Impressum) |last=Kawabata |first=Yasunari |translator-last=Seidensticker |translator-first=Edward G. |publisher=Vintage International |year=1996 |location=New York |isbn=0-679-76264-7}}</ref><ref name="kotobank">{{cite web|url=https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%B1%B1%E3%81%AE%E9%9F%B3-690549 |title=山の音 (The Sound of the Mountain) |website=Kotobank |language=ja |access-date=22 July 2021}}</ref> | |||
| The novel centers upon the Ogata family of ], and its events are witnessed from the perspective of its aging patriarch, Shingo, a businessman close to retirement who works in ]. Although only sixty-two years old at the beginning of the novel, Shingo has already begun to experience temporary lapses of memory and occasionally to hear sounds heard by no one else, including the titular noise which awakens him from his sleep one night, "like wind, far away, but with a depth like a rumbling of the earth." Shingo takes the sound to be an omen of his impending death, as he had once coughed up blood (a possible sign of ]) a year before, but had not sought medical consultation and the symptom went away. | |||
| ==Plot== | |||
| Although he does not outwardly change his daily routine, Shingo begins to more closely observe and question his relations with the other members of his family, who include his wife Yasuko, his philandering son Shuichi (who, in traditional Japanese custom, lives with his wife in his parents' house), his daughter-in-law Kikuko, and his married daughter Fusako, who has left her husband and returned to her family home with her two young daughters. Shingo realizes that he has not truly been an involved and loving husband and father, and perceives the marital difficulties of his adult children to be the fruit of his poor parenting. | |||
| Shingo Ogata, a 62-year-old businessman living in ] and working in ], is close to retirement. He is experiencing temporary lapses of memory, recalling strange and disturbing dreams upon waking, and hearing sounds, including the titular noise which awakens him from his sleep, "like wind, far away, but with a depth like a rumbling of the earth." Shingo takes the sound to be an omen of his impending death. At the same time, he is repeatedly confronted with the passing away of friends and former fellow students. | |||
| Shingo observes and questions his relations with the other family members. He married his wife Yasuko after the untimely death of her older sister, whose beauty Shingo adored, considering both Yasuko and their daughter Fusako to be rather unattractive. Shingo has both fatherly and subtle erotic feelings for his daughter-in-law Kikuko, who calmly endures his son Shūichi's affair with another woman. When Fusako leaves her husband and returns to the family home with her two little children, Shingo starts to perceive the marital difficulties of his son and daughter as the result of not fulfilling his role as a father. In addition, Fusako blames him for marrying her to a man she did not want, and for preferring Kikuko over her. | |||
| To this end, he begins to question his secretary, Tanizaki Eiko, about his son's affair, as she knows Shuichi socially and is friends with his mistress, and he quietly puts pressure upon Shuichi to quit his infidelity. At the same time, he uncomfortably becomes aware that he has begun to experience a fatherly yet erotic attachment to Kikuko, whose quiet suffering in the face of her husband's unfaithfulness, physical attractiveness, and filial devotion contrast strongly with the bitter resentment and homeliness of his own daughter, Fusako. Complicating matters in his own marriage is the infatuation that as a young man he once possessed for Yasuko's older sister, more beautiful than Yasuko herself, who died as a young woman but who has again begun to appear in his dreams. | |||
| Shingo's secretary Eiko helps him to find Shūichi's mistress Kinuko, a war widow, and learns of his son's mean and abusive behaviour towards her. Not only is Shūichi reluctant to his father's request to end the affair and treat his wife Kikuko with more respect, he even borrows money from his mistress to pay for Kikuko's abortion. Shingo is devastated, speculating if Shūichi's and Kikuko's unborn child might have been the reincarnation of Yasuko's older sister. Shūichi eventually leaves Kinuko when she expects a child, which she claims to be from another man and wants to keep. In the newspaper, Shingo and his family read about the suicide attempt of Fusako's husband, whom Fusako is about to divorce. | |||
| The novel may be seen as a meditation upon ] and its attendant decline, and the coming to terms with one's mortality that is its hallmark. Even as Shingo regrets not being present for his family and blames himself for his children's failing marriages, the natural world, represented by the mountain itself, the cherry tree in the yard of his house, the flights of birds and insects in the early summer evening, or two pine trees he sees from the window of his commuter train each day, comes alive for him in a whole new way, provoking meditations on life, love, and companionship. | |||
| ==Characters== | |||
| ''The Sound of the Mountain'' is unusually long for a Kawabata novel, running to 276 pages in its English translation. As is characteristic of much of his work, it is written in short, spare prose akin to poetry, which Seidensticker himself likened to a ] in the introduction to his translation of Kawabata's most well-known novel, ]. | |||
| * Shingo Ogata | |||
| * Yasuko, Shingo's wife | |||
| * Shūichi, Shingo's son | |||
| * Kikuko, Shūichi's wife | |||
| * Fusako, Shingo's daughter | |||
| * Eiko Tanazaki, Shingo's secretary | |||
| * Kinuko, Shūichi's mistress (shortened to Kinu in the English translation with the author's permission, to avoid confusion with Kikuko) | |||
| * Mrs Ikeda, Kinuko's flatmate | |||
| * Satoko, Fusako's elder daughter | |||
| * Kuniko, Fusako's younger daughter | |||
| * Mr Tatsumu, Mr Aida, Mr Toriyama, Mr Suzumoto, Mr Mizuta, Mr Itakura, Mr Kitamoto, old friends of Shingo, mostly deceased | |||
| * Aihara, Fusako's husband | |||
| * Grandfather Amamiya, a neighbour | |||
| * Natsuko Iwamura, Shingo's second secretary | |||
| * Teru, a dog | |||
| ==Themes== | |||
| The protagonist Shingo constantly reflects on his ageing, which manifests itself in his loss of memory, eyesight and even his male potency, wondering why he was not aroused during an erotic dream. He is also repeatedly confronted with mortality through the passing of friends and former fellow students, or the death of a young woman who committed ] with Fusako's husband. Human life and death correspond with the entire cycle of seasons (the proceedings start in autumn and end in autumn of the following year).<ref name="aldridge">{{cite book|title=The Reemergence Of World Literature: A Study of Asia and the West |last=Aldridge |first=Alfred Owen |publisher=University of Delaware Press |year=1986 |location=Newark |pages=181–186 |isbn=9780874132779}}</ref> | |||
| Another theme Kawabata observes is the effect of the war on his protagonists.<ref>{{cite book|first=Mara |last=Miller |editor-first=A. Minh |editor-last=Nguyen |chapter=On Kawabata, Kishida, and Barefoot Gen. Agency, Identity, and Aesthetic Experience in Post-Atomic Japanese Narrative |title=New Essays in Japanese Aesthetics |isbn=978-0-73918081-5 |publisher=Lexington Books |location=Lanham, Maryland |year=2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Soundings in Time. The Fictive Art of Yasunari Kawabata |first=Roy |last=Starrs |year=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-873410-74-5}}</ref> Shūichi's mistress Kinuko repeatedly refers to the war, which took her husband and prevented her of becoming a mother, and her flatmate Ikeda explains Shūichi's mean behaviour and attitude towards women with his wartime experiences. | |||
| ==Style== | |||
| ''The Sound of the Mountain'' completely takes the point of view of its protagonist, emphasising on his interior reactions rather than on exterior events, and disregards any thoughts of the subordinate characters.<ref name="aldridge" /> Like much of his work, it is written in short, spare prose akin to poetry, which its English-language translator ] likened to a ] in the introduction to his translation of Kawabata's novel '']''.<ref>{{cite book|first=Yasunari |last=Kawabata |year=1956 |title=Snow Country |location=New York |publisher=Knopf |translator-first=Edward G. |translator-last=Seidensticker}}</ref> | |||
| ==Reception and legacy== | |||
| Kawabata received the 1954 ] for ''The Sound of the Mountain''. | |||
| For the first U.S. edition (1970), Seidensticker won the ] in the ].<ref name="nba1971">{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1971/?cat=fiction&sub-cat=translation |title=National Book Awards 1971 winners |website=] |access-date=20 June 2021}}</ref> | |||
| ''The Sound of the Mountain'' is included in the Norwegian ]'s list of the 100 greatest works of world literature, which was established in 2002. | |||
| ==Adaptations== | |||
| Kawabata's novel was adapted into a film as '']'' in 1954, directed by ] and starring ], ] and ]. It was also adapted for Japanese television in 1963 and 1984.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tvdrama-db.com/simple_result.htm?key=%E5%B1%B1%E3%81%AE%E9%9F%B3 |title=山の音 (Sound of the Mountain) |website=テレビドラマデータベース (TV Drama Database) |language=ja |access-date=22 June 2021}}</ref> | |||
| ==References== | |||
| {{Reflist}} | |||
| {{Yasunari Kawabata}} | |||
| {{Authority control}} | |||
| {{DEFAULTSORT:Sound of the Mountain, The}} | |||
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Latest revision as of 14:18, 5 June 2024
1954 novel by Yasunari Kawabata This article is about the novel. For the eponymous film, see Sound of the Mountain. First English-language edition | |
| Author | Yasunari Kawabata |
|---|---|
| Original title | 山の音 Yama no oto |
| Translator | Edward Seidensticker |
| Language | Japanese |
| Publication date | 1949–1954 |
| Publication place | Japan |
| Published in English | 1970 (Knopf) |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
The Sound of the Mountain (Japanese: 山の音, Hepburn: Yama no oto) is a novel by Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata, serialized between 1949 and 1954, and first published as a standalone book in 1954 by Chikuma Shobō, Tokyo.
Plot
Shingo Ogata, a 62-year-old businessman living in Kamakura and working in Tokyo, is close to retirement. He is experiencing temporary lapses of memory, recalling strange and disturbing dreams upon waking, and hearing sounds, including the titular noise which awakens him from his sleep, "like wind, far away, but with a depth like a rumbling of the earth." Shingo takes the sound to be an omen of his impending death. At the same time, he is repeatedly confronted with the passing away of friends and former fellow students.
Shingo observes and questions his relations with the other family members. He married his wife Yasuko after the untimely death of her older sister, whose beauty Shingo adored, considering both Yasuko and their daughter Fusako to be rather unattractive. Shingo has both fatherly and subtle erotic feelings for his daughter-in-law Kikuko, who calmly endures his son Shūichi's affair with another woman. When Fusako leaves her husband and returns to the family home with her two little children, Shingo starts to perceive the marital difficulties of his son and daughter as the result of not fulfilling his role as a father. In addition, Fusako blames him for marrying her to a man she did not want, and for preferring Kikuko over her.
Shingo's secretary Eiko helps him to find Shūichi's mistress Kinuko, a war widow, and learns of his son's mean and abusive behaviour towards her. Not only is Shūichi reluctant to his father's request to end the affair and treat his wife Kikuko with more respect, he even borrows money from his mistress to pay for Kikuko's abortion. Shingo is devastated, speculating if Shūichi's and Kikuko's unborn child might have been the reincarnation of Yasuko's older sister. Shūichi eventually leaves Kinuko when she expects a child, which she claims to be from another man and wants to keep. In the newspaper, Shingo and his family read about the suicide attempt of Fusako's husband, whom Fusako is about to divorce.
Characters
- Shingo Ogata
- Yasuko, Shingo's wife
- Shūichi, Shingo's son
- Kikuko, Shūichi's wife
- Fusako, Shingo's daughter
- Eiko Tanazaki, Shingo's secretary
- Kinuko, Shūichi's mistress (shortened to Kinu in the English translation with the author's permission, to avoid confusion with Kikuko)
- Mrs Ikeda, Kinuko's flatmate
- Satoko, Fusako's elder daughter
- Kuniko, Fusako's younger daughter
- Mr Tatsumu, Mr Aida, Mr Toriyama, Mr Suzumoto, Mr Mizuta, Mr Itakura, Mr Kitamoto, old friends of Shingo, mostly deceased
- Aihara, Fusako's husband
- Grandfather Amamiya, a neighbour
- Natsuko Iwamura, Shingo's second secretary
- Teru, a dog
Themes
The protagonist Shingo constantly reflects on his ageing, which manifests itself in his loss of memory, eyesight and even his male potency, wondering why he was not aroused during an erotic dream. He is also repeatedly confronted with mortality through the passing of friends and former fellow students, or the death of a young woman who committed shinjū with Fusako's husband. Human life and death correspond with the entire cycle of seasons (the proceedings start in autumn and end in autumn of the following year).
Another theme Kawabata observes is the effect of the war on his protagonists. Shūichi's mistress Kinuko repeatedly refers to the war, which took her husband and prevented her of becoming a mother, and her flatmate Ikeda explains Shūichi's mean behaviour and attitude towards women with his wartime experiences.
Style
The Sound of the Mountain completely takes the point of view of its protagonist, emphasising on his interior reactions rather than on exterior events, and disregards any thoughts of the subordinate characters. Like much of his work, it is written in short, spare prose akin to poetry, which its English-language translator Edward Seidensticker likened to a haiku in the introduction to his translation of Kawabata's novel Snow Country.
Reception and legacy
Kawabata received the 1954 Noma Literary Prize for The Sound of the Mountain.
For the first U.S. edition (1970), Seidensticker won the National Book Award in the category Translation.
The Sound of the Mountain is included in the Norwegian Bokklubben World Library's list of the 100 greatest works of world literature, which was established in 2002.
Adaptations
Kawabata's novel was adapted into a film as Sound of the Mountain in 1954, directed by Mikio Naruse and starring Setsuko Hara, Sō Yamamura and Ken Uehara. It was also adapted for Japanese television in 1963 and 1984.
References
- ^ Kawabata, Yasunari (1996). The Sound of the Mountain (Impressum). Translated by Seidensticker, Edward G. New York: Vintage International. ISBN 0-679-76264-7.
- "山の音 (The Sound of the Mountain)". Kotobank (in Japanese). Retrieved 22 July 2021.
- ^ Aldridge, Alfred Owen (1986). The Reemergence Of World Literature: A Study of Asia and the West. Newark: University of Delaware Press. pp. 181–186. ISBN 9780874132779.
- Miller, Mara (2017). "On Kawabata, Kishida, and Barefoot Gen. Agency, Identity, and Aesthetic Experience in Post-Atomic Japanese Narrative". In Nguyen, A. Minh (ed.). New Essays in Japanese Aesthetics. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-73918081-5.
- Starrs, Roy (2019). Soundings in Time. The Fictive Art of Yasunari Kawabata. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-873410-74-5.
- Kawabata, Yasunari (1956). Snow Country. Translated by Seidensticker, Edward G. New York: Knopf.
- "National Book Awards 1971 winners". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
- "山の音 (Sound of the Mountain)". テレビドラマデータベース (TV Drama Database) (in Japanese). Retrieved 22 June 2021.
| Works by Yasunari Kawabata | |
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| Novels |
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| Short stories |
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| Adaptations |
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