Tanpopo (novel)

Last updated
Tampopo
Tanpopo (novel).jpg
Author Yasunari Kawabata
Original titleたんぽぽ
Language Japanese
Publication date
1964 (magazine)
1972 (novel)
Publication placeJapan

Tanpopo ("The Dandelion") is a Japanese novel by Yasunari Kawabata, written in 1964, but published complete only posthumously in 1972. Kawabata had commenced serializing his final novel in the literary magazine Shincho, but after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in October 1968 he ceased all publishing activity. [1]

A French translation with the title Les pissenlits was published in 2012. [2] An English translation with an afterword by Michael Emmerich was published in 2017 by New Directions. [3]

The plot turns on the blindness of the girl Inako (稲子), when making love to the boy Hisano (久野) and the conversations leading to the decision of the girl's mother to protect him from the girl, lest she harm him when she is blind. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motojirō Kajii</span> Japanese writer (1901–1932)

Motojirō Kajii was a Japanese writer in the early Shōwa period known for his poetic short stories. Kajii's works included Remon, "Shiro no aru machi nite". Fuyu no hi and Sakura no ki no shita ni wa. His poetic works were praised by fellow writers including Yasunari Kawabata and Yukio Mishima. Today his works are admired for their finely tuned self-observation and descriptive power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yasunari Kawabata</span> Japanese novelist (1899–1972)

Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still widely read.

<i>The Old Capital</i> Novel by Yasunari Kawabata

The Old Capital is a novel by Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata first published in 1962. It was one of three novels cited by the Nobel Committee in their decision to award Kawabata the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature.

<i>The Master of Go</i> Novel by Yasunari Kawabata

The Master of Go is a novel by the Nobel Prize winning Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. First published in serial form in 1951, Kawabata considered it his finest work. Sharply distinct from the rest of his literary output, The Master of Go is the only one of Kawabata's novels that the author considered to be finished.

Snow Country is a novel by the Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. The novel is considered a classic work of Japanese literature and was among the three novels the Nobel Committee cited in 1968, when Kawabata was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Satoko Tsushima, known by her pen name Yūko Tsushima, was a Japanese fiction writer, essayist and critic. Tsushima won many of Japan's top literary prizes in her career, including the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature, the Noma Literary New Face Prize, the Noma Literary Prize, the Yomiuri Prize and the Tanizaki Prize. The New York Times called Tsushima "one of the most important writers of her generation." Her work has been translated into over a dozen languages.

<i>Palm-of-the-Hand Stories</i>

Palm-of-the-Hand Stories is the name Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata gave to 146 short stories he wrote during his long career. The earliest stories were published in the early 1920s, with the last appearing posthumously in 1972. The first Japanese edition to collect these stories appeared in 1971. The title refers to the brevity of the stories – many of which are only two to three pages long – which would "virtually fit into the palm of the hand".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hideo Kobayashi</span> Japanese author

Hideo Kobayashi was a Japanese author, who established literary criticism as an independent art form in Japan.

<i>Beauty and Sadness</i> (novel) Japanese short story

Beauty and Sadness is a 1961–63 novel by Nobel Prize-winning Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. The novel is narrated from the present and past perspective of the characters and how they differed from each other's point of view. A novel that provokes the mind and examines the relationship between life events, it is considered one of Kawabata's best works, though it has on occasion been criticised for its depictions of female homosexuality.

Akiko Itoyama is a Japanese novelist. She has won the Akutagawa Prize, the Kawabata Yasunari Prize, and the Tanizaki Prize, and her work has been adapted for film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nobuko Takagi</span> Japanese writer

Nobuko Takagi is the professional name of Nobuko Tsuruta, a Japanese author. She has won the Akutagawa Prize and the Tanizaki Prize, she has been named a Person of Cultural Merit, and her work has been adapted for film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hitomi Yamaguchi</span> Japanese writer

Hitomi Yamaguchi was a novelist and essayist in Shōwa period Japan.

One Arm 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.

Nanae Aoyama is a Japanese fiction writer. She has won the Akutagawa Prize, the Bungei Prize, and the Yasunari Kawabata Literary Prize. Her work has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, German, French, English and Italian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ineko Sata</span> Japanese writer

Ineko Sata, also Ineko Kubokawa, born Ine Sata, was a Japanese writer closely connected to the Proletarian Literature Movement. An advocate of women's rights, she has also repeatedly been linked to the feminist movement.

Takehiro Irokawa was a noted Japanese writer who published both serious literature and light fiction under a variety of pseudonyms including Asada Tetsuya (阿佐田哲也) and Budai Irokawa (色川武大). Many of his works were autobiographical in nature and concerned his life as a mahjong gambler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomoji Abe</span> Japanese writer and translator

Tomoji Abe was a Japanese novelist, social critic, humanist, and translator of English and American literature. Although he began writing as a modernist, in his later works he represented the intellectual movement in Japanese literature. This movement departed from Japanese traditional thinking and from established forms of narration, which focused on esthetic values and emotional states of mind ; it also departed from modernist views, which continued to be popular in world literature and in Japan. Abe's intellectual approach was incompatible with the socio-political atmosphere of Japan in the early Shōwa period (1925–1945), with rising fascism and militarism, and the crusade to preserve Japanese feudal traditions.

Tanpopo, also transliterated as Tampopo, is the Japanese word for dandelion. Tanpopo or Tampopo may refer to:

Kiyoko Murata is a Japanese writer. She has won the Akutagawa Prize, the Noma Literary Prize, and the Yomiuri Prize, among other literary prizes. The Government of Japan has awarded her the Medal with Purple Ribbon and Order of the Rising Sun, and she has been appointed to the Japan Art Academy. Her work has been adapted for film by Akira Kurosawa and Hideo Onchi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1968 Nobel Prize in Literature</span> Award

The 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972) "for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind." He is the first Japanese recipient of the prize.

References

  1. Gian Carlo Calza Japan Style 2007 In 1964 he had begun to publish what would be his last novel, The Dandelion (Tampopo), in instalments in the literary magazine Shincho. When he was awarded the prize in October 1968 he stopped publishing and never started again....
  2. Le Monde "Les Pissenlits (Tanpopo)", de Yasunari Kawabata: dialogue de la mère et de l'amant Cet ultime livre de Kawabata est également une mise en scène de la littérature. Inachevée ? Infinie.
  3. Kawabata, Dandelions (New York: New Directions, 2017) ISBN   978-0-8112-2409-3
  4. Shūichi Katō A History of Japanese Literature: The Modern Years 1983 p243 "The fairy like young girl of the short novel Tanpopo (Dandelion, posthumous) suffers from a strange affliction that means that in the extremes of physical love she becomes incapable of seeing her partner."