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The Kawabatan Quest for Purity: A Study on Sexuality in Modern Japanese Literature

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Chi-sum Garfield LAU

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 The openness in the depiction of sexuality in modern Japanese literature represents a subversion of the conventions. This paper makes use of the portrayal of sexuality in Yasunari Kawabata's (1899-1972) works to show how the depiction of sexuality in modern Japanese literature implies both the influence of western modernism and the revival of Japanese conventional essence. Special attention will be paid to how the quest for purity is the ultimate realm in modern Japan during the Showa period. The two Kawabata's works chosen for analysis come from different periods during the Showa era (1926-1989): The Izu Dancer (1926) and House of the Sleeping Beauties (1961). During these writing years, not only had Kawabata himself turned from a promising young writer to a well-known, lonely old man, his protagonists also evolve with him. Still, the conventional essence in their quests of sexuality has not been altered. They share the common goal in the pursuit of purity 

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Yasunari Kawabata, modern Japan, sexuality, purity