Analysis of Thousand Cranes Authored by Kawabata - Essay Example

Lecturer: “Thousand Cranes” A “Senbazuru” or 1000 cranes just like in the Japanese origami, it is prepared from paper and is a symbol of good luck in many of the Asian countries. This may be utilized at the time when a child is born, wedding, as gesture of good look or good providence for the new born, couple or families. The main characters involved in this script include Kikuji Mitani, Chikako Kurimoto, Yukiko Inamura, Mrs. Ota and finally Fumiko Ota. The first time we meet all the main characters in one scene together is when the main protagonist Kikuji is found being served and drinking from one of his father’s favorite tea ceremony bowls. According to Elskelvin (23), Kikuji Mitani is a typical protagonist of Kawabata’s fiction as he is man drawn and not rational in his decisions. He is involved in a love relationship with Yukiko a fair virginal girl but he is attracted to Mrs. Ota and later his daughter. In the story of the elder Mitani’s affairs with Chikako and Mrs. Ota results in the formation of the subjects of love, marriage, widows and pottery and the Japanese people. This history is later passed on to the next generation of Kikuji, Inamura and Mrs. Ota. The story actually takes place five years after the death of Kikuji’s father. But Mitani is not so much a victim of the tangled life but he is morally corrupted by his own self and that is what Mrs. Ota and Fumito her daughter go ahead to exploit. All these characters aid in the build of the theme of fate that controls human destiny. This is because most of the incidences that occur in the story occur due to chance. Throughout the novel the main character is always in wondering how some of the occurrences are an image of the things that happened almost 300 plus years ago but they are still relevant in today’s world. This is clearly evidenced when his father chooses to use non-perfectly formed and glazed piece of pottery as a student of the tea ceremony. This introspection occurs although this young man claims not to be in attending of tea ceremonies. Melancholic perceptions intertwined with moments of hope and nostalgia is the feelings of this young man in this situation. The author brings the characters of Thousand Cranes together at least once in every key section of the story to practice the tea ceremony (Kawabata, 9). Some of the things we under go in life are actually as a result of fate and destiny. Like in the legend of the 1000 cranes from where the novel acquired its title, Sadako Sidaki a female victim of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was encouraged to make paper cranes in order to try and save her life. She did this despite the cancer slowly eating her away. Despite the fact that she struggled to finish the 1000 cranes as fate would have it she died. This instead of being forgotten just like that, her destiny is to be remembered because she ended up a melancholic legend. This prompts to Kawabata to say, “After her death, Sadako’s friends and schoolmates published a collection of letters in order to raise funds to build a memorial to her and all of the children who had died from the effects of the atomic bomb” (Kawabata, 59). This is evidenced as almost all Japanese school children know about the story of Sadoko and some even go to the extent of making pilgrimage to Hiroshima before graduating. Just like behaviors are passed from one generation to another, consequently it results in the characters witch hunting others for mistakes done by other people. This is evident when Mrs. Ota tracks the younger Mitani to punish him for mistakes done by his father. This is started when Kikuji fell in love with Mrs. Ota when his father died. As the novel comes to an end the older Mrs. Ota is found to have committed suicide and the motive behind the death is not clearly established. After the funeral, the Shino bowl is given to Kikuji and by chance it happens that the daughter of Mrs. Ota is the one that serves Kikuji. This was absolutely contrary to what he was expecting. Her daughters name was Fumiko. Just as it was earlier used in the tea ceremony by Kikuji’s father, the bowl is also passed on to the next person symbolizing the transfer of behavior to the next generation (Kawabata, 109). This manifests that as fate would have it, Mrs. Ota is a victim of her continuous emotional bond with the elder Mitani. Chikako’s action emanate from the fact that Kikuji’s father terminated her relationship with her in the process she dislikes Mrs. Ota. She tries to warn Kikuji from women like Mrs. Ota and her actions throw Kikuji, Fumiko and her mother to be together. The lives of the characters absolutely thrives on chance and this clearly highlighted by Kawabata using the tea ceremony. In the earlier episode of the novel, Kikuji had washed the Shino bowl severally and he came to be convinced that the bowl had been used by various people. This is because the person who designed it was of the intention that it does not be purely white thus left a dark mark on the cusp where the people chose to drink from during the tea ceremony (Elskelvin, 114). The tea ceremony in “Thousand Cranes” functions in its contemporary form as a discourse of political power expressed in aesthetic terms. The interaction of the people is the novel is only made possible through structures provided for them thus determining the outcome and course of those relationships. Looking at the Shino bowl that belonged to Mrs. Ota and his fathers Karabatsu bowl Mitani thinks, “The tea bowls, three or four hundred years old, were sound and healthy, and they called up no morbid thoughts. Life seemed to stretch taut over them, however, in a way that was almost sensual” (Kawabata, 78).This shows the human passions that the objects provide. The impurity of human motives and actions are perspectives that are depicted by the utensils at the tea ceremony. They have passed though the hands of many people and thus leading to various destinies in life depending on where it chose to lead you. By Kikuji attending the tea ceremony, he is aptly shocked to realize that the ceremony was arranged to meet his potential future bride Miss Inamura a beautiful girl whom Chikako hopes he would marry but on the contrary he is fascinated by Mrs. Ota and Fumiko the daughter of Mrs. Ota whom they have rubbed shoulders with. This is because the relation ship with Mrs. Ota would only bring suffering and destruction (Kawabata, 98). In the novel, we come to realize that the dark secrets held by the elder Mitani, Mrs. Ota and Chikako predetermines the type of life the young Mitani is going to live thereafter. These love triangles and the implicit parallels among characters the relationships establish promotes in the theme of fate that controls human destiny. The novel dealt with woman’s attempt to pursue revenge from a lover to the extent of inflicting pain and suffering to his son. She misuses her artistry in tea making to manipulate the feelings of young Kikuji Mitani. Moreover, the tea highlights the influence of the elder Mitani to his son and leads to an astray son compared to the advantageous effects of tea ceremony. Mrs. Ota is characterized by attraction to her maternal nature and this makes younger to be attracted to her because surrogate mothers attract him both emotionally and sexually (Magill, 1590-1593). Miss Inamura is perceived as clean and pure by Kikuji untouched by histories that have affected Mrs. Ota and Chikako. Therefore, what transpires between Kikuji, Mrs. Ota and Fumiko seems as destiny for them as it is a family curse. To underline the theme of fate and destiny in the novel Kikuji is deeply drawn to the complexities of the past and the unresolved relationships of his father other than making amendments to start his own life afresh. To sum up, Kawabata’s writing creates a melancholy, poetic feeling in its descriptions of memories of a lost love or moments of natural beauty to see how human can take control of their lives (Kawabata, 87-107). Works Cited Elskelvin. " Thousand Cranes, beauty, War, and Suicides." 29 March 2010. 7 December 2012 http://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/thousand-cranes-beauty-war-wares-and-suicides. Kawabata, Yasunari. "Thousand Cranes." 26 August 2011. Semi-fictional. 7 December 2012 http://semifictional.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/thousand-cranes-by-yasunari-kawabata. Kawabata, Yasunari., Thousand Cranes. Tokyo: Penguin Books Limited, 2011. Kawabata, Yasunari.,Thousand Cranes. 6 January 2012. 7 December 2012 http://www.enotes.com/thousand-cranes-salem/thousand-cranes-9230000222. Magill, Frank Northen. Masterplots II:world fiction series. Ed. Frank Magill. Vol. 4. Michigan: Salem Press, 2007.   Read More