Thousand Cranes (Yasunari Kawabata)

Despite the fact that both books were originally published in the late 1950s, Ooka writes about World War II, while Kawabata writes about the postwar period. Because of this difference, the emphases and themes of the books stand in contrast. Thousand Cranes explores intimate relationships with larger historical, social and political issues serving only as a contextual backdrop.

Buddhism, specifically the tea ceremony, serves as the matrix for the emotional and psychological expression of Kikuji and other characters in Kawabata's novel, a work which honors and affirms the traditional, spiritual foundation of the culture. Thousand Cranes is a story of passionate interrelationships which are tempered and controlled through the ritualistic avenue of the tea ceremony.

In Ooka's novel, on the other hand, the focus is on grander social and political issues, although those issues are realized through the agonies of isolation and deterioration experienced by Private Tamura. Whereas Buddhist ritual in the tea ceremony holds together the postwar passions of Kikuji and Ota in a way which gives them digni

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ioner of the ceremony as the book opens, and yet it has a markedly positive effect on him in keeping him relatively sane and calm in the turbulent life of the passions he leads. He receives the invitation from Chikako, but considers it another of many such "formal gestures in memory of his father," is late and "did not know whether or not he would go" (Kawabata 3-4). He actually goes not for the Buddhist imperturbability the ceremony offers, but because of the prospect of meeting a young woman, and admits to Mrs. Ota that "I know nothing at all about" the tea ceremony (Kawabata 17). Mrs. Ota points out the intergenerational connections which are an important part of Buddhism and Japanese culture: "But you have it in your blood" (Kawabata 17), in reference to Kikuji's dead father. The process whereby Kawabata introduces us to the tea ceremony and its power to hold people together (living and dead) in relationships (passionate or not) in a dignified, orderly, tradition-bound way is a subtle process. He is hardly an outspoken champion for Buddhism, but instead gradually and honestly shows how the tea ceremony exemplifies Buddhism's serene, ritualistic, but still very down-to-earth approach to life and human relationships. This does
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Christianity Tamura, Kawabata Buddhism, Buddhism Japanese, God Ooka, Chikako Kawabata, Thousand Cranes, Kikuji Ota, Japan Japanese, Fires Plain, Tamura's Christianity, tea ceremony, japanese culture, thousand cranes, ooka's novel, specifically tea ceremony, human relationships, kawabata 17, kawabata 90, specifically tea, buddhist tea, buddhist tea ceremony, social political issues, ooka 19,
Approximate Word count = 1636
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)