This paper is a discussion of a particular type of Japanese writing called "water world" literature. Water world describes women who have, throughout Japanese history, provided erotically charged services to men, as courtesans, prostitutes, geisha, cafT waitresses, and club and bar hostesses. Literature around these occupations problematizes women's identities, bodies, gender roles, and sexuality. Writers in this genre often glamorize the erotic industry, objectify the women who work in it, and wax nostalgic for the precapitalist past and the world in which such activities flourished without criticism. This type of literature is not well known in the West; one of the most familiar is Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata, who was the first Japanese writer to receive the Nobel Prize (in 1968) for this haunting novel, first published in 1956. This paper analyzes the book as an example of water world literature.
Anne Allison (1994) writes about the mizu shobai, which she translates as "literally 'water business,' the nightlife of Japan" (p. 7). She (1994) observes, "A woman obtained with money rather than through marriage or romance is generically referred to as a mizu shobai woman, and her appeal is widely acknowledged, even by Japanese wives" (p. 130).
Kawabata features several mizu shobai women in his novel, but the story is primarily about Komako and her relationship with one client, Shimamura. They meet in the snow country along the west coast of the main island of Japan, a desolate resort area known for its natural hot springs and its incredible snowfall. The resort provides the chilly backdrop for a cold, doomed love story between people who are not supposed to get emotionally involved.
Although she has received training as a geisha, Komako is not considered a real, professional geisha when Shimamura first meets her. Yet she has the basic physical requirements for the job. Allison (1994) notes, "Beauty in the miz...