The Sound of the Mountain

By Yasunari Kawabata

Adam Steinberger Oral # 41

 The Sound of the Mountain, by Yasunari Kawabata, tells the story of an old

Japanese man named Ogata Shingo and his relationships with his family. The novel is set

in and around Tokyo during the post World War II era. We watch as Shingo battles

approaching old age and dementia, along with its ensuing inertia and fading sexuality.

His family is disintegrating around him, much as his country did during the war. Times

are changing. The old ways are dying. Shingo faces these truths daily, often with great

difficulty.

Shingo lives with his wife, Yasuko, in the ancient Buddhist city of Kamakura,

outside of Tokyo. As is typical of the times, his son Shuichi and daughter-in-law Kikuko

live with them in the family home. Both Shuichi and Shingo work together in an office

in Tokyo and often commute back and forth by train together. At the beginning of the

novel, Shingo’s daughter, Fusako, lives in the nearby countryside with her husband and

two small children. Both of his children have very shaky marriages. This troubles

Shingo, who feels it is his role as family patriarch to fix his children’s marriages. But old

age and its inertia make it difficult for him to act. Furthermore, it is clear that Shingo

possesses much stronger feelings for his daughter-in-law than for his own children or his

wife. These feelings for Kikuko range from paternal love to a smoldering lust.

As the book opens, Shingo hears the sound of the mountain near his home one

evening. Kikuko reminds him that this is not the first time he has heard this sound. She

tells him of the time he heard it just before his wife’s sister, Shinano died. Shingo lusted

for Shinano in a way that he had never done for his wife, Yasuko. He now wonders what

death is responsible for making the mountain sound again. Could it be his own death?
Many of his old friends have died or are ill and dying. Death is often on Shingo’s mind

these days.

One day when Shingo is coming home from work, he notices his neighbor’s

sunflowers are as big as human heads and have “petals…golden, like women.” The

sunflowers represent two ways in which Shingo tries to preserve himself from the decay

around him. These are the strengths of nature and sexual desire. Shingo often immerses

himself in both the natural beauty around him and his own sexual fantasies to escape the

stresses of his life. Soon after noticing these wonderful sunflowers, a typhoon hits his

home town. When the storm ends, Shingo sees that the sunflowers have all been

decapitated and are dead. When Shingo sees these decapitated sunflower heads he

reveals to us his own fear of old age, decay and death.

In addition to his fear of death and dying, Shingo must confront the troubles and

decay within his family. He fears that his son, Shuichi, has a lover and is destroying his

marriage to Kikuko. Shingo loves Kikuko and cannot bear seeing her suffer. He also

feels that it is his place in the old paternal Japanese culture to keep his family united and

flourishing. Shingo asks his secretary Eiko about Shuichi’s lover. Her name is Kinuko,

and Eiko takes Shingo to Kinuko’s house. However, once there Shingo turns back, afraid

of what he might learn.

Several days later, a friend gives Shingo two Noh masks. Noh is Japan’s oldest

theatrical art form. The all-male actors wear the different masks to dramatize different

things, including the gods, devils and historical events. Shingo has Eiko wear the jido

mask, which represents a young male child. Later that night, Shingo believes that the
jido mask is coming alive and goes to kiss it. This makes him uneasy and causes him to

think that something is about to shake his household.

On New Year’s Day, Eiko stops by the Ogata house to tell Shingo that she must

quit work. She tells the aging man some of the horrific things Shuichi does when with

his lover, Kinuko. One example of Shuichi’s cruelty is when he forces Kinuko to sing for

him and beats her when she does not. Shingo is outraged at Shuichi’s behavior. He feels

he must put an end to his son’s affair. He visits Kinuko, a “war bride” whose husband

was killed during World War II. She has left their husband’s family to work and live

independently. Kinuko is pregnant. But she assures Shingo that the affair is over and

that the child is not Shuichi’s child. Shingo gives her money for her needs and leaves.

He knows he should do more. He is sure that the baby is Shuichi’s and that he should

convince Kinuko to end the pregnancy. But she is determined to have the baby and

Shingo simply lets matters drop.

A few nights later, Shingo awakens to the sound of groaning outside at the front

gate. He sees Shuichi drunk and leaning on the gate. He lets Kikuko care for her

drunken husband. The next morning he finds that she has comforted Shuichi and

forgiven him. He is relieved that Kikuko and Shuichi are apparently working on their

marriage. However, Shingo then remembers a dream that he had about a girl who had an

abortion. Shingo thinks that this dream is a foreshadowing of something in his own

family. Soon Shingo learns that Kikuko has just had an abortion, not wanting to bring a

baby into an unhappy marriage. Shingo blames Shuichi, saying that he has destroyed her

spirit. Killing the baby was like an act of suicide for Kikuko. Shingo laments the fact
that he has just lost TWO grandchildren—Kikuko’s aborted child and Shuichi’s

mistress’s unborn child.

Soon after, Kikuko leaves Shingo’s home to live with her parents. Shingo calls

and convinces her to come back home. So they meet at the Shinjuku Garden in Tokyo to

talk and reconnect. Shingo is transformed by the nature within the garden. He has been

hiding his true self behind an invisible “Noh mask”, but reveals himself to Kikuko in this

natural setting. He is most himself in her presence and needs for her to return home and

to care for him. After the garden visit, Kikuko does come home.

Additionally during this period of time, Shingo’s daughter, Fusako, and her two

children come to live with Shingo and Yasuko. Fusako has left her no-good husband and

is now dependent on Shingo. Fusako is bitterly unhappy, blaming her father for marrying

her off to an evil man. Again, Shingo feels that he must somehow “fix” his daughter’s

marriage and life, but he simply does not have the energy to do anything about it.

No matter what is happening to change and disrupt his family, he is immobilized

by old age and waning energy and resigns himself to his inability to correct the problems.

He is defeated. Perhaps, too, the changing Japanese society of the time makes it easier for

Shingo to move on with the family’s problems left unsolved. Is it so terrible for Fusako

to divorce her husband? Might she be able to make it on her own, away from her

husband and away from Shingo’s protection? We can see Shingo’s resignation to the

events of his recent life and to the death and decay all around him.

Yasunari Kawabata was born in Osaka, Japan on June 11, 1899. His father was a

highly-cultured physician who wrote poetry. When Kawabata was three, his father died. His

grandparents then raised him. Yasunari’s grandmother died when he was seven, and his

sister died when he was nine. These three deaths became the background that lead to
Kawabata’s lonely and death-obsessed writing. Originally, Yasunari wanted to become an

artist. But by his second year of middle school, he was determined to be a writer. Kawabata’s

first published writing, Carrying My Teacher’s Coffin on My Shoulder, appeared in a small

magazine called Danran in 1915. In 1920, he entered the English Literature Department of

the Tokyo Imperial University. Kawabata did not find his studies in this department

satisfying, so he transferred to the Department of Japanese Literature, where he focused his

studies on literary criticism. This gave him a rich background in Japanese literature.

Once out of college, Kawabata and his friend, Tokomitsu Riichi founded a journal

called Contemporary Literature. Kawabata published his first successful novel, The Izu Dancer, in

this journal in April 1926. In 1931, Kawabata married and the couple moved to the city of

Kamakura, on the foothills of Mt. Fuji. Throughout Kawabata’s career, he wrote a number

of serial novels. Serial novels are novels that are submitted in parts to newspapers and

magazines. In 1935, Yasunari began writing Snow Country and published the finalized copy in

1948. In 1949, Yasunari Kawabata began writing Thousand Cranes and The Sound of the

Mountain, which was published in 1954. Kawabata published several more novels, over the

next eleven years.

In the 1960’s, Yasunari Kawabata toured the United States, giving lectures at U.S.

colleges. Kawabata became friends with Mishima Yukio. In 1968, Yasunari Kawabata won

the Nobel Prize for Literature. The three books cited by the Nobel Committee were Snow

Country, Thousand Cranes, and The Old Capital. In Kawabata’s acceptance speech he talked of

suicide, perhaps foreshadowing his own death.

In 1970, Yasunari’s friend, Mishima Yukio committed seppuku, the act of killing

oneself in honor of the emperor. Two years later, Yasunari Kawabata committed suicide. On
April 16, 1972, he gassed himself in the city of Zushi, leaving no note behind; a sad end to a

great Japanese writer and well-known literary critic.

The setting of The Sound of the Mountain takes place during the post-WWII era in

Japan. But the influences on this time period go back to the mid 1800’s in Japan. In 1868,

the Meiji Restoration took place. During the Meiji Restoration the imperial house regained

power in Japan with the enthronement of Emperor Mutsuhito. For hundreds of years, the

shoguns, who were military rulers, had power over the emperors in Japan. The Meiji

restoration of power to the emperor held great significance for Japan.

One of the Meiji Restoration’s biggest impacts on politics was the abolishment of

feudalism. In 1877, the last samurai rebellion was fought in Satsuma and eventually put

down by the government. This completed the transition from feudal to imperial Japan. The

first thing the new imperial government of Japan had to do was create a new government

framework, or constitution, to replace the old framework. In 1890, this constitution was put

into effect. The constitution had a “bill” of rights and it could be amended. It also gave the

ruler the power to command the army and dissolve the lower house, which is in many ways

like a parliament.

The first Sino-Japanese war took place from 1894 to 1895. Korea asked China for

help in crushing a rebellion. Not wanting Chinese dominance over Korea, Japan also sent

troops to Korea. Once the rebellion was put down neither the Chinese nor the Japanese

troops would leave Korea. This started a war between Japan and China over supremacy in

Korea. Japanese forces won. Korea became independent, and Japan emerged as a major

world power. The peace treaty also gave Japan special trade opportunities.

War broke out again in 1904, when the Russo-Japanese war began. This war was

fought to prevent Russian expansionism, and was successful in doing so. However, in 1910
Korea was annexed by Japan. During World War I, Japan sided with the Allies based on its

alliance with Britain. Also during WWI Japan demanded special privileges in China,

including free access to parts of Mongolia and Manchuria for mining and shipping. After

World War I, in 1921, Japan joined the League of Nations. And in 1928 Japan signed the

Kellogg-Briand Pact agreeing to renounce war.

The Great Depression during the 1930’s brought economic disaster to Japan. The

idea of militarism, the belief that military conquest could stabilize the economy, became

popular around this time. With militarism popular and after fighting a war to stop Russian

expansionism, Japan entered its period of expansionism.

In 1928, the ruler of Manchuria, Chang Tso-lin, was assassinated. In 1931, the

Japanese Kwantung army, who guarded the Southern Manchurian railway, claimed that

China attempted to bomb a train in Manchuria. This incident was called the Mukden

Incident, and it allowed the Kwantung to seize control of Manchuria. Since the Japanese,

wanted control over Manchuria, this triggered Japanese aggression in Asia. Five years later,

Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact along with Germany and Italy. This pact formed

alliances between the three countries. The pact brought Japan into the Second World War.

The following year, Japan warred with China after a fight near Beijing. In 1941, Japan

attacked American fleets at Pearl Harbor, and in the following year, at the Battle of Midway,

America took out four Japanese aircraft carriers. America then showed its unbreakable

strength when it dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. This paralyzed

Japan’s expansionism and brought an end to the Pacific war.

From 1945 to 1952, the Allies occupied Japan. In the Potsdam Declaration of 1945,

The Supreme Commander for Allied Powers (SCAP) dismantled the Japanese military. The

Potsdam Declaration also removed the government in Japan and gave the Japanese people
individual rights. SCAP also redesigned the Japanese economy, and took the liberty to

disband State Shintoism. On May 3, 1947, MacArthur’s new constitution was put into effect.

It made Japan a democracy, and included a 31-amendment Bill of Rights. In the Bill of

Rights, war was denounced as a right of the state and the emperor was denoted as nothing

more than a “symbol of the state.” Previously, the emperor was thought to be a descendant

of the Sun Goddess.

To promote economic success in post-war Japan, SCAP forced landlords to give a

large percentage of their land to the government. This land was then sold to tenant farmers.

This not only created a stronger economy, but also stopped post-war inflation. Legislation

was passed to prevent the return of economically degenerating monopolies. Further laws

were enacted that resembled the New Deal in the United States. Education was also

reformed. Free and better education programs were set in action to instill democracy into

the future generations of Japanese and to promote the necessity of being a well-educated

nation.

Finally, on April 28, 1952, the Occupation ended and Japan was allowed independent

rule. A new era of great economic and social growth took place between 1952 and 1973.

During this time, Japan experienced urbanization, economic expansion and population

growth. Into the 1970’s and 80’s, Japan’s industries became international and the economy

boomed. New advances in technology caused Japan to become one of the leading industrial

nations of the modern world.

The theme of The Sound of the Mountain is that a person’s true self is often masked by

his/her daily occupations and responsibilities, and is only revealed under certain

circumstances. For Ogata Shingo, these certain circumstances often occur when he is

observing or interacting with nature, and when he is alone with Kikuko. Throughout the
novel, Shingo never really shows himself. He simply observes the things happening around

him and continues on, unable to change anything. But when Shingo meets Kikuko at the

Shinjuku Garden, he makes a complete transformation. Here, being with Kikuko in such a

beautiful, natural environment allows Shingo to show his emotions and true feelings. This

theme is expanded when Mr. Ogata receives two Noh masks from a friend. Shingo stares at

the jido mask, which represents a young male child. He watches as the mask comes alive and

he is transformed by this. He immediately feels a great sexual urge to kiss the mask. But

when the spell is over, he is uneasy about the event. The Noh mask represents the daily

occurrences and responsibilities that mask Shingo’s true self and true feelings. In addition,

the Noh mask symbolizes Shingo’s longing for youth and love. Shingo “longs” to kiss the

mask, but never does. He realizes he will never be young again and supposes that sexual

love for him is over, too.

An additional symbol occurs when Shingo hears a roar that seems to come directly

from Mt. Fuji. The last time he heard the sound of the mountain was just before Yasuko’s

sister died. It is obvious that this sound symbolizes death. Another symbol that represents

death is the typhoon that strikes and destroys the sunflowers that Shingo admires. The

sunflowers, which look to Shingo like human heads, are symbols of youth. The storm,

symbolic of the death and decay associated with life, brings an end to youth.

Another symbol is revealed when Shingo notices two tall pine trees in a grove he

passes by on the train to work. “They were leaning toward each other… as if about to

embrace.” According to traditional Japanese symbolism, these two pines symbolize love and

fidelity. Both are very important to Shingo.

Two examples of the use of irony include the fact that Shingo feels more love and

lust for Kikuko than her husband Shuichi does. It is also ironic that both Shuichi’s wife and
mistress are pregnant, but his wife has an abortion while the mistress does not. Finally,

Shuichi is the perfect foil for Shingo. He is the opposite of Shingo in many ways. Shuichi is

a more modern man who does not follow the old cultural ways. He leaves his wife and

family alone to spend his free time with his mistress. Shingo, however, respects the old

ways. He has no mistress and is loyal and respectful to his wife, even though he feels no lust

for her anymore. He works to hold his family together rather than pulling it apart as Shuichi

does.
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