YANSUNARI KAWABAT

(1899, 1972) is someone you should know about before visiting Osaka...

  Yansunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer. He was born and raised in Osaka, Japan. His father was a cultivated physician, and after the death of his parents he went to live with his maternal grandfather. He graduated from the Tokyo Imperial University and he first made his debut as a short story writer when he published Izu Dancer in 1927. After he published his first short story, he went on and published several others, but the novel Snow Country that was published in 1973 secured his position as one of the most important and leading authors in Japan. He became a member of the Art Academy in Japan and four years later, he was appointed chairman of P.E.N Club of Japan. The Lake, The sleeping beauty, and The Old Capital are some of his most famous work. The Old Capital which was published in 1962 is the one that made the deepest impression in the authors native country and abroad. He received the Goethe Medal in Frankfurt, and won the Noble Prize for Litreature in 1968. Till this very day, his work is highly notable and regarded by many people internationally and he is a true hero in Osaka.