Yasunari Kawabata
One of the most important and famous writers in 20th century Japanese literature, Yasunari Kawabata was known for his masterful use of both modernist European and classical Japanese influences. In 1968, he became the first Japanese to receive the Nobel Literature Prize.
Born in 1899 in Osaka, Kawabata lived a childhood marked by sorrow, losing his parents when he was two years old and then his grandparents, who had taken care of him, when he was fifteen. In 1920 he entered Tokyo University...