The Significance of the Setting in 'Snow Country' Ashley Habenicht 12th Grade

In Yasunari Kawabata’s novella Snow Country, a husband and father named Shimamura vacations at a hot spring to search for an affair. He meets Komako, a geisha at the hot spring, and they begin a romance together. Shimamura visits all of three times in various seasons to rendezvous with Komako, but eventually, their love runs out. Kawabata uses setting to reflect Komako and Shimamura’s relationship, starting with the blossoming of their love in spring, the peak of their romance in winter, and ending with its death in autumn.

When Shimamura first meets Komako in May by calling for a geisha, he has no immediate attraction to her. He describes her as clean - his version of calling her plain. He begins to talk to her, and he sees their relationship as “friendship more than anything else that he felt for the woman” (19). This is the beginning of their relationship. Shimamura begins by wanting to be friends with Komako, but not long after this, he sleeps with her for the first time. Before then, though, he asks her to call for a geisha for him, and she is offended. He defends himself by basically saying that he just wants female companionship, and that it is meaningless. She tells him how rude it is of him to ask her to call him a...