A piece of snow

Author: Akizuki Junichi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-09-02
Features: On the surface, the love depicted in Watanabe's novels is not, or not primarily, a spiritual union. Ito and Kage are gradually deepening this love through continuous physical contact, ultimately reaching what they perceive as the brilliance and peak of love. This focus on sensuality and pleasure seems inevitably to create a lewd atmosphere, but Yuki no Kaze (A Piece of Snow) is written with a poetic touch. Rather than telling a modern love story, Watanabe Junichi is expressing a pursuit of aesthetic life. A Piece of Snow easily brings to mind Kageki Ryoichiro, whom Watanabe admires, as well as the aestheticist writers of modern Japanese literature, such as Sato Haruo and Nagai Kafu. To the aesthetes, love and desire are not concerned with morality or ethics; they are simply a natural state of beauty. Aestheticist writers regard the complete liberation of physical desire as the pinnacle of aesthetics, and Watanabe's characters embody this. Although Watanabe Junichi can no longer express the classical beauty of "light in a dim room and the faint glow of night, with shadows as the dominant theme" as Nagai Kafu or Kageki Ryoichiro once did, he remains obsessed with the traditional beauty of Japan. In A Piece of Snow, Kage can be said to represent the ideal image of feminine beauty in Watanabe's works. Kage's attire, demeanor, speech, and aura are the epitome of traditional Japanese beauty—elegance. "On the surface, she is as quiet and shy as a camellia blooming beside a tea room, but she leaves behind the lingering charm of luxury and allure after she leaves." Thus, the writer creates a unique aesthetic atmosphere: the heroine is a traditional beauty from a secluded mansion...