The Old Capital

Synopsis

A young woman in historic kyoto grapples with secrets from her past in this lyrical work of japanese literature from a nobel prize-winning author. The old capital is one of the three novels cited specifically by the nobel committee when they awarded yasunari kawabata the nobel prize for literature in 1968. With the ethereal tone and aesthetic styling characteristic of kawabata's prose, the old capital tells the story of chieko, the adopted daughter of a kyoto kimono designer, takichiro, and his wife, shige.