The Sound of the Mountain

Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata’s novel The Sound of the Mountain (1970), written in the immediate aftermath of World War II, reflects themes of war in its sparsity of language, which has been likened to the poetic form of the haiku. The novel examines the life of Ogata Shingo, an older man transitioning into his sixties who begins to grapple with the finitude of life. Looking back on his experiences, he grows anxious about his personal legacy, bringing him into a complicated relationship with the memory of his wife’s sister, whom he once loved. Eventually, Shingo is forced to examine the impact of his life decisions on the failed relationships both his children have with their partners. The novel is considered one of the most significant works of world literature of recent modernity for its insights into mortality and its entanglement with the process of retrospection on lived experience.

The novel begins as Shingo enters elderly life, a phase which he marks with the realization that his mind and memories are beginning to fall apart. Though he hides it, Shingo is painfully aware that his secretary and son, Shuichi, constantly reminds him of forgotten tasks and helps him retrieve lost objects. Shingo ruminates on the phenomenon of old age, which advances subtly, but inexorably and morbidly. As he sifts through his memories, partly in an attempt to hold onto them, he remembers his love for his wife’s sister. His love for her resurges, though she is long dead. After her passing, Shingo had a marriage lasting more than thirty years with his wife, always regretting that he was unable to marry the other woman.

Meanwhile, grappling with the revelation that his son has been cheating on his wife, Shingo wonders how his own actions might have instilled that tendency in him. The wife, Kikuko, is profoundly beautiful, stirring Shingo’s memories of his own late wife’s sister. His son treats her poorly, however, seeming to confirm Shingo’s fears. Shingo asks Eiko, his son’s secretary, about the woman with whom he is having an affair. She gradually opens up to him about his son’s indiscretions, showing Shingo the place where the woman lives. Shingo deliberates but decides not to confront her, which would risk permanently damaging his relationship with his son.



Not long after, Shingo’s daughter, Fusako, comes home, having left her husband and asked for a divorce. Shingo and his son convince her to return to him. She seems to comply but soon breaks up with him again, this time moving in with a different part of the family. Fearing that this makes him look dishonorable, Shingo tells his son to bring her back from where she is staying in the country. Then, Kikuko receives a letter from a close friend who is experiencing complications from taking contraception. Kikuko goes with Shingo to the hospital, passing the area of town where her husband’s secret lover lives. Later, Shingo finds that Kikuko has gone to Tokyo to undergo some medical tests; after pressing his son, he finds that Kikuko went to get an abortion, ashamed that her husband is having an affair. Shingo is enraged to find that his son asked his lover to pay for Kikuko’s operation.

Several days following the procedure, Kikuko returns to her family in Tokyo. Shingo calls after her and learns that her mood has improved. She asks him to meet her in a public park; during the encounter, Shingo is happy to see that she has visibly improved. The next day, Kikuko returns to Shingo’s home. Shortly after, Shingo finds out via his confidant Eiko that his son’s lover is now expecting a child. Shingo confronts her and is mortified to hear that she intends to give birth to the child out of wedlock despite his son’s protests. The mistress argues that Shingo’s son is not the child’s father. Shingo pays her off to keep quiet but is unable to shake the belief that the child is his grandson.

Shingo’s daughter divorces her husband, who is unable to manage his drug addiction. Kikuko eventually says that she wants to divorce her husband and serve her father instead. Shingo is taken aback, interpreting her words as romantic in meaning. He exhorts her to appreciate her freedom and seek prospects outside the bounds of her past. The same night, Fusako requests that he help purchase a store for her and Kikuko.



The Sound of the Mountain chronicles its fallen patriarch, Shingo, as a familial order seems to collapse around him. Rather than condemn himself to existential death in reaction, or give up on the future his family, he learns to accept their complexities and failures, signified in his final acceptance of the familial union of Fusako and Kikuko. In turn, he accepts his own mistakes, as well.