Snow Country Lesson Plan

Snow Country is considered Kawabata’s most famous and best-written novel. It is one of the novels the Nobel committee cited when they chose him for the Nobel Prize in 1968. It tells the story of a country geisha and the patron she falls in love with. Shimamura is a rich ballet critic who has never seen a ballet. Komako is a young, passionate geisha who desires the kind of love her profession restricts her from. It is set in a remote hot-spring town in what is known as “snow country,” which, as the name suggests, is an area that experiences heavy snowfall. Snow Country is written in Kawabata’s classic lyrical, sparse prose. The setting is incredibly important in this novel particularly...