The Moon in the Water Quotes

“But whether the death is that of a tubercular husband in "The Moon on the Water," a mystical figure such as Yōko in Snow Country, or the drugged girl lying beside an old man in House of the Sleeping Beauties, death always has richly poetic implications in Kawabata's work, in contrast to the meticulously clinical deteriorations in Tanizaki's novels and the murderous destruction in Mishima's.”
― Gwenn Boardman Petersen, The Moon in the Water: Understanding Tanizaki, Kawabata, and Mishima

“Beauty is frequently symbolized in the person of a girl--sometimes passive, sometimes aggressive, but always passionate, although the passions may be only hinted at and expressed through traditional erotic symbolism.”
― Gwenn Boardman Petersen, The Moon in the Water: Understanding Tanizaki, Kawabata, and Mishima