2008-04-10

Miss Komako 2008

I imagine that most people reading this will be familiar with KAWABATA Yasunari's Snow Country and so it will not be too much of a spoiler to observe that the character Komako is not depicted as an especially aspirational figure. When she isn't lyrically embodying some lonely mountain mood, she's staggering around red-faced and drunk.

So you can imagine my surprise to learn that Yuzawa Onsen—Yuzawa being the town where the events of Snow Country take place—has a yearly "Miss Komako" competition in which three charming young women are officially recognized as avatars of melancholy isolation winter fun!

One of this year's Mesdames Komako, WATANABE Rika, is partial to aerobics and marathon-running. IMAI Kino likes to get in a little snowboarding when she can. I'm sure you'll agree that the fidelity to Kawabata's vision is remarkable. Remember that scene when Shimamura is seated at the window, meditating on the purity of the snowscape and the inevitability of death, and Komako flies past outside, pulling off a gnarly backside 720 and shouting "Cowabunga!"?

Also, perhaps in homage to Kawabata's habit of building novels out of polished fragments over a period of years, they blog.

(Found via this marvelous Spirit-of-Geocities '96 Snow Country page.)

Popularity factor: 2

language hat:

Next: Beckett protagonists as inspirational role models!

"I can't go on... YES I CAN!"


james:

great find

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