Kawabata Yasunari (1899-1972), as a forerunner of Japanese avant-garde literature and art, began his literary creations in the magazine Bungei Jidai (The Artistic Age). The 'Shinkankaku-ha' (New Sensualism) theory published in this magazine is one of the products of Kawabata's pursuit of avant-garde expression in language. Written during the period of transition from the 'Shinkankaku- ha' movement to 'Shinkōgeijutsu-ha' (New Avant-Garde Art), Scarlet Gang of Asakusa(1929) is known for its unique depiction of urban customs. Particularly after the publication of Maeda Ai's "Gekijō toshite no Asakusa" (Asakusa as theatre), there have been many attempts to interpret this text from the perspective of modernism and urbanism.
While paying close attention to the changes that the modernist culture has brought to society, Kawabata also shows a keen interest in the innovation that modernism brings to the expression of language. Kawabata quotes Hori Tatsuo's words to indicate that he is a 'literary left-winger'. This literary stance can also be found in the depiction of the novelist 'I' in the Scarlet Gang of Asakusa, especially in the opera scripts that 'I'- who acts as a buffoon in story -created.
This paper begins with a discusssion on the literary exchange between Kawabata Yasunari and Hori Tatsuo. Kawabata uses Jean Cocteau’s speech Le Rappel à l'Ordre(1923), translated by Hori Tatsuo, as a clue, and pays special attention to the opera Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel and its ‘Poésie de théâtre'. It also analyses the method of ‘Poésie de théâtre' in the text of Scarlet Gang of Asakusa.
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