ABSTRACT
In 1968 Kawabata Yasunari became the first Japanese to win the Nobel Prize for literature. The award coincided with the centennial of the Meiji Restoration, which ushered Japan into the modern era after centuries of feudalism and self-imposed isolation. Apart from the well-deserved recognition for Kawabata, therefore, the Nobel Prize also signified the growing international appreciation of Japanese literature, especially modern fiction.
