Yasunari Kawabata's "Thousand Cranes" is a novel set against the world of the tea ceremony, depicting the relationships between the young Kikuji and women who had been his late father's lovers. Beautiful utensils, memory, guilt, and sensuality intertwine, revealing obsession and ruin beneath Japanese beauty.

Guided by tea utensils and memory, the father's past and the young man's present overlap with uncanny beauty in this representative Kawabata novel.

Meiji Roman Bungakushi and Hinatsu Konosuke Zenshishu are two representative works by the poet and scholar Konosuke Hinatsu. The former studies Meiji-era romantic literature, while the latter gathers Hinatsu's own symbolist poetry. Together they received the Japan Art Academy Prize in 1952, joining his historical scholarship with his elevated poetic language.

The intellectual history of Meiji romanticism and Hinatsu's own symbolist voice resonate as a single prize-winning achievement.