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The Dancing Girl of Izu

"The Dancing Girl of Izu"
Author Yasunari Kawabata
Original title "伊豆の踊子
Izu no Odoriko"
Translator E. Seidensticker (1955);
J. Martin Holman (1998)
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Genre(s) Short story
Media type Print
Publication date 1926
Published in English 1955 (abridged), 1998

"The Dancing Girl of Izu" or "The Izu Dancer" (伊豆の踊子 Izu no odoriko?) is a 1926 short story by the Japanese writer and Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata. The short story was first translated into English by Edward Seidensticker and published in an abridged form as "The Izu Dancer" in The Atlantic Monthly in 1955. A complete English translation of the story appeared in 1998.

Kawabata's "The Izu Dancer" represents a lyrical and elegiac memory of early love. The story is well known in Japan, and, today, part of the story's name, Odoriko (which means "dancing girl") is used as the name of express trains to the Izu area.

"The Dancing Girl of Izu" tells the story of the interactions between a young male student from Tokyo, and a small group of travelling performers from nearby Oshima island whom he meets while touring the Izu Peninsula. The student sees the group several times and focuses on the beauty of the youngest looking dancer carrying a large drum. He considers how being on the same road as these travelling performers was exciting. Later, he encounters them again at a tea house, but upon hearing that they were leaving for the next town, he struggles with the thought of chasing after them.

Upon catching up with the group, he acts inconspicuously as he passes them on the trail. Much to his relief, the only male in the group, Eikichi, suddenly strikes up a conversation with the student, giving him a reason to keep pace with the travellers. During the trip, he takes a liking to the young dancer that he saw earlier, because of her refreshing and naïve character. He quickly befriends Eikichi, and follows the group until they arrive at an old inn. However, much to his disappointment, Eikichi insists that he stay at a better inn, because he saw the student as someone of higher status. Later that night, he hears the performers putting on a show at a nearby restaurant, and recognizes the distinct sound of the young dancer’s drum. He listens intently to the sound of her drum, and convinces himself that after they are finished performing at the party they will come visit him. However, he becomes very restless during the night when they do not meet him until the following morning.


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