Neo-sensualism Theory and the Poetics of Yasunari Kawabata’s Very Short Stories

Abstract

The “Palm-of-the-Hand Stories” (掌の小説, Tenohira no Shōsetsu) by Yasunari Kawabata represent a unique phenomenon in modern Japanese literature, combining formal experimentation with a refined aesthetic of sensation. This study approaches Kawabata’s ultra-short stories through the lens of Neo-sensualism (Shinkankakuha) — an avant-garde literary movement in Japan during the 1920s that emphasizes direct, irrational, and fragmented perception. Based on an analysis of the genre’s concept, historical formation, and artistic poetics, the paper identifies the philosophical foundations and aesthetic principles of Neo-sensualism as reflected in Kawabata’s works. The author situates Kawabata’s creative style within the interrelation between Neo-sensualist aesthetics and the symbolic structure of modern emotional expression. Accordingly, the study highlights how Kawabata transforms the extreme brevity of the ultra-short story into a poetic form of sensation, where minimal language evokes profound emotional and visual resonance. This perspective contributes to a deeper understanding of Kawabata’s “Palm-of-the-Hand Stories” as a convergence of Japanese traditional aesthetics and Western modernist sensibility, forming a distinct poetics of emotion and perception in modern Japanese prose.