3 Yasunari Kawabata first editions are documented on this shelf, from Snow Country (Yukiguni) (1937) to The Sound of the Mountain (Yama no Oto) (1970) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Yasunari Kawabata title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Yasunari Kawabata copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Snow Country (Yukiguni) — 1937 · SōgenshaJapanese first edition in book form, Sōgensha, Tokyo, June 1937, collecting the work that had been serialized across literary journals from 1935 to 1937 (with Kawabata revising the journal texts for this 'complete' 1937 book). Identified by the 1937 colophon and original obi/slipcase where present. The Japanese Sōgensha 1937 book is the true first in book form; Kawabata continued revising, with the definitive 'complete' text appearing from Sōgensha in 1948. The first English (Knopf, 1956, translated by Edward Seidensticker) is the English-language first thus and the version most often collected in the West. Because Kawabata revised repeatedly, 'first edition' is complicated: the 1937 first book and the 1948 'complete' version are different textual states. The Seidensticker English translation (Knopf 1956) is not the world-first.
- Thousand Cranes (Senbazuru) — 1959 · Alfred A. KnopfFirst American edition, translated by Edward G. Seidensticker, with chapter-heading drawings by Fumi Komatsu. Borzoi colophon present; copyright page carries the FIRST AMERICAN EDITION statement with no later-printing line. Dust jacket priced on the front flap. Knopf editions of this era do not use a number line, so its absence is normal. The Knopf US edition of 1959 is the first English-language edition; the UK Secker & Warburg edition followed the same year. The Japanese original (Sembazuru) preceded it. Confirm Knopf priority via the FIRST AMERICAN EDITION statement and Borzoi device. Later combined volumes pairing Thousand Cranes with Snow Country, and Vintage International paperbacks, are reprints. A book club or later reprint will lack the Borzoi colophon and the FIRST AMERICAN EDITION line.
- The Sound of the Mountain (Yama no Oto) — 1970 · Alfred A. KnopfFirst American edition, translated by Edward G. Seidensticker. Borzoi device present; copyright page carries the FIRST AMERICAN EDITION statement. No number line on the true first (consistent with Knopf practice of the period). Dust jacket priced on the front flap. The Knopf US edition of 1970 is the first English-language edition and precedes the UK (Peter Owen, 1971). The Japanese original dates to 1954. This translation won the National Book Award for Translation. The Peter Owen UK edition and later paperbacks are reprints or first-thus. Confirm Knopf priority via the FIRST AMERICAN EDITION line and Borzoi device.
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