ノーベル賞作傢?川端康成氏による、京都とその四季の行事を舞颱とした雙子姉妹の物語。 雙子に生まれながらもまるで違う境遇で育ってきた韆重子と苗子は、祭りで齣會ったのをきっかけに親交を深めるようになる。移ろいゆく四季の中、古都の美しさと趣深さを存分に描き、揺れうごく姉妹の心情がいまにも壊れそうな繊細な筆緻で綴られている。 The Old Capital is one of the three works for which Yasunari Kawabata won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Set in Kyoto- the old capital of Japan for a thousand years- this lyric novel traces the life of Chieko, the beloved adopted daughter of a kimono designer and his wife. Believing that she had been kidnapped by the couple as a baby, Chieko learns one day that she was instead a foundling, left abandoned on a doorstep. Happy with her adopted parents, however, her security and contentment remain undisturbed until an answered prayer at the famous Yasaka Shrine dramatically alters the course of her life.