Thousand Cranes was written in the years immediately following Japan’s defeat in the World War II. At this time, hardship and poverty were widespread across the nation, and national pride had suffered a serious blow. Kawabata believed that many elements of traditional Japanese culture had been degraded in modern times and used his work to critique what he saw as a devaluation of Japanese heritage. In Thousand Cranes, Kawabata depicts the figurative decay of neglected traditions and values through his presentation of the tea ceremony, and he uses the relationships and reminiscences of his characters to convey a sense of collective nostalgia for an idealized but ultimately unattainable past.

The tea ceremony is a centuries-old, highly venerated cultural practice in Japan. Despite his rejection of what had been his father’s hobby, Kikuji is nonetheless drawn into participating, thereby connected with two of his father’s former mistresses. The tea ceremony in Part 1 is the most formal and traditional of the depicted ceremonies; the only one properly organized in advance, with numerous invited guests, and students to assist the presiding tea mistress, Chikako. Later tea ceremonies are small impromptu or informal affairs that only obliquely evoke the ceremonial aspects of tea making, thereby reflecting Kawabata’s view that the tea ceremony was drifting further and further from the nostalgic heights of its former peak.