The House of the Sleeping Beauties

by Yasunari Kawabataliterary work· published 1961

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House of the Sleeping Beauties is a 1961 novella by the Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. It is a story about a lonely man, Old Eguchi, who continuously visits the House of the Sleeping Beauties in hope of something more. The titular house is an establishment where old men pay to sleep beside young girls that had been narcotized and happen to be naked, the sleeping beauties. The old men are expected to take sleeping pills and share the bed for a whole night with a girl without attempting anything of "bad taste" like "putting a finger inside their mouths". Eguchi is presented with a different girl each time he visits the house because of the short notice of his visits. He discovers that all of the girls are virgins, which somehow compels him to comply with the house rules.