Yasunari Kawabata. [Photo/eeloves.com]

Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose works won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese to receive the award. Having lost both parents in childhood, he became solitary and neurotic. The fame and fans attracted by the prize affected him. A close friend committed suicide in 1970, making his depression deeper and Kawabata followed suit two years later by gassing himself.