{ "id": "eptywkt8t0", "slug": "house-of-sleeping-beauties", "title": "House of Sleeping Beauties", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1980s", "label": "Drama films 1980s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1980s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1980s.yr-1980-1985", "label": "Released 1980 to 1985", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1980s.yr-1980-1985" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000: Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "House of Sleeping Beauties (Nemureru Bijo, 眠れる美女) is Yasunari Kawabata's 1961 novella about old men sleeping beside drugged young women, adapted into films including Vadim Glowna's 2006 German Das Haus der schlafenden Schönen.", "snippet": "House of Sleeping Beauties (Nemureru Bijo, 眠れる美女) is Yasunari Kawabata's 1961 novella about old men sleeping beside drugged young women, adapted into films including Vadim Glowna's 2006 German Das Haus der schlafenden Schönen.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1980s.yr-1980-1985", "markdown": "# House of Sleeping Beauties\n\n**House of Sleeping Beauties** (眠れる美女, *Nemureru Bijo*) is a novella by the Japanese writer **Yasunari Kawabata** (川端 康成), first published in 1961, in which the 67-year-old Eguchi pays five visits to a secretive establishment where elderly men spend the night beside young women drugged into deep sleep, under a strict rule that they cannot be violated[1](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/challenging-narrative-foreclosure-an-interpretation-of-yasunari-kawabatas-house-of-the-sleeping-beauties/2C71E824BBC75AC7C1FE56AEA38A0FBA). Kawabata, whose spare, lyrical prose won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968 as the first Japanese author to receive the award, wrote the work late in his career, and it has been repeatedly adapted for the screen, most prominently in a 2006 German film by Vadim Glowna[2](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35195526) • [3](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/haus-der-schlafenden-schonen_1dff4a4276052612e04053d50b377b83).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original publication | *Nemureru Bijo* (眠れる美女), first published January 1, 1961[1](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/challenging-narrative-foreclosure-an-interpretation-of-yasunari-kawabatas-house-of-the-sleeping-beauties/2C71E824BBC75AC7C1FE56AEA38A0FBA) • [2](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35195526) |\n| Premise | Old men pay to sleep beside beautiful young women sedated into deep sleep, where contact occurs despite house rules, [2](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35195526) • [19](https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/literature-and-writing/house-sleeping-beauties-yasunari-kawabata) |\n| Structure | Five parts, one for each of Eguchi's five visits to the house[1](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/challenging-narrative-foreclosure-an-interpretation-of-yasunari-kawabatas-house-of-the-sleeping-beauties/2C71E824BBC75AC7C1FE56AEA38A0FBA) |\n| English translation | Edward Seidensticker's *House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories*, 160 pages, also containing \"One Arm\" and \"Of Birds and Beasts\"[2](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35195526) |\n| Author's standing | Kawabata won the 1968 Nobel Prize for Literature, the first Japanese laureate[2](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35195526) |\n| Best-known film adaptation | *Das Haus der schlafenden Schönen* (Germany, 2006), written and directed by Vadim Glowna, who also plays Edmond[3](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/haus-der-schlafenden-schonen_1dff4a4276052612e04053d50b377b83) |\n| Film reception | Metascore 21 (generally unfavorable); Rotten Tomatoes 28% from 18 reviews[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/house-of-the-sleeping-beauties/critic-reviews/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009828-house_of_sleeping_beauties) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and structure\n\nThe novella consists of five parts, each depicting one of Eguchi's stays at the house[1](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/challenging-narrative-foreclosure-an-interpretation-of-yasunari-kawabatas-house-of-the-sleeping-beauties/2C71E824BBC75AC7C1FE56AEA38A0FBA). The women there are, according to the innkeeper, not forced but volunteers who take large doses of sleeping pills in exchange for money, and the house's rule forbids the clients to violate them[1](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/challenging-narrative-foreclosure-an-interpretation-of-yasunari-kawabatas-house-of-the-sleeping-beauties/2C71E824BBC75AC7C1FE56AEA38A0FBA). Near the end, Eguchi considers breaking \"the rule of the house\" with one of the girls, followed by a fantasy of throttling her[6](https://app.thestorygraph.com/book_reviews/75fa19eb-ab01-4cc6-b973-38a29ceb3297?sort=highest_rated).\n\nBecause the sleeping girls lack any means of expression, the narrative weight falls on Eguchi's memories and dreams, which surface between sleep and semi-consciousness. The women serve as symbols of youth and beauty set against Eguchi's old age and sorrow, and the story moves along the line between sexuality and death, youth and old age, beauty and ugliness[1](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/challenging-narrative-foreclosure-an-interpretation-of-yasunari-kawabatas-house-of-the-sleeping-beauties/2C71E824BBC75AC7C1FE56AEA38A0FBA) • [6](https://app.thestorygraph.com/book_reviews/75fa19eb-ab01-4cc6-b973-38a29ceb3297?sort=highest_rated). On his last visit, Eguchi wants to die beside the beauty[7](https://elibrary.tucl.edu.np/JQ99OgQIizUxyjI9nB0on9OyLkqsGIf4/api/core/bitstreams/2230cdb6-fc90-447d-aaee-da95ef815e89/content).\n\n## Themes and interpretation\n\nKawabata appropriates the central image of the Western fairy-tale sleeping beauty and applies it to a dark story set at night, shrouded in the gloominess and cold of late life. The novella extends his aesthetic traditions of *mono no aware* (the pathos of things) and *in'ei* (shadow and subtlety), and the novelist [Yukio Mishima](https://www.edgepedia.org/yukio-mishima) called it \"most certainly an esoteric masterpiece\"[1](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/challenging-narrative-foreclosure-an-interpretation-of-yasunari-kawabatas-house-of-the-sleeping-beauties/2C71E824BBC75AC7C1FE56AEA38A0FBA).\n\nScholarly readings differ on what Eguchi's nights amount to. One interpretation describes his recurring dreams as a \"negative life review\", a failed version of autobiographical narration, and argues that his silence in the face of a death in the story leaves him in ethical foreclosure rather than renewal[1](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/challenging-narrative-foreclosure-an-interpretation-of-yasunari-kawabatas-house-of-the-sleeping-beauties/2C71E824BBC75AC7C1FE56AEA38A0FBA). The Chinese translator Ye Weiqu read the depiction of the old man and the sleeping beauties as conveying \"indulgence, temptation, and redemption\"[1](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/challenging-narrative-foreclosure-an-interpretation-of-yasunari-kawabatas-house-of-the-sleeping-beauties/2C71E824BBC75AC7C1FE56AEA38A0FBA). The premise itself, old men beside unconscious young women, has made the book uncomfortable for many readers, raising questions of agency and temptation[8](https://goodreads.com/book/show/3045862.House_of_the_Sleeping_Beauties).\n\n## English-language collection\n\nThe story reached English readers through *House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories*, translated by Edward Seidensticker, a 160-page collection that also includes \"One Arm\", in which a young woman gifts a man her right arm for the night, and \"Of Birds and Beasts\", about a middle-aged man's affair with a dancer and his abnormal attachment to his pets[2](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35195526). On [Goodreads](https://www.edgepedia.org/goodreads) the collection holds a 3.60 average from 9,536 ratings[2](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35195526).\n\n## Film adaptations\n\n**Japanese versions.** Kozaburo Yoshimura filmed the novella in 1968; for its Canadian release, \"Beauties\" was replaced by \"Virgins\" in the title, emphasizing the claim to virginity[9](https://cronfa.swansea.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42658/Download/0042658-02082018162511.pdf). A second Japanese adaptation, directed by Hiroto Yokoyama, was released in 1995 with a runtime of 1 hour 50 minutes, credited to Kawabata's novel and starring Yoshio Harada as Eguchi[10](https://moviewiser.com/us/movie/545469).\n\n**The 2006 German film.** *Das Haus der schlafenden Schönen* (English title *House of the Sleeping Beauties*) was written, directed, produced, and headlined by Vadim Glowna, with Angela Winkler as Madame, Maximilian Schell as Kogi, and Birol Ünel as Herr Gold; Ciro Cappellari was the director of photography and the music was by Nikolaus Glowna and Siggi Müller[3](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/haus-der-schlafenden-schonen_1dff4a4276052612e04053d50b377b83). Shooting took place in Berlin from February 3 to April 23, 2005, and the film opened in German theaters on November 2, 2006[11](https://www.crew-united.com/en/House-of-the-Sleeping-Beauties__23703.html) • [3](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/haus-der-schlafenden-schonen_1dff4a4276052612e04053d50b377b83). Glowna moved the setting to present-day Berlin and, in his words, inherited only the sleeping girls, Madame, and Eguchi (renamed Edmond) from Kawabata's plot, continuing the story beyond the novel and expanding its thriller element[12](https://firstrunfeatures.com/presskits/houseofsleepingbeauties/sleepingbeauties_pk.pdf). His research found that such an establishment had actually existed in Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s, which convinced him the story could be told in Europe as well as Japan[12](https://firstrunfeatures.com/presskits/houseofsleepingbeauties/sleepingbeauties_pk.pdf). In the film, Edmond is haunted by the deaths of his wife and daughter in a car accident, and his friend Kogi advises him to visit the house[3](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/haus-der-schlafenden-schonen_1dff4a4276052612e04053d50b377b83).\n\nThe film's length is given as 103 minutes in German sources and 99 minutes in the American press kit and streaming listings[3](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/haus-der-schlafenden-schonen_1dff4a4276052612e04053d50b377b83) • [12](https://firstrunfeatures.com/presskits/houseofsleepingbeauties/sleepingbeauties_pk.pdf) • [13](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/house-of-the-sleeping-beauties). It was rated FSK 16 in Germany and R-18 in Japan, and not rated in the United States[14](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844474/parentalguide/).\n\n## Reception of the 2006 film\n\nThe American release went to First Run Features and opened in limited theaters on November 14, 2008, grossing $4,509 domestically[15](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0844474/credits/). Critics were largely negative: the film scored 21 on Metacritic, with 6 of 8 collected reviews negative, and 28 percent on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/house-of-the-sleeping-beauties/critic-reviews/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009828-house_of_sleeping_beauties). Roger Ebert gave it one star, writing that the premise offends \"even dirty old men, dramatizing as it does their dirtiness and oldness\"[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009828-house_of_sleeping_beauties). The [New York Post](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-york-post)'s review was the most favorable, arguing that the film's nudity serves a deeper purpose as, in Glowna's words, a meditation on \"transition, remembrance, mourning, guilt, loneliness, sex and death, eroticism and dying\"[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/house-of-the-sleeping-beauties/critic-reviews/). German critics noted the artful, dreamlike cinematography but found the many inner monologues theatrical and the protagonist kept at too great a distance from the viewer[16](https://www.critic.de/film/das-haus-der-schlafenden-schoenen-677/).\n\n## Legacy\n\nThe novella has continued to generate adaptations. Julia Leigh's 2011 film *[Sleeping Beauty](https://www.edgepedia.org/sleeping-beauty-2011-film)* drew on Kawabata's story, alongside [Gabriel García Márquez](https://www.edgepedia.org/gabriel-garcia-marquez)'s *Memories of My Melancholy Whores*, the Perrault and Grimm fairy tales, and the biblical story of King Solomon, and Leigh's script appeared on the 2008 Black List of unproduced screenplays[17](https://ijr.com/x/sleeping-beauty-Q2294057). Australian scholarship has examined Venero Armanno's novel *Candle Life* and Leigh's film as contemporary adaptations of the novella[18](https://newvoices.org.au/newvoices/media/JPF-New-Voices-in-Japanese-Studies-Vol-12.pdf).\n\n## References\n\n1. [Ying Ke (2026). Challenging Narrative Foreclosure: An Interpretation of Yasunari Kawabata's House of the Sleeping Beauties. European Review, Cambridge University Press.](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/challenging-narrative-foreclosure-an-interpretation-of-yasunari-kawabatas-house-of-the-sleeping-beauties/2C71E824BBC75AC7C1FE56AEA38A0FBA)\n2. [House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories, Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35195526)\n3. [Haus der schlafenden Schönen, filmportal.de](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/haus-der-schlafenden-schonen_1dff4a4276052612e04053d50b377b83)\n4. [House of the Sleeping Beauties critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/house-of-the-sleeping-beauties/critic-reviews/)\n5. [House of the Sleeping Beauties, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009828-house_of_sleeping_beauties)\n6. [Reviews, House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories, The StoryGraph](https://app.thestorygraph.com/book_reviews/75fa19eb-ab01-4cc6-b973-38a29ceb3297?sort=highest_rated)\n7. [Tribhuvan University e-library thesis on House of the Sleeping Beauties](https://elibrary.tucl.edu.np/JQ99OgQIizUxyjI9nB0on9OyLkqsGIf4/api/core/bitstreams/2230cdb6-fc90-447d-aaee-da95ef815e89/content)\n8. [House of the Sleeping Beauties, Goodreads community reviews](https://goodreads.com/book/show/3045862.House_of_the_Sleeping_Beauties)\n9. [Swansea University thesis on Kawabata adaptations](https://cronfa.swansea.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42658/Download/0042658-02082018162511.pdf)\n10. [House of Sleeping Beauties (1995), MovieWiser](https://moviewiser.com/us/movie/545469)\n11. [House of the Sleeping Beauties, Crew United](https://www.crew-united.com/en/House-of-the-Sleeping-Beauties__23703.html)\n12. [House of the Sleeping Beauties press kit, First Run Features](https://firstrunfeatures.com/presskits/houseofsleepingbeauties/sleepingbeauties_pk.pdf)\n13. [House of the Sleeping Beauties streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/house-of-the-sleeping-beauties)\n14. [House of the Sleeping Beauties (2006) parents guide, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844474/parentalguide/)\n15. [House of the Sleeping Beauties, Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0844474/credits/)\n16. [Das Haus der schlafenden Schönen, critic.de](https://www.critic.de/film/das-haus-der-schlafenden-schoenen-677/)\n17. [Sleeping Beauty, IJR](https://ijr.com/x/sleeping-beauty-Q2294057)\n18. [New Voices in Japanese Studies, Volume 12](https://newvoices.org.au/newvoices/media/JPF-New-Voices-in-Japanese-Studies-Vol-12.pdf)\n19. [The House of the Sleeping Beauties by Yasunari Kawabata, Literature and Writing, Research Starters, EBSCOhost](https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/literature-and-writing/house-sleeping-beauties-yasunari-kawabata)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1980s › Released 1980 to 1985*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/house-of-sleeping-beauties", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/house-of-sleeping-beauties.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"House of Sleeping Beauties\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/house-of-sleeping-beauties. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[House of Sleeping Beauties](https://www.edgepedia.org/house-of-sleeping-beauties)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/house-of-sleeping-beauties](https://www.edgepedia.org/house-of-sleeping-beauties). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"House of Sleeping Beauties\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/house-of-sleeping-beauties. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "House of Sleeping Beauties is Yasunari Kawabata's 1961 novella about old men sleeping beside drugged young women, adapted into films including Vadim Glowna's 2006 German Das Haus der schlafenden Schönen." }