Walking through a Snow Tunnel in Tokamachi, February 14, 1956

Children walking to school often had to navigate and elaborate set of tunnels through the snow. The hearty character of the people of this region, along with the sight of this delicate summer fabric bleaching in the sun over some of the deepest snow in Japan made such a strong impression on novelist Kawabata Yasunari (1899–1972) that he took it up in his 1937 novel Yukiguni (Snow Country), for which he later received the Nobel Prize in Literature.