Palm-of-the-Hand Stories

Palm-of-the-Hand Stories (掌の小説, Tenohira no shōsetsu or Tanagokoro no shōsetsu) is the name Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata gave to the type of short stories he wrote during his long career. The earliest of these stories were published in the early 1920s, with the last appearing posthumously in 1972.

The first Japanese collection under this title appeared in 1952 and contained 100 stories in two volumes. In 1971, an expanded edition was published with 111 stories, and in 1989 there was a further expansion with 122 stories (based on the 1981 publication of Kawabata's complete works). Some scholars have classified as many as 146 such stories in total. The name refers to the brevity of the stories – many of which are only two to three pages long – which would "virtually fit into the palm of the hand".