The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country. The land lay white under the night sky.

The opening lines of Yasunari Kawabata’s 1935 novel "Snow Country" are among the most famous in Japanese literature. Now, to mark the 50th anniversary of the writer and Nobel laureate’s death on April 16, 1972, NHK is set to air a new adaptation of the novel.

The tale of an urban Tokyoite’s ill-fated relationship with a rural geisha was shot onsite in Fukushima Prefecture and features Issei Takahashi in the role of protagonist Shimamura.