[4] Chieko Sada is the daughter of Takichiro and Shige, who operate a wholesale dry goods shop in the Nakagyo Ward of Kyoto.

Soon after a chance encounter at Yasaka Shrine, Chieko learns of a twin sister Naeko, who had remained in her home village in Kitayama working in the mountain forests of cryptomeria north of the city.

The novel, one of the last that Kawabata completed before his death, examines themes common to much of his literature: aging and decline; old culture in the commercial new Japan; the muted expression of strong yet repressed emotion; the role of accident and misunderstanding in shaping lives.

[citation needed] The Old Capital was one of three novels cited by the Nobel Committee in awarding the 1968 Prize for Literature to Kawabata.

[2] The novel was adapted in 1963 into a Japanese feature film known in English under the title Twin Sisters of Kyoto.