Many people believe in the concept of fate, or that everything happens for a reason. I wave on my own personal belief of this, but I do believe in karma; whatever you do in your life will be reflected later. In his story "The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket", Yasunari Kawabata seems to use this idea of fate, but not exactly in the karmic sense.
By using their creativity, the children are drawn together while searching for insects. One boy finds what be believes to be a grasshopper and after giving it to Kiyoko, she tells him and the others that it is actually a bell cricket. Kawabata asks the questions if we'd be satisfied or disappointed to be told we have a grasshopper when we do indeed actually only have a bell cricket.
The aspect of fate is brought up by the appearance of the names on one another's kimonos; Kiyoko's on Fujio's, and vice versa on one another's breasts. Are they meant to be together, or was it simply coincidence? That is for the reader to decide, though the narrator seems to think that it was indeed karma that brought them together, based on his observations.
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