The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima

Author: Henry Scott Stokes
Publisher: Cooper Square Press
ISBN: 1461624223
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
Novelist, playwright, film actor, martial artist, and political commentator, Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) was arguably the most famous person in Japan at the time of his death. Henry Scott Stokes, one of Mishima's closest friends, was the only non-Japanese allowed to attend the trial of the men involved in Mishima's spectacular suicide. In this insightful and empathetic look at the writer, Stokes guides the reader through the milestones of Mishima's meteoric and eclectic career and delves into the artist's major works and themes. This biography skillfully and compassionately illuminates the achievements and disquieting ideas of a brilliant and deeply troubled man, an artist of whom Nobel Laureate Yasunari Kawabata had said, "A writer of Mishima's caliber comes along only once every two or three hundred years."

The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima

Author: Henry Scott Stokes
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0815410743
Category : Actors
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
This incisive biography begins with the spectacularly tragic last day of the militant Japanese novelist, perhaps best known for his monumental four-book masterpiece The Sea of Fertility.

Yukio Mishima

Author: Acie Cargill
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781081535032
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 84

Book Description
Yukio Mishima, one of Japan's best writers of the 2oth century, was deeply attracted to the patriotism and martial spirit of Japan's past, which he contrasted unfavourably to the materialistic Westernized people and the prosperous society of Japan in the postwar era. Mishima himself was torn between these differing values. Although he maintained an essentially Western lifestyle in his private life and had a vast knowledge of Western culture, he raged against Japan's imitation of the West. He diligently developed the age-old Japanese arts of karate and kendo. He formed a controversial private army of about 80 students, the Tate no Kai (Shield Society), with the aim of preserving the Japanese martial spirit and theoretically helping to protect the emperor (the symbol of Japanese culture) in case of an uprising by the left or a communist attack.On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of his militia entered a military base in central Tokyo, took the commandant hostage, and tried to persuade the soldiers at the base to join them in supporting the emperor and overturning Japan's pacifist Constitution. When this was unsuccessful, Mishima committed suicide by seppuku. It seems that this was his original purpose, a ritual suicide in the samurai tradition. He had written his closing letters and got all his affairs in order before they went on their mission. He left enough money for his assistants to have a legal defense.

Persona

Author: Naoki Inose
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press
ISBN: 1611720087
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 866

Book Description
Traces the life of the Japanese author who went from sickly youth to dedicated student of the martial arts, looking at his family life, the wartime years, and his career as a writer who advocated for traditional values.

Mishima: a Biography

Author: John Nathan
Publisher: Little Brown
ISBN:
Category : Biography
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Book Description
Finally back in print: The definitive biography of the legendary Japanese writer-legendary as much for his tumultuous life and macabre suicide as for his Nobel-nominated writings.

Star

Author: Yukio Mishima
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 0811228436
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 57

Book Description
For the first time in English, a glittering novella about stardom from “one of the greatest avant-garde Japanese writers of the twentieth century” (Judith Thurman, The New Yorker) Winner of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature All eyes are on Rikio. And he likes it, mostly. His fans cheer, screaming and yelling to attract his attention—they would kill for a moment alone with him. Finally the director sets up the shot, the camera begins to roll, someone yells “action”; Rikio, for a moment, transforms into another being, a hardened young yakuza, but as soon as the shot is finished, he slumps back into his own anxieties and obsessions. Being a star, constantly performing, being watched and scrutinized as if under a microscope, is often a drag. But so is life. Written shortly after Yukio Mishima himself had acted in the film “Afraid to Die,” this novella is a rich and unflinching psychological portrait of a celebrity coming apart at the seams. With exquisite, vivid prose, Star begs the question: is there any escape from how we are seen by others?

Life for Sale

Author: Yukio Mishima
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525565159
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Book Description
After botching a suicide attempt, salaryman Hanio Yamada decides to put his life up for sale in the classifieds section of a Tokyo newspaper. Soon interested parties come calling with increasingly bizarre requests and what follows is a madcap comedy of errors, involving a jealous husband, a drug-addled heiress, poisoned carrots—even a vampire. For someone who just wants to die, Hanio can't seem to catch a break, as he finds himself enmeshed in a continent-wide conspiracy that puts him in the cross hairs of both his own government and a powerful organized-crime syndicate. By turns wildly inventive, darkly comedic, and deeply surreal, in Life for Sale Yukio Mishima stunningly uses satire to explore the same dark themes that preoccupied him throughout his lifetime.

Death in Midsummer, and Other Stories

Author: Yukio Mishima
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 9780811201179
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 196

Book Description
Nine short stories by the Japanese literary genius provide insights into the struggles and problems of his contemporary countrymen.

Patriotism

Author: Yukio Mishima
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 9780811213127
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 68

Book Description
'Was it death he was now waiting for? Or a wild ecstasy of the senses?' For the young army officer of Yukio Mishima's seminal story, 'Patriotism, ' death and ecstasy become elementally intertwined. With his unique rigor and passion, Mishima hones in on the body as the great tragic stage for all we call social, ritual, political.

Confessions of a Mask

Author: Yukio Mishima
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 9780811201186
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
The story of a man coming to terms with his homosexuality in traditional Japanese society has become a modern classic.