Yukio Mishima - The Death of a Man

A book I'm much looking forward to and one I'll add to the list of titles for this year is Yukio Mishima - The Death of a Man published to commemorate 50 years since the author's passing. With photographs by Kishin Shinoyama. As of yet I can't see details of the translator, the book is published by Rizzoli. The Death of Man at Rizzoli USA https://www.rizzoliusa.com/book/9780847868698/

Yukio Mishima - Damian Flanagan - Critical Lives

The momentum of books on Mishima Yukio continues after the recently mammoth addition to the canon with Persona comes a more concise book from Damian Flanagan, an award winning translator of Soseki Natsume, published as part of the admirable Critical Lives Series by Reaktion Books. Flanagan's Mishima starts with Mishima's final hours, describing the sequence of events of Mishima's attempted coup before reversing back to examine how his early years were influenced by being torn between the overbearance of his grandmother with that of his mother and also of his father, who disapproved of his tendencies towards writing, this is described as instilling a trauma in the young Kimitake and there are similes made between the state of post-war Japan with that of Mishima's psyche, a pulling between adopting and attraction to Westernization with that of preserving Japan's traditional identity and characteristics.

 

Centre to this book Flanagan points to an event that he feels is perhaps overlooked in other books that have appeared about him, that after graduating Mishima received a watch from the Emperor, time would remain a central facet to Mishima, Flanagan points that the taking off of his watch was one of the last actions he undertook, and throughout the book highlights other incidences where time played a crucial part in his life, his strict adherence to publisher's deadlines, most affectively Flanagan points to Mishima's sense of the forces of time culminating in his writing of The Sea of Fertility, wanting to write a 'world explaining book' that would also transcend time itself, whilst writing the instalments of the book, Flanagan deftly demonstrates that for Mishima, time was running out, and aptly describing the events of November 25th as Japan's JFK day, the documentary The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima points out that a reportedly 10,000 people turned out for his funeral, Flanagan's conceptual or thematical approach in describing the events surrounding the writing of The Sea of Fertility and November 25th is a refreshing approach, in addition to it he also explores the significance of the sea in Mishima's writing as being a place void of time, these contrasts run parallel to the polarities found in Mishima himself, transforming himself from the aloof pale young man to the body builder of his later years, time seems to be at the heart of the writer who felt himself an anachronism at the age of twenty.    

 

As with the other biographies of Mishima what comes across succinctly is his prolificness as a writer, perhaps something that was encouraged by his mother who would provide ink and paper for him, it seems his writing schedule would begin at 11 at night, warming up with lighter stories and then moving onto his more literary works, Mishima's writing career and influences are chronicled, a striking image is that of the launch of A Forest In Full Bloom held in a blacked out restaurant during the bombing raids, and of his father resignedly accepting Mishima's writing career with the observation that due to the war he'd be dead soon anyway, reading of his initial ventures into his career as a writer there's a feeling that with his connections with the owners of a paper factory in a time of strict paper rationing this might have been a factor that perhaps may have tilted the balance slightly to his favour. Among his influences it always comes as a slight surprise that although Cocteau and Radiguet are often name checked, Genet's seems to be absent, Flanagan explores the Mishima - Dazai relationship/influence, and among other writers mentions the folklorist Shinobu Orikuchi, (Shisha no Sho), who Mishima gave a fictional portrait in the short story Mikumano Mōde translated by John Bester as Acts of Worship. Throughout the book there is mention of film adaptions of Mishima's works and those that he acted in, perhaps a filmography would have made an interesting addition to the bibliographies at the end of the book, the link between Japanese literature and cinema is a fascinating one.  

 

Toward the end of the book Flanagan summarises Mishima in relation to contemporary writers, noting in a way that in terms of writers being recognised in the West that the baton has been passed to Murakami Haruki, with the observation that Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase begins on the significant date of November 25th, throughout the book it's mentioned that Mishima was also consciously aware of trends in the zeitgeist, at times this was more successful than others, as with the success of The Temple of the Golden Pavilion over the subsequent court case surrounding After the Banquet's publication. Mishima left many enigmas behind, and to fully gauge the extent of his legacy would be interesting to estimate, maybe it would take a manga adaption of Kamen no kokuhaku to find Mishima at the centre of things again within a contemporary setting, but Mishima's abhorrence of the materialistic way of life still has relevance and leverage for the twenty first century. Essentially the book is inspiring and erudite wanting you to turn to the novels and the writing again, discussing Thirst For Love from 1950 we learn that Mishima had toyed with the idea of Etsuko's perspective being that from a male one, which spurns a reappraisal of this writer who pursued things to their fullest degree.

   

  

 

Yukio Mishima is part of the Critical Lives Series at Reaktion Books

 

 

Persona - A Biography of Yukio Mishima

 

Recently reading an article in the Daily Mainichi it pointed out that within the space of a year in Japan there had been published 10 non-fiction titles on Mishima, as it's just over forty years since his committing seppuku Mishima still generates a great deal of interest, it probably could quite easily be thought that Mishima remains Japan's most controversial author. Persona, by Naoki Inose, along with Hiroaki Sato is an expansive book,  where as the two previous biographies of Mishima have given more of a straightforward account of his life Persona gives his life and works a much broader contextualisation, although the authors of the previous biographies can relate their personal relationships to Mishima, Persona is afforded with a more detached view, and as we move further away from the events of not only his life but that of the Japan of his day we are treated to a panorama of historical and political events. In the first segment of the book there are detailed portraits and explorations of Mishima's lineage and of his ancestry, this makes for an informing historical study  within itself, as it incorporates the sociological and political upheavals and their implications of the emerging Meiji era, an indelible question that arises and seems to stand out from the various episodes and rebellions of the time being- 'is modernization the same as westernization?', which seems to encapsulate the dilemma of the period, one that would perhaps continue to an extent into the subsequent one. This genealogical portrait leads  us to Hiraoka Kimitake growing up under the watchful eye of his domineering grandmother who installed an appreciation of culture in the young Kimitake, later as he began to write his father was initially very opposed to his writing destroying manuscripts when he found them, although he would receive encouragement from his mother.

As well as describing Mishima's formative years as a writer, initally poetry and then short stories, Persona  offers a glimpse into his influences, like many Japanese writers of the time we learn of his indebtedness to the translator and poet Horiguchi Daigaku, who translated Radiguet, Cocteau and Morand into Japanese. As the narrative of the biography follows Mishima's progress it often sidesteps into explanatory descriptions of political changes and shifting social attitudes that would inform his writing, which often take two or three steps away from the subject before working their way back, these prove to be highly informing and an aid to con-textualize Mishima and his writing. Probably the lengthiest of these is given over in describing the writing of Confessions of a Mask/Kamen no Kokuhaku, events of the novel are contrasted with those that occurred in his real life, the famous scenes of the novel are carefully examined, the medical examination which he failed to pass, the discovery of the painting of The Martydom of St Sebastian by Guido Reni, (later whilst recounting his travels in Europe we learn of when Mishima saw the  painting in the original). Another episode which we get the impression that left a deep and marked impression on Mishima was his meeting and relationship with Mitani Kuniko, the sister of a friend, whom he missed the opportunity of marrying which would be the source of a deep inner regret, subsequently he learned of her engagement on a date that would later become significant, 25th November. The biography illustrates Mishima's prolificness in great detail, if not writing for multiple monthly magazine articles whilst also his novels and plays then we see him travelling to research his writing,  passages from a notebook for one such excursion for The Sailor Who Fell from Grace With the Sea is given, in it we read abstract descriptions of the setting, it's fauna, the departure times of the ships, designs of  naval uniforms. After the war Mishima appears to have been on a one man mission to create a literary revival akin to the one that W.B Yeats initiated, Mishima being the antithesis to many writers of the day most notably Dazai, who was at the height of his popularity when Mishima was at the start of the ascension of his, Dazai's suicide acted as a catalyst in Mishima between the concepts of a writer's death with that of the death of a man of action, the distinction between the intellect and the physical is something that seems to have grown wider as his life progressed.

Persona delivers to us a Mishima we are familiar with and also one we are not so, reading the book we recognise the key events and moments in his life but there are also many incidences and details here perhaps not given as much attention to in the previous biographies, the times he spent in New York and also in Persona there is larger emphasis given over in exploring Mishima the playwright. The book originally written for the domestic audience references many titles that have yet to be translated and it provokes speculations  on which of Mishima's books may appear in translation next?, Kyoko's House, Beautiful Star, or the first collection The Forest in Bloom?, it would have to be said that any new translations are long overdue.

Persona at Stone Bridge Press

Madame de Sade by Yukio Mishima

In his afterword Mishima explains that after reading The Life of the Marquis de Sade by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa the riddle of why the Marquis's wife Renee stayed devoted to him right up until he was released from prison would be at the heart of his play, only after her husband's release did she decide to leave him. This edition is the first in a series of International Plays published by Peter Owen from 1968, translated by Donald Keene, the play (Sado koshaku fujin),was first performed in Japan at the Kinokuniya Hall in Tokyo in November 1965 and directed by Takeo Matsuura, the book also contains photographs from the performance taken by Koichi Yamada. Mishima also states that he wanted to see de Sade from the view point of the women around him. It's a play in three parts, the first opens in 1772 with Madame de Montreuil discussing with Baroness de Simiane and Comtesse de Saint-Fond about the recent crimes and scandals involving de Sade, talking about a recent episode after which de Sade is a wanted man, Saint-Fond talks of de Sade's 'miracles' of evil -

'The miracles of the Marquis de Sade occur only after certainties have been piled on certainties, and all that human beings may learn through the senses has been exhausted. His miracles have nothing in common with the miracles lazy people merely wait for. That day in Marseilles he drove himself to greater and greater efforts. He, Mariette and the man servant joined in a fellowship of pain like galley slaves rowing their banks of oars in a trireme across the sea. The sunrise glowed like blood for I neglected to say it was morning.'.

Saint-Fond goes on to suggest that immorality is a privilege of the aristocracy, Simiane and Saint-Fond vow to help Madame de Montreuil to clear her son in-law's scandal and seek a pardon for his crimes, de Sade has since disappeared, gone on the run. Renee, (the Marquis's wife), arrives and after the two ladies leave Madame de Montreuil pleads with Renee to leave her husband, but Renee replies that 'God does not permit divorce', thus beginning the argument that runs throughout the play between the mother and daughter, Renee reasons that her mother doesn't understand Alphonse's true nature, 'If my husband is a monster of immorality, I must become a monster of devotion', she reasons. It could be said that like Mishima's earlier play Primary Colours/Sangenshoku from 1955, there are similar dialogues that are testing the social morality of the day, although in this play he's examining these themes by examining an episode from the past, in his afterword Mishima reminds us that this is not strictly a historical play, de Sade's nihilistic philosophy acts as the catalyst in which the dialogues between the women revolves around. Montreuil thinks that Alphonse (de Sade) is deceiving her daughter, 'No woman has ever been deceived by a man,' replies Renee.

Renee's sister Anne arrives and divulges that she has been in Italy with Alphonse after he had forced himself on her, and reveals that he is hiding out in a farmhouse in Sardinia. As the play progresses it jumps forward in years, the third part, set in 1790, sees de Sade incarcerated and two of the main characters revealing that they have been involved in de Sade's strange masses. With the ruminations of the beginning of the revolution, Madame de Montreuil observes that maybe Sade's crimes are minuscule in comparison to what they have begun to hear about what is happening. Mishima's exploration of what might have made Renee decide to leave her husband ends the play, with de Sade himself appearing at the end of the play.   

Enjo

Short piece on Kon Ichikawa's film version of Mishima's 'Temple Of The Golden Pavilion' entitled 'Enjo', it was released in 1958, two years after Mishima's novel was published. Ichikawa adapted many stories from the big names of Japanese Literature, like Soseki, Tanizaki, Toson. It's been some years since I read Mishima's novel, and it was good to reacquaint myself with the story, although the film only touches on key elements of the novel, I guess if Ichikawa wanted to delve deeper into the book, we would have had a film that went on for alot longer, which would have been no bad thing. Mishima's novel was based on the true incident of Hayashi Yoken, a Buddhist acolyte who burnt down Kinkaku-ji , in Kyoto, July 1950, and then attempted to commit suicide.Ichikawa's film seems to present some of the sequences a little out of order to the book, if I remember rightly, but still it makes for very interesting viewing. I seem to be increasingly enjoying black and white films of the 50's and 60's.

The film has Raizo Ichikawa playing the lead as Goichi Mizoguchi, the monk who becomes obsessed with the beauty of the temple, and eventually burns it down. Raizo Ichikawa also went on to appear in Kenji Misumi's 1964 film 'Ken', (excellent synopsis here.),which was an adaption of Mishima's short story 'Sword'. I liked the cinematography by Kazuo Miyagawa, who was the cinematographer for Kurosawa's, 'Rashomon' and also worked with Mizoguchi, Naruse, Shinoda, and also Masumura. The cremation on the beach is a scene that'll remain in my mind for a while, also at the end when Goichi watches the embers of the burning temple being blown around in the swirl of the heat was captured brilliantly. Also I don't remember the novel ending the same way that the film did, as I think the novel finishes with Goichi sitting on the hill after setting the temple ablaze, if Hayashi Yoken actually met his end in the way depicted in the film, I don't know.

 

There's not too many Kon Ichikawa films available with English subtitles, which is a great pity, it would be great to see alot more of his films like 'Her Brother', 'Punishment Room' , 'The Hole' and 'Odd Obsession' which was based on Tanizaki's novel 'The Key'. 'Odd Obsession' won the Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes film festival, so it's hard to believe that these films aren't readily available on DVD outside of Japan.