medallian forbidden fertility patriotism

books:

1 review
Yukio Mishima

Secker & Warburg, 1968

A disturbing novel of sexual manipulation
Yukio Mishima has written a strange and disquieting novel concerning a bitter old man who uses a beautiful youth as a narcisstic cold conqueror of the woman who left him. In turn, this 'cold conqueror' becomes so enamored with himself that he gets caught up in a web of sexual duality. This would be an ideal film project for controversial Japanese director Nagisa Oshima. For those not offended ...

After the Banquet

7 reviews
Yukio Mishima

Vintage, 1999

A great book about love, politics and money in 1960s Japan
Kazu is a middle-aged woman and the proprietress of a successful restaurant -- the Setsugoan -- in Tokyo. During a banquet for the Kagen Club, she meets and falls in love with Yuken Noguchi, a aristocrat and retired politician. They wed, and soon, Kazu decides to secretly use her wealth to aid her husband in returning to public office, despite protestions and warnings from her friends. "After ...

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea

1 review
Yukio Mishima

Charles E. Tuttle, 1965

Subtle complexity
This book is deceptively simple and straightforward. It is also powerful and unsettling. I recommend it for its storytelling qualities--it's an engaging narrative--and for the way it will stay with you and talk to you long after you've put it down.

The Temple of Dawn (The Sea of Fertility, No. 3)

1 review
Yukio Mishima, 1975

Moving, shocking, thought-provoking, and superbly elegantly constructed, the height of the "Sea" so far
In THE TEMPLE OF DAWN, the third book of Yukio Mishima's "Sea of Fertility" tetralogy, we find Shikeguni Honda on business in Thailand. Six years after the death of Isao Iinuma, the former judge is now a successful lawyer, but his interest in practising law is shaken when he meets Ying Chan, a Thai princess who is the second reincarnation of Kiyoaki Matsugae. THE TEMPLE OF DAWN differs greatly ...

Spring Snow

43 reviews
Yukio mishima

Pocket, 1980

the beauty and destructive power of all-consuming love
Mishima's Spring Snow is a coming-of-age tale for nouveau riche Kiyoaki, whose naive childhood crush on the more mature Satoko grows into something much more powerful, beautiful and, ultimately, destructive. Kiyoaki's failings are human and familiar; acting on rash impulses, immaturity, a failure to realise what he wants till he has lost it. Mishima's characterisation is finely drawn and ...

Patriotism

14 reviews
Yukio Mishima

New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1995

Will spark debate
"Patriotism" is Mishima stripped to the core: a simple tale of the sacrifice of a young couple, willingly and eagerly giving their lives for the emperor. Written by most anyone but Mishima this would be portrayed as a story of regret and tragedy, but in the hands of Mishima, the couple is described in tones extolling their beauty and virtue; death explained in words that evoke images of heat and ...

House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories (Japan's Modern Writers)

13 reviews
Yasunari Kawabata

Kodansha International Ltd, 1994

3 Stories, 1 Theme - The loneliness and desires of old age
"House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories" contains three variations on the same theme, encompassing the soul-sick loneliness of old age, and the longing for ideal companionship, one with no judgments or confrontation, but merely peace and the contentment that comes from loving someone. According to Kawabata, this longing increases with age, and one romances ghosts from the past, using ...

The temple of the golden pavilion (Berkley medallian books)

28 reviews
Yukio Mishima

Berkley Pub. Corp, 1971

Literature that rightfully make us proud to be Japanese
If ever criticized, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima is chided most frequently for some of its seemingly mundane, superfluous and repetitive details and paragraphs. Many give up, or decide not to read it at all, since the text appears heavy and unmanageable from the very first page. However, after analyzing the book and enduring challenges, one should come to realize the ...

Ba-ra-kei: Ordeal by Roses

2 reviews

Aperture, 2002

Long Search Rewarded
It took a long time for me to find this book (courtesy of Amazon.com) but it was definetly worth the frustration! This book of photography is a MUST for serious Mishima / Hosoe collectors and fans - it offers not only a set of beautifully taken photos but a deadly and not insignificant insight to both the photographer and his tempramental subject. Buy, beg, steal but whatever you do dont borrow ...

Madame de Sade

1 review
Yukio Mishima

C. E. Tuttle Co, 1971

A stunning, astonishing play, full of unusual insight
This is from Tony Saroop's excellent review of the play: Mishima's "sensibility is closer to and retains elements of an archaic, pagan, 'pre-Christian' sensibility, a sensibility we have completely lost touch with, but which Sade seems to have tapped into and evoked out of his inner self. . . . "I think this is why Western scientific scholarship, with its naive belief in the efficacy of ...

Runaway Horses

13 reviews
Yukio mishima

Pocket, 1981

greatest mishima book
this is definately one of the greatest novels written in japanese. though the main character seems naive and unreal, the novel does have merit in revealing a different side of japan. unlike spring snow or novels by kawabata, this does not conform to the steretype of being "feminine", but portrays the more musculine samurai culture of japan. admittedly, the main character, isao's political ...

Way of the Samurai

2 reviews
Yukio Mishima

Basic Books, 1977

Be a 20th Century Samurai
This is the only edition of the Hagakure to buy. it is filled with the commentary of Yukio Mishima, the last man to live the bushido life before committing suicide. The illustrations are spare and powerful, suffusing modern despair with ancient tragedy.

Death In Midsummer and Other Stories

11 reviews
Yukio Mishima

Penguin Putnam~trade, 1971

Very impressive
A friend recommended Mishima to me, and this was the book I picked up. First, to respond to a reviewer below, this book (at least my copy) has no introduction, no preface, no afterward, and has numerous translators. The stories were selected by Mishima himself, and the book was published in New York. Reading any "leftist" intentions on the part of the publishers of this book, then, is certainly ...

Sound of Waves

59 reviews
Yukio Mishima

Topeka Bindery, 1994

The Sound of Waves reveals the genius of Yukio Mishima
Yukio Mishima (The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea) is the fascinating subject of two recent DVD releases Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters - Criterion Collection and Patriotism - Criterion Collection. Set in a small fishing village, his 1954 novel, The Sound of Waves (Shiosai), tells the coming-of-age story of Shinji Kubo and his love for Hatsue, the beautiful daughter of the wealthy ...

Forbidden Colors

14 reviews
Yukio Mishima

Perigee Trade, 1981

"Subtle evil is more beautiful than coarse goodness, and is therefore moral."
Bitter and brilliant, Forbidden Colors is a tough book to like. Someone asked me if I enjoyed it, and I honestly cannot say that I did. It moved me. It filled me with both admiration and pity. It depressed me, and ultimately troubled me. Mishima at his best is a writer of terrible vision. Even though I might not have liked what he had to say in Forbidden Colors, I believe that it is one of his ...

Musica

2 reviews
Yukio Mishima

Editorial Seix Barral, 2001

EXCELENTE
ES UN EXCELENTE LIBRO, MERECE LA PENA LEERLO.. SUGESTION, AMOR, SENSUALIDAD E HISTORIA

The sailor who fell from grace with the sea

47 reviews
Yukio Mishima

Knopf, 1965

Mishima's Haunting Love Story.
Yukio Mishima (The Sound of Waves) is the fascinating subject of two recent DVD releases, Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters - Criterion Collection and Patriotism - Criterion Collection. He is perhaps best known for his masterpiece, the "Sea of Fertility tetralogy," which includes Spring Snow (1969), Runaway Horses (1969), The Temple of Dawn (1970), and The Decay of the Angel ...

Acts of Worship: Seven Stories

4 reviews
Yukio Mishima

Kodansha America, 1989

Bespeak the author's rigid mentality
Acts Of Worship: Seven Stories is an anthology of short stories by the internationally famous Japanese author Yukio Mishima, who is perhaps most notorious for his dramatic ritual suicide in 1970. Flawlessly translated into English by John Bester, the short stories include: Fountains in the Rain; Raisin Bread; Sword; Sea and Sunset; Cigarette; Martyrdom; and the title piece, Act of Worship, and ...

Confessions of a Mask

22 reviews
Yukio Mishima

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1972

Gay feelings repressed by cultural forces
Different cultures deal with homosexuality in different ways. Mishima's sadomasochistic homosexuality asserted itself early. While still a tiny child, he responded instantly to certain kinds of masculine beauty and found a mysterious fascination in images and narratives of heroic men being tortured and, ideally, killed. The supreme example was a picture of the martyred St. Sebastian, bound ...

Decay of Angel

10 reviews
Yukio mishima

Pocket, 1981

Staggering
I must admit, I didn't really like this book that much at first. I felt as if Mishima's depiction of Toru (the 'incarnation' this time around), with all the hyper-intelligent, will-to-power stuff, was teetering on the brink of self-parody, especially in an extended first-person section taken from his journal, in which he comes across as a more malevolent version of the narrator of Temple of the ...

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