Product Description
This is a tale based on the strike which took place in the mid-1950s at Omi Kenshi, a silk manufacturer not far from Tokyo. The events described reflect the management / labour tensions of the period and is a piece of social commentary on the transformation of Japanese business.Amazon.com Review
A labor strike in a Japanese silk factory may not seem like apromising premise for a novel, but Yukio Mishima manages to turn anhistorical event into a fictional exploration of Japan's oldpaternalistic system of labor management. The strike Mishima writesabout occurred in the 1950s, and the outcome changed the face ofbusiness forever, as factories moved from an ancient, almost feudalway of dealing with workers to the modern method of workerparticipation. Mishima faithfully chronicles the conditions thatplagued the factory workers--censored mail, internal spies, poor paythat was nevertheless just enough to keep discontent at bay--and thecoalescence of the labor movement that eventually changed them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

No wonder it wasn't translated sooner
This book was apparently the reason for a falling-out between Mishima and his translator-to-be-biographer John Nathan, and after reading this tardy translation it's easy to see why. Mishima got lazy, and it's difficult to believe that he really thought this was his best work. It seems instead like he wrote it just for the sake of writing something. It is apparent from it that he was a writer of skill and experience: the characters behave consistently, their motivations are developed, the events are grounded by believable scenery and the story is evenly paced - but it's just lifeless. Mishima doesn't seem to care about any of the characters, there are no memorable scenes (like the festival in Thirst For Love) or interesting ideas, and the resolution offers no fresh perspective on the issues involved. The strike itself is practically glossed over. The only parts I enjoyed were the ones involving Okano and his complex cynical philosophy, especially near the end, but this could have stood to be developed more, instead of the motivations of the other characters. Although Nathan missed out on translating the Sea of Fertility by refusing to translate Silk and Insight, I really can't blame him.

Uneven.
I'm not too sure what Mishima was trying to do with this one. Yes, it _is_ the story of a strike, technically speaking...except the strike really doesn't take up that many pages. In fact, it barely takes up any. Society's response to it is outlined sketchily at best, the details of it aren't shown much concern for, and for most of its duration it is located offscreen, out of the writer's focus. The summaries are misleading - the effects of the strike and of unions on Japanese culture are, in fact, never discussed at all. Don't expect a Japanese Germinal here.

The novel works much better as a character study of Komazawa Zenjiro, the owner of the company in which the strike occurs. I'm thinking that must have been Mishima's true purpose, seeing as every chapter title starts with Komazawa's name. Komazawa is a man who lives quite firmly in the past, and tries to adapt the ways of the past to this modern world. (This bears more than a slight parallel to Mishima himself.) His quasi-religious faith in those ways is poignant, and though he clearly has the author's sympathies, Mishima has admirably chosen not to whitewash his faults - Komazawa's hypocrisy, his occasional pointless cruelty and his refusal to even try to understand anything not in the scope of the old ways are all highlighted quite clearly.

However, a good character study does not a good novel make, and the other characters seem, to put it nicely, "unfinished." Otsuki, the strike leader, has precious few appearances to put in for such an important role, and his only motive for what he does, according to the author, is an almost childish chagrin at Komazawa's separation of him from his girlfriend. He seems like more of a plot device than a character. More frustrating, though, is the fact that this novel has many potentially fascinating characters that it simply chooses not to develop. Take the ex-geisha Kikuno, for instance, whose motives are never made anything approaching "clear" - does she love Komazawa? What is the source of her admiration of him? Why did she even want to quit being a geisha in the first place? Or what about the ominous intellectual Okano, who is depicted as a Machiavellian scheming sort of man, but is never given (and never gives) any rationalization for his actions? Did he do what he did solely out of mischief? Was he motivated by financial concerns? What about Komazawa's wife Fusae, who seems to have a (similarly unexplained) martyrdom complex? All these are things Mishima could really have taken some time to flesh out.

As it is, the novel's an often interesting portrait of a very specific type of person, but that's about it. It could have been more. If you're a fan of Mishima, you are of course going to read this, but if this is your first contact with his work, I doubt it will impress you enough to make you delve into the rest of his oeuvre.

Interesting overview of labor relations
While I had heard of Mishima for years, I had never actually sat down with one of his books.This book takes an intimate look at a silk production factory; in which the working conditions are so deplorable that the overworked employees finally go on strike.

What makes this book so interesting is Mishima's ability to flesh out all his characters.He does not fall into the simplistic "worker=good/boss=bad" trap, Mishima enjoys creating morally ambiguous characters.First, Komazawa-san, the company president, appears to be very hard working and inspiring to his employees.However, as I read about the horrible working conditions within the company, I found myself rooting for Otsuki-san, the strike leader.As Mishima continues to dig deeper into his characters' psyches, revealing their ethical blindspots, I discovered that no one is completely good or evil.How the protesters conscript other workers to join the strike, and how Komazawa-san's deteriorating self image reveals his pitiful humanity, make for very compelling reading.

The use of a strike situation is a wonderful crucible in which to combine all these differing emotions, motivations, and deceptions; resulting in characters on both sides of the picket line who are forever changed (scarred?) by the whole experience.

You may not be able to look at silk the same way again. ... Read more

Product Description
Shunsuke's novels are serene, romantic and pure. His life, however, is another matter. Embittered by three broken marriages and unsatisfactory affairs, his abiding passion is revenge. His only pleasure is derived from witnessing the suffering of womankind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Into the Mind and Life of Mishima
Yuichi, a beautiful homosexual youth, is manipulated by the ugly, aging author Shunsuke to extract a bizarre revenge on women who have scorned him. Yuichi, as he comes to enjoy his powers of seduction over women he detests and delves deeper into Tokyo's gay scene, loses himself with his own Narcissism...
Though-as with all Mishima's work- this is a work of art,it is certainly no comfortable fireside read.Ahead of its time,its detailed account of the gay subculture and sex may not have the impact it did 40 plus years ago, but it still is influential. The term 'Gei' may well have become corrupted to the English 'Gay' and explain how the term came about.
The true interest in this book is that it reveals much about Mishima himself. He was a homosexual with a particular liking for beautiful boys and wealded enormous manipulative power over these young men (notably those who assisted in his 'coup' and suicide by Hiri Kiri)
And the book overflows with Mishima's obsession on beauty and art. I'm always reminded of a parable Mishima wrote in-I think-'The Sailor who fell from Grace...' where a young student sleeps overnight in a clearing and drank the most delicious water from a pool. It was night and he could not see. On awakening he saw the water was pooled in a skull which made him retch,the enigma being that why should this be when the same water was beautiful the night before. This riddle runs through Mishima's work and his philosophies of beauty and ugliness.
Again, this is no pleasant book to curl up next to the fire with, but for Mishima devotees or people curious of this enigmatic man, its an insight into his disturbed life and mind.

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 by a rather lurid study of bisexuality and revenge. ... Read more

Product Description
On November 25, 1970, the world renowned Japanese writer Yukio Mishima committed seppuku with his own antique sword. Mishima's spectacular suicide has been called many things: a hankering for heroism; a beautiful, perverse drama; a political protest against Japan's emasculated postwar constitution; the epitaph of a mad genius.

Part travelogue, part biography, and part philosophical treatise, Mishima's Sword is the story of Christopher Ross's journey to find a sword and maybe an understanding of Mishima's country. The cold trail the author follows inspires a tale of the most engaging--and occasionally bizarre--sort, with glimpses of the real Japan that is not seen by tourists, with digressions on, among other things, bushido and socks, mutineers and Noh ghosts, nosebleeds and metallurgy--and even how to dress for suicide. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Interesting, but needed an editor.
I picked up this book from the martial arts section of my local bookstore. When I started flipping through it, I thought the answer the author was looking for was quite different than what it turned out to be. I thought he was trying to understand himself and his own studies on martial arts through his research on Mishima; but this isn't quite it. If anything, it is more of a glance at Japan and the bio of a fairly wretched person.

This book flip-flops rapidly, has multiple grammatical and spelling errors and the format is terrible. The author also tries very hard to pop off with profundities but unless this is your first exposure to eastern philosophy, it doesn't really sing.

It seems when the author hits an interesting subject, he changes to something else and then rambles about that for awhile. Towards the end it seems like he is desperately trying to pad out the rest of the book by jumping topics to unrelated information (he might have been trying to build tension, but it didn't succeed). I honestly still don't understand the author's interest in Mishima; the picture the author paints is one of a narcisstic sociopath.

I honestly came to hate Mishima though the book as he comes off as a malevolent, Don Quixote-esque character. The author's mentioning of Mishima's sexuality does help put some of the reasons for Mishima's ultra-machismo in place, but instead of focusing on Mishima's homosexuality, it might have been better to focus more on his sado-masochist fetish instead as it seems to say more about the man.

I do appreciate that the author is willing to still point a critical eye towards the object of his interest, but perhaps he was a little too successful.

As another review suggested, the author might have been better suited to writing about his daily life in Japan as I found it to be the most interesting part of the book.

I'd still say it is worth reading once.

Good subject, poor delivery.
This is a pretty fascinating account of Yukio Mishima's life and eventual suicide seppuku style. As far as the amazing real life story of Mishima and the amazing history of Japan goes, this book should have been 5 stars. The reason I only gave it three is the author's self-indulgent, "I'm sooo cool because I know about japanese culture and kendo", attitude and writing style. You have to read %50 percent of the book hearing about this guy's stay in japan and martial arts routines.
I appreciate the attempt to write more than just a biography, but when it comes down to it, who do you want to read about? Mishima or some cocky british japanophile?

the only book i've thrown across a room in digust at
I happen to have read many novels by Mishima in their English translations as well as many other Japanese novelists. I came to this book as someone interested in anything about Mishima having already read the Nathan and Stokes biographies and the Yourcenar book on him. But, regardless of whether one has any interest in Mishima or in Japanese literature or in Japan I think this book could only be read by someone amused by bad writing. This book was the worst book I have ever read by far - nothing comes close. While the story itself and the subject itself are certainly worthy Christopher Ross has such a flair for lack of taste and such a flair for tangents that are neither interesting nor at all relevant that, well, yes, one may find this amusing as an example of bad writing. Ridiculously bad! I am utterly astonished this was published. For example in one particularly crazy tangent that I am recalling from memory he uses the pretext that Mishima was a resident of Tokyo to speak of going to one section of Tokyo where pornography was available (I'm not offended at all by pornography here - only by ridiculously off-subject and uninteresting writing) - and then offhandedly makes some nitwit observation that the chrysantheum image is often used to cover up private parts in pornographic pictures and then he informs us that the chrysantheum is a national symbol in Japan. And then... on with his story of searching for Mishima's sword. But there are countless other examples of tangents that are completely uninteresting, uninformative, and irrelevant. This might be alright with any sort of tactfulness but, always, Christopher Ross seemed to come across as Beavis or Butthead- snickering at some stupid observation which he thinks is original or insightful. I began reading this thinking I might want to write a review of it for a local publication- thus I plunged forward with it despite how much I disliked it. But halfway into it - I think at the point he makes his juvenile snickering about what covers private parts in certain magazines he has seen (which has nothing to do with anything whatsoever) - I spontaneously threw the book across my apartment - both in jealousy that here was someone who had something published and then, primarily, at the utter contempt I had for this person. Spending time reading Ross is like being forced to listen to the most annoying person you have ever sat next to on a bus, plane, or waiting in line. All you can do is endure and try not to lose your temper. I certainly, however, recommend any of Mishima's books particularly 'Confessions of a Mask' and 'Temple of the Golden Pavillion' for those who have not read his works before. Nathan's biography stands out from the others though the movie 'Mishima' was based on the Scott Stokes biography (which is also good and covers the subject in a different enough way to make it worth reading in addition to the other.) Plenty has been written about Mishima and it would be helpful for the novice to Japan to understand that Mishima's death is seen as something of an embarrasment and an egotistical act- though a portion of the right-wing there may look at him with respect. Anyhow, avoid this book unless you are searching for samples of poor writing- in which case I highly recommended going thru the pages of this piece of trash that has the feel of a weekend spent with an immature suburban junior high student without talent, taste, or seemingly without any reason to having had a book published. Was this a publisher's joke? Did Ross pay the publisher to have this book published? In fewer words, this book was just astonishingly bad.

Mostly just fascinating
I found this book by accident while waiting for someone, and I was enthralled by it. Ross uses the sensational circumstances of Mishima's very public and gruesome suicide to explore Japanese martial culture in general and tries to explain his own fascination with it along the way.
While he keeps tracking Mishima's life and death as a guide to his narrative, it becomes clearer and clearer that Mishima is conceivably of no importance outside his role as a popular author of nationalist appeal, and that his very theatrical life and death actually stand for very little. His careful reconstruction of himself and his image is not so uncommon, and in the end there is just another guy coming to terms with the very big chips on his shoulder, although he does so in a spectacular way.
But along this way Ross manages by description of his travels and interviews to highlight and clarify Japanese history and fascination with death in a highly insightful way.
Sometimes this book is just about Christopher Ross: For instance there is a whole section, where he describes feeling unwell and having to interrupt his stay in Japan to return to the UK. One can't help wondering if hiseditor slept through that part, since it seems to have very little to do with the rest of the story.
Fortunately these deviations are relatively brief, as is the whole book, and you have basically read past them before they really trouble you. The rest of the ride is wonderful for people who share Ross' fascination with the martial aspects of Japan.

Interesting history lesson mixed with a travel diary
Christopher Ross goes on a quest for the sword used to assist in the suicide of Yushio Mishima, one of Japan's most famous authors.Along the way, the reader is treated to a history of Japan, lessons on Kendo, and insight into Mishima himself, and icon (or iconoclast?) of Japanese literature.In essence, the quest for the physical sword takes secondary importance, behind Ross's quest to understand the man, the times, and the context of his suicide.

For those that read Twigger's Angry White Pajamas, this book is a more serious, and more culturally detailed view of the same genre.Perhaps the connection comes as Christopher Ross was the uber-guru that Twigger wrote about...

If there's one issue I have with the book, it's that the writer at times talks down to the reader.For example, most anyone reading this has experienced international travel - the audience is a cosmopolitan set.Explaining the details of an inflight entertainment system detracts from the overall story.

That said, the book is still concise and well written, and worthy of a read from any afficianado of Japan.It certainly earns a prominent place on my bookshelf! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

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 rational discourse, a form of discourse which does little more than generate disagreement, has not and never could give us a full and satisfactory explanation of the Sadeian mystery, which is also the deep, repressed mystery of ourselves. There is something in Sade which rises above the rational, something that only poetry can comprehend, and which Mishima has attempted to evoke [with] great poetic beauty."


... Read more