Mishima's Sword

Mishima's Sword PDF Author: Christopher Ross
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
The stunning new book from Christopher Ross, "Sunday Times" top 10 bestselling author of "Tunnel Visions." On 25th November 1970, the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima, in one last piece of theatre of a peculiar life, plunged a knife into his tightly muscled belly and stretched out his neck so that his friend Morita might cut off his head with a Samurai sword. His death, an act in the frontline of the spirit, has been interpreted as many things: a desire for heroism; an attempt at a form of beauty; a protest against an emasculated post-war Japan; the ultimate demonstration of sincerity; the performance of a madman. So who exactly was Mishima, why did he offer himself up? And what happened to that sword? Christopher Ross's own life overlaps with Mishima's: they were both weedy and picked on at school, both harbour a fascination with martial arts and the relationship between the body and the mind.

Mishima's Sword

Mishima's Sword PDF Author: Christopher Ross
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Get Book

Book Description
The stunning new book from Christopher Ross, "Sunday Times" top 10 bestselling author of "Tunnel Visions." On 25th November 1970, the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima, in one last piece of theatre of a peculiar life, plunged a knife into his tightly muscled belly and stretched out his neck so that his friend Morita might cut off his head with a Samurai sword. His death, an act in the frontline of the spirit, has been interpreted as many things: a desire for heroism; an attempt at a form of beauty; a protest against an emasculated post-war Japan; the ultimate demonstration of sincerity; the performance of a madman. So who exactly was Mishima, why did he offer himself up? And what happened to that sword? Christopher Ross's own life overlaps with Mishima's: they were both weedy and picked on at school, both harbour a fascination with martial arts and the relationship between the body and the mind.

A Study Guide for Yukio Mishima's The Sound of Waves

A Study Guide for Yukio Mishima's The Sound of Waves PDF Author: Gale, Cengage Learning
Publisher: Gale, Cengage Learning
ISBN: 1410321282
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 15

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Book Description
A Study Guide for Yukio Mishima's The Sound of Waves," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students.This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.

Mishima's Sword

Mishima's Sword PDF Author: Christopher Ross
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 9780306815133
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
In 1970, the world-famous Japanese writer Yukio Mishima plunged a knife into his belly and was decapitated using his own antique sword. In the decades since, people have asked endless far-ranging questions about this spectacular suicide. Christopher Ross wondered, What on earth happened to Mishima's sword? And so Ross sets off for Tokyo on a journey into the heart of the Mishima legend---the very heart of Japan. It was a country Ross knew well after nearly five years of living there--but nothing could have prepared him for this. While searching for the fabled sword, Ross encounters the rather startling range of those who knew Mishima...a world, or perhaps more accurately a demimonde, of craftsmen and critics, soldiers and swordsmen, boyfriends and biographers (even the man who taught Mishima hara-kiri). The trail Ross follows inspires a travelogue of the most eye-opening--and occasionally bizarre--sort, a window into the real Japan that is never seen by tourists and the occasion for digressions on, among other things, socks and the code of the samurai, nosebleeds and metallurgy... even how to dress for suicide. Mishima's Sword is a dazzling read--the perfect book for all those intrigued by things Japanese, from gangsters to Genji, from manga to Mishima.

Persona

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

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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.

Travels

Travels PDF Author: Michael Crichton
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307816494
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
From the bestselling author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes a deeply personal memoir full of fascinating adventures as he travels everywhere from the Mayan pyramids to Kilimanjaro. Fueled by a powerful curiosity—and by a need to see, feel, and hear, firsthand and close-up—Michael Crichton's journeys have carried him into worlds diverse and compelling—swimming with mud sharks in Tahiti, tracking wild animals through the jungle of Rwanda. This is a record of those travels—an exhilarating quest across the familiar and exotic frontiers of the outer world, a determined odyssey into the unfathomable, spiritual depths of the inner world. It is an adventure of risk and rejuvenation, terror and wonder, as exciting as Michael Crichton's many masterful and widely heralded works of fiction.

Ha!

Ha! PDF Author: Gordon Sheppard
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773560041
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 864

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Book Description
On 15 March 1977, with his wife's consent, celebrated writer and former terrorist Hubert Aquin blew his brains out on the grounds of a Montreal convent school. Shocked by this self-murder, a filmmaker friend feels compelled to understand why Aquin killed himself - and discovers, at the heart of the tragedy, an unforgettable love story. A "documentary fiction" - a category which includes In Cold Blood and The Executioner's Song - HA! is a seminal work that reinvents the audio-visual revolution of the last century. Interweaving photographs, documents, and images with testimony from Aquin's friends and contemporaries, Aquin himself, and the writers and artists who influenced him, this intriguing novel takes the reader on a Joycean tour of a metropolis in the midst of political and cultural turmoil.

Vanguard Performance Beyond Left and Right

Vanguard Performance Beyond Left and Right PDF Author: Kimberly Jannarone
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472121391
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
Vanguard Performance Beyond Left and Right challenges assumptions regarding “radical” and “experimental” performance that have long dominated thinking about the avant-garde. The book brings to light vanguard performances rarely discussed: those that support totalitarian regimes, promote conservative values, or have been effectively snapped up by right-wing regimes the performances intended to oppose. In so doing, the volume explores a central paradox: how innovative performances that challenge oppressive power structures can also be deployed in deliberate, passionate support of oppressive power. Essays by leading international scholars pose engaging questions about the historical avant-garde, vanguard acts, and the complex role of artistic innovation and live performance in global politics. Focusing on performances that work against progressive and democratic ideas (including scripted drama, staged suicide, choral dance, terrorism, rallies, and espionage), the book demonstrates how many compelling performance ideals—unification, exaltation, immersion—are, in themselves, neither moral nor immoral; they are only emotional and aesthetic urges that can be powerfully channeled into a variety of social and political outlets.

Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima PDF Author: Damian Flanagan
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1780234198
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The most internationally acclaimed Japanese author of the twentieth century, Yukio Mishima (1925–70) was a prime candidate for the Nobel Prize. But the prolific author shocked the world in 1970 when he attempted a coup d’état that ended in his suicide by ritual disembowelment. In this radically new analysis of Mishima’s extraordinary life, Damian Flanagan deviates from the stereotypical depiction of a right-wing nationalist and aesthete, presenting the author instead as a man in thrall to the modern world while also plagued by hidden neuroses and childhood trauma that pushed him toward his explosive final act. Flanagan argues that Mishima was a man obsessed with the concepts of time and “emperor,” and reveals how these were at the heart of his literature and life. Untangling the distortions in the writer’s memoirs, Flanagan traces the evolution of Mishima’s attempts to master and transform his sexuality and artistic persona. While often perceived as a solitary protest figure, Mishima, Flanagan shows, was very much in tune with postwar culture—he took up bodybuilding and became a model and actor in the 1950s, adopted the themes of contemporary political scandals in his work, courted English translators, and became influenced by the student protests and hippie subculture of the late 1960s. A groundbreaking reevaluation of the author, this succinct biography paints a revealing portrait of Mishima’s life and work.

The Katas

The Katas PDF Author: Kenji Tokitsu
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594778183
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
The embodiment of the ancient knowledge that underlies the dedication-to-perfection philosophy of Japan • How mastering these specific movement sequences known as katas provides a way to deepen one’s martial arts practice spiritually • Explores the psychological and social importance of the katas in martial arts and Japanese society, including their role in seppuku (ritual suicide) • Includes many examples from the lives of famous masters, from the legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi to 20th-century poet Yukio Mishima An essential part of the martial arts of Japan, such as sumo and karate, the katas are specific sequences of movement that originated during Sakoku, Japan’s period of closure to the outside world from 1633 until 1853. The dedication-to-perfection philosophy of the katas, ubiquitous in Japanese society, is vital to understanding the spiritual aspects of their martial arts as well as other traditional Japanese arts, such as flower arranging, chadō (tea ceremonies), and kabuki theater. With examples from the lives of famous masters, from legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi to 20th-century poet Yukio Mishima, this book explores the psychological and social importance of the katas, including their role in seppuku (ritual suicide), the student-master relationship, and gyo (the point at which the practitioner breaks the mold of the kata and begins to embody it). Looking at their origins in the warrior class and how this pursuit of perfection is ultimately a way to accept the power of death, the author explains how performing the katas transmits ancient knowledge much deeper than just technical movements, providing a way to deepen one’s martial arts practice spiritually.

The Secret Life of Genius

The Secret Life of Genius PDF Author: John Chambers
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594779260
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
A look at the metaphysical experiences that shaped the lives and work of 24 great men and women from the Renaissance to modern times • Chronicles the changing relationship with God, nature, and spirituality from the 16th century to the 20th century • Includes encounters with the paranormal of Ben Johnson, Isaac Newton, Mary Shelley, Leo Tolstoy, Doris Lessing, and Winston Churchill What role did the esoteric thought of Swedenborg play in the creative output of Honoré de Balzac? Did a supernatural encounter prompt Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to focus her work on the theme of immortality? Building on his earlier research on communications with the spirit world that Victor Hugo, author of Les Misérables, experienced while in exile on the isle of Jersey, John Chambers now looks at the role occult knowledge and supernatural experiences played in the lives of 24 geniuses. His investigation spans the life and work of William Blake, Helena Blavatsky, and W. B. Yeats, whose esoteric interests are well known, as well as those little suspected of such encounters with worlds beyond ours, including Doris Lessing, Leo Tolstoy, Norman Mailer, Yukio Mishima, and Winston Churchill. Chambers presents more than a collection of anecdotes and newly revealed secrets. His research provides insightful historical context of the decisive turning point that took place with the collapse of Prague, the occult capital of Europe, in 1620, which resulted in the victory of Cartesian reality and Newton’s scientific paradigm over the esoteric traditions that flourished until that time. The magical and occult world shown in the lives of these 24 great men and women offers us a glimpse of what could still be ours--a world that though it is now overshadowed by modern scientific and technological principles is yet still visible on the horizon through the visions and paranormal experiences of these geniuses.