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 Here

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: 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.

The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima

The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima PDF Author: Henry Scott Stokes
Publisher: Cooper Square Press
ISBN: 1461624223
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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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

The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima PDF Author: Henry Scott Stokes
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0815410743
Category : Actors
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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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.

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.

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 : 34

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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.

Travels

Travels PDF Author: Michael Crichton
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307816494
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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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.

Sun & Steel

Sun & Steel PDF Author: Yukio Mishima
Publisher: New York : Grove Press
ISBN:
Category : Gay people
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
Consists of a series of essays

The Katas

The Katas PDF Author: Kenji Tokitsu
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594778183
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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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.

Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima PDF Author: Damian Flanagan
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1780234198
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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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.