/lit/ - Literature

>>16347421
In Defense of Culture/On the Defense of Culture (文化防衛論)

They say that we are in the Showa Genroku, but as far as literary achievement is concerned it is a very dubious Genroku era.
In this Showa Genroku, in which there is neither Chikamatsu, nor Saikaku, nor Basho, only extravagant customs run rampant. Passion is exhausted, hard realism has disappeared, and no one is interested in the deepening of poetry. That is, there are no Chikamatsus, no Saikakus, and no Bashos. The nature of the era in which we live, despite originally having supposed to have been of a transparency filled with riddles, has been seen through with a riddle-free clarity.
Why this happened is a long-standing question of mine. We are tired of all social psychological and, on the other hand, psychoanalytic attempts to explain it from the perspective of denotation, industrialization and urbanization, or the rupture of and alienation from human relationships. They are like an investigation into the upbringing of the murderer after a murder has taken place.
Something has been severed. That the rich tones no longer resound is because at some point a string was broken. In correspondence with this exhaustion of creativity, a form of culturalism has become an essential factor in the formation of public opinion. Indeed, our time is awash with culturalism. Its sticky hands are to be found clinging to the underside of every cultural phenomenon. If we were to define it briefly, culturalism is that tendency which seeks to sever culture from the bloody womb of life and reproductive activity and judge it on the basis of some joyous humanistic achievement. Thus is culture transformed into something harmless and beautiful, the shared inheritance of mankind, like a fountain in a plaza.
All art that attempts to express fragmented man as he is, however grisly its subject matter, is rescued by man’s very fragmentation and transformed into a fountain in a plaza. Because the overall tragedy of man cannot be demonstrated by the addition of his fragments. We think of ourselves as mere fragments and find solace in ourselves.
Tragedy as well, regardless of its type, because it cannot escape the confines of its fragments, it is not within our ability to escape it. But because those fragments remain, to revel in our inability to escape and to revel in our escape are one and the same.
The answer to the question of what Japanese culture is has been most appropriately provided by post-war foreign service and cultural bureaucrats. That is, in line with occupation policy, the severance of the eternal links of “the chrysanthemum and the sword.” The good, peace-loving people’s mild-mannered culture of flower arrangement and the tea ceremony, as well as the bold patterns of the culture of architecture, became the representatives of Japan’s culture.

C R I N G E

>>16347433
They then carried out the following policy of cultural navigation. By various laws and policies they dammed up the sources of the life of culture and its continuity, rendered them valid only in irrigation and the generation of electricity, and thereby sealed up the flood. That is, they severed the links of “the chrysanthemum and the sword,” applied only such parts as were valid for the formation of the morality of the citizen, and suppressed those parts that were harmful. The prohibition of kabuki revenge dramas and swordfight movies in the early stages of occupation policy is the most primitive and direct manifestation of this policy.
After a time, occupation policy shed its primitiveness. Prohibitions were lifted, and culture was respected. This was simultaneous with the success of various political and social reforms, and was likely because it was thought that the tendency to revert to the sources of culture had been extinguished. This is when culturalism began. That is to say that it became impossible for anything to be harmful.
It is like the attitude of art for art’s sake of the indulgent consumer, who appreciates culture mainly in the form of works and objects. This naturally presents no obstacle to contribution to political thought as a hobby. Culture was safely managed as an object, and peacefully moved in the direction of being “the shared cultural heritage of mankind.”
We have already stated that its results have been poor. Nevertheless, culturalism has continued to be satisfied with itself, and has become, alongside the progress of mass society, its greatest public face. This is, however, the inevitable result of the educationalism of the Taisho period. Japanese culture became Japan’s vindication before the world while also linking up with the values of peaceful welfare within the country. The line of thinking that reduces culture to its welfare value is founded on the humanism of the masses and became the basis for a sham cultural protectionism.
When we speak of protecting culture, we imagine either the dead culture of museums or the dead lifestyles of peace. These two elements fused and have safely combined. This compound torments us. However, respect for culture as an object, as a cultural asset, as cultural inheritance does not put to question democracy or socialism, with the exception of the radicalism of the Chinese Communists.

I hate right wing weebs

Pretty gud anon

i am interested
btw i just purchased the sea of fertility in english i am really thrilled

C R I N G E
C R I N G E
C R I N G E

The Anti-Revolutionary Manifesto (反革命宣言)

Translated by Riki Rei

Translator’s note: Mishima penned this essay titled Anti-Revolutionary Manifesto in early 1969, almost two years before his suicide, at the peak of leftist protests, demonstrations, and riots, which were sweeping not just across Japan, but throughout the entire Western world. In this essay, Mishima debunked the deception of the communist ideology, explained why it is necessary to oppose communists and their collaborators, and expressed the conscious determination of himself and his men to combat the menace of communism.

First, we are not against all kinds of revolutions. We are against all kinds of plans and actions, regardless of their means being violent or non-violent, that are intended to link up communism with administrative power. Needless to say, such plots attempt to push for the establishment of the so-called “democratic coalition government” (pro-communist regime). We are opposed to all forms of linking up communism with administrative power, regardless of names or substances, refusing to be hoodwinked by their masks of either internationalism or nationalism, and avoiding being confused by their deceptive methods of either direct democracy or popular front.

The Communist Manifesto remarks as follows: “Communists openly declare that we seek to achieve our aims through, and only through, forcefully subverting all the existing social orders.”

What we are striving to protect are our Japanese culture, history, and traditions. According to the interpretations of their dialectical materialism, all these are certainly included in their “all the existing social orders to be subverted.”

Second, we are the last defenders and the ultimate representatives of the Japanese culture, history, and traditions that must be protected, and we consider ourselves the elite and spearhead of such a mission. We are diametrically opposed to all kinds of thinking that advocate for or imply a “better future society,” because future-oriented actions deny the matureness of culture, negate the nobility of traditions, and seek to transform the irreplaceable “now” completely into a process toward revolution. Embodying the historical continuum, manifesting the essence of history, demonstrating traditional aesthetic form, and making oneself the last sentinel; such a behavioral principle was the very principle that governed the conduct of the Kamikaze Tokkotai who left a testament citing: “Behind us, there will be an endless column of successors.” Such an idea of believing “an endless column of successors” is exactly one that is theoretically antithetical to the idea of “a better future society.” This is because every “successor” was an actor convinced that he was a member of the last sentinels taking the last stand, practicability not being a concern.

>>16347457
Third, we discerned that post-War revolutionary thinking has always revolved around the collective rationale of the weak. No matter how violently it shows itself, it reflects the mentality of the weak, which is inseparable from the collectivist rationale of certain groups or organizations. It sows the seeds of unrest, suspicion, antipathy, hatred, and jealousy, and uses them as materials for intimidation. It is a group movement that puts together the vilest and most ignoble sentiments of the weak and uses them for certain political purposes. Holding the banner of a vacuous, naïve, and deceptively pleasing ideology, basing it on and connecting it with the lowest sentiments of the weak, by which to win over half of the votes and “democratically” rule over various kinds of small groups and organizations, and through it to oppress the minority and permeate all fields of the society, that is their way.

We take the stance of the strong and start as a minority. Qualities of the Japanese spirit such as brightness and cleanness, generosity, integrity, and high morality are our possessions. Again, practicability is not an issue, because it is not our intention to place our very existence and action in the process toward the future.

Fourth, why are we against communism?

Firstly, communism is absolutely incompatible with our national identity i.e., our national culture, history, and traditions, and is theoretically incompatible with the existence of the Monarch, which is a unique and irreplaceable symbol of our historical continuity, cultural uniformity, and ethnic homogeneity.

The Meiji state had sought for an eclectic combination of the polity of Western Europe and the national character of Japan, and adopted an imitated political system of constitutional monarchy. Post-War Japan pulled away from this combination and chose to introduce a relationship of the two that is neither too close, nor too distant, characterized by parliamentary democracy and a symbolic Emperor, which instead highlighted the fundamentally cultural and non-political nature of the historical monarchic tradition. What should be restored is not the grotesque eclecticism, let alone something like Republicanism that destr0ys cultural continuity.

To manifest the true and rightful nature of the Emperor, we approve of the freedom of speech that is regarded as a virtue of the parliamentary democracy of modern Japan. This is because the essential character of Japanese nationhood that is both new and old and that deserves to be discovered, emerges precisely at the connection point between the whole Japanese culture system — guaranteed to the largest extent by freedom of speech — and the Emperor system as a cultural concept.

>>16347463
On the other hand, the pro-communist and the weak merely utilize freedom of speech as a means, process, and tactic, and argue that progressive values that theoretically promote revolutions lie in freedom of speech itself. This is a misperception. Although freedom of speech is the demarcation line of mutual compromise between human nature and politics, it also satisfies the minimal instinctual requirements of humankind at the same time. (Please refer to my thesis The State of Freedom and Power.)

At present, we do not possess a realistically better political system than parliamentary democracy composed of multiple political parties, as one that guarantees freedom of speech.

This compromise-based and purely technical political system, its shortcomings of lacking idealism and real leadership notwithstanding, is most suited to the protection of freedom of speech, and it alone is capable of countering and resisting totalitarianism which necessarily incorporates speech censorship, secret police, and detention camps.

Secondly, we are opposed to communism for the sake of protecting freedom of speech.

We aim to smash the nationalist mask of the Communist Party of Japan; in other words, to shatter the illusion of its humanistic-socialism that claims to achieve the protection of freedom of speech, through the Japanese way, for the first time in the world, as this political experiment of theirs, even if it is implemented as literally described, will immediately and patently reveal its horrifying one-party dictatorial nature once it succeeds.

Fifth, resorting first and foremost to speech struggle, economic struggle, and political struggle are their customary tactics, and “discussion” is but a ploy embedded in their tactics. Our fight only needs to be one round, and it must be a fight in which we put life and death at stake. After fighting the round we gamble with life and death, it is up to history, spiritual values, and moral principles to make the judgment. Our anti-revolutionary movement is a shoreline operation against the enemies. The shoreline refers not to the geographic shoreline of Japan, but the spiritual bulwark of us as individual Japanese. With the courage and confidence to go against the prevailing trend, we shall not mind becoming hated and despised enemies of the revolutionary masses. Bracing against the abuse and revilement, ridicule, taunts, and provocations from the masses and remaining steadfast and undeterred, we are resolved to commit our own lives to reawaken their eroded Japanese spirit.

We are the embodiment of the traditional aesthetics and virtues of Japan.

— January, the 44th Year of Shōwa.

>>16347421
Pretty interesting, OP.
>>16347433
Sadly, this reads more like a pamphlet. Maybe Japs don't care about academic standards or something.
>“the chrysanthemum and the sword.”
Could he be slyly referencing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chrysanthemum_and_the_Sword
?

>>16347442
Thank you!
>>16347443
I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think of the content of these essays. I personally found them inspiring.
>>16347486
>Sadly, this reads more like a pamphlet
He published it in Central Review https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%AB%C5%8Dk%C5%8Dron so yes, it is not an academic paper. Mishima was not an academic, and I think that approaching him with the expectation of finding anything of that nature is unproductive.
>Could he be slyly referencing
Yes and no. He's using them as a metaphor for the culture of the imperial court and the culture of the warrior class, both of which are the main sources of Japan's high culture, particularly as it was represented during the Meiji period. The former is naturally centered on the Emperor, and the latter is centered on bonds of loyalty and the willingness to sacrifice for them. His point is that the products of those cultures have been preserved as physical objects divorced from the spirit that gave them meaning. The task of Japanese is, ostensibly, to revive that spirit in full cognizance of the attendant dangers, incorporate it within themselves, and continue its development.

I'm jealous of your being able to read Mishima. I love his works but only know extremely basic Japanese. I'm especially curious about one that I've heard recently about people who find out they're from Venus or something, which is the background to an obsession he had with UFOs.

>>16347608
>I love his works but only know extremely basic Japanese.
Keep hacking away at it and you'll eventually be able to read him in the original. Keep in mind that he's difficult even for native Japanese speakers, though.
>I'm especially curious about one that I've heard recently about people who find out they're from Venus or something, which is the background to an obsession he had with UFOs.
Which book is that?

>>16347618
Thanks for the encouragement!

It's 美しい星. I found out about it after chancing upon this article: https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/g00881/watching-the-skies-in-japan-mishima-yukio-and-other-ufo-enthusiasts.html

>>16347730
Interesting, I had no idea. From what I've heard on here, a lot of his work is being translated into English, so perhaps you will get to read it soon. Even if it doesn't get translated into English, if you work hard you should be able to read him after about a year.

bump

Was the text which you translated a work which hasn’t yet been translated?
With someone as high profile as Mishima, you just assume all of his stuff has been already translated.

>>16348934
>Was the text which you translated a work which hasn’t yet been translated?
Yes.
>With someone as high profile as Mishima, you just assume all of his stuff has been already translated.
If you know Japanese, take a look at his collected works. Another anon in this thread mentioned a book that hasn't been translated, see >>16347730

>>16348934
In some past thread someone mentioned his complete works in Japanese are like 30 vols.
Apparently his estate is the zealous type and won't allow translations of just about anything, all in order to preserve his image. Like they delayed or haven't authorized a book that apparently the critics hated in his time (or maybe it was Beautiful Star).

Not OP, btw. All this is just hearsay I've read over /lit/.

>>16349012
His complete works are 42 volumes at the moment, but that includes unpublished manuscripts and correspondence. And the book that the family hasn't allowed to be translated is Kyoko's House, for the reasons you stated.
t. Was in that thread.

bump

>>16350081
He looks uncomfortable.

>>16347421
He is a good fiction writer I tell you what

>>16350479
It looks like a theater or a fancy gymnasium and there's no people in the stands.
He's probably cursing the weak Nipponese who abandoned their fancy 17th century customs for multiculturalism.

>>16350081
>>16350550
Actually, it looks like a kendo exhibition.
Why would a respected author, actor and film director LARP thus.

>>16350081
>>16350577
That's pretty embarrassing if true, but admirable nonetheless.

>>16350577
Because Mishima loved kendo and was skilled in it.

>>16350592
From what I gathered from the web, he started training in his mid 30s and reached 5th dan, which doesn't exactly require actual genius or talent.

Very interesting thread. Thanks OP

>>16350910
Indeed, though not the Op, Yukio Mishima's more purely intellectual ideas and content are radically ignored.

This is a favourite pic.

>>16351078
is this from Mishima, Aesthetic Terrorist: An Intellectual Portrait?

>>16351078
He was right. Things are moving in that direction, but they haven't quite gotten there. The only thing he was wrong about is the reason why this is happening. There are concrete human forces behind these changes, and if only he had spent more time pointing them out, perhaps he would have been able to lay the groundwork for future resistance.

>>16347421
Love this thread OP.

I really enjoyed that translation of "In Defense of Culture."; I would love to read the rest. Like the other anon here, I am also learning Japanese, but I'm at a much more rudimentary phase (basic grammer and hiragana). There is so much literature in Japanese that is untranslated... could you look at Yamamoto Kenkichi' essays on Haiku Greetings and Humor (aisatsu to kokkei)? I've scoured the internet but it seems as though it has yet to be translated. It discusses the kireji in depth and it frustrates me greatly that I can't read it for another 3-4 years.

bump, this is a good thread

>>16352067
>I really enjoyed that translation of "In Defense of Culture."; I would love to read the rest.
I'll keep working on it in my spare time, but it will take a long time. The text is quite difficult to translate.
>could you look at Yamamoto Kenkichi' essays on Haiku Greetings and Humor (aisatsu to kokkei)? I've scoured the internet but it seems as though it has yet to be translated. It discusses the kireji in depth and it frustrates me greatly that I can't read it for another 3-4 years.
Would you happen to know how long it is, or have a link to it in Japanese? Translation tends to take a great deal of time. If it happens to be long, would you be willing to pay for it?

>>16353817
It reads very well so keep it up :).

I found the book that contains the essay

(https://www.amazon.co.jp/%25E4%25BF%25B3%25E5%258F%25A5%25E3%2581%25A8%25E3%2581%25AF%25E4%25BD%2595%25E3%2581%258B-%25E8%25A7%2592%25E5%25B7%259D%25E3%2582%25BD%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25A3%25E3%2582%25A2%25E6%2596%2587%25E5%25BA%25AB-%25E5%25B1%25B1%25E6%259C%25AC-%25E5%2581%25A5%25E5%2590%2589/dp/404114907X/ref%3Drtpb_1/357-4058375-5274860%3F_encoding%3DUTF8%26pd_rd_i%3D404114907X%26pd_rd_r%3Dad7d168b-aef7-4e9c-aed7-846f7e943303%26pd_rd_w%3Dxf2Rj%26pd_rd_wg%3D3gbTJ%26pf_rd_p%3D8cbc03a1-b057-48d5-8e15-841784c280f3%26pf_rd_r%3D9QBN18HY13V7NM29JGYM%26psc%3D1%26refRID%3D9QBN18HY13V7NM29JGYM&usg=ALkJrhi49BAY81o2vFV2AA2GRP9Oq7ghIw))

but I don't know how long it is. I don't know what the rates are for translation, nor do I have the money to headlessly commit to contracts, but I certainly do care about this enough to devote money to it. If you want to talk privately, here is my email: rillieanntate (at) gmail.com.

>>16350081
his based and redpilled coup would’ve succeeded if he had worn this, i’m certain of it

larping bumboy. facism and homosexuality, name a more iconic duo

>actually good /lit/ thread
>lefties come into complain about buttfractures

>Second, we are the last defenders and the ultimate representatives of the Japanese culture, history, and traditions that must be protected, and we consider ourselves the elite and spearhead of such a mission.
Well that's quite a claim. It's just, like, his opinion, man.
You can't build a good society. You can build one that has trains that run on time, low crime, and (fairly) clean streets. Japan has accomplished that despite Mishima killing himself and failing in his mission.
Fascism, communism, even monarchist "the king is good and all is good in this great kingdom" feelings promote an illusory, and dead wrong, view that individuals are subsumed into a greater whole and made better through the virtue signaling and propaganda displays of a Great Leader or monarch.
Imperial Japan is actually a great example of how you can teach people to recite creeds about being honorable samurai and supposedly be on a great mission with a righteous foundation in the Emperor's rule and blah blah blah, and actually, in reality and in practice, be a bunch of murderers, idiots, suckers, and victims on a massive national suicide mission.
The only greatness is individual. The only great kingdom is what YOU are the king of. All else is superficial and illusory.

>>16354435
>The only great kingdom is what YOU are the king of. All else is superficial and illusory.
It isn't though.

>>16354435
>You can't build a good society.
What would you define as a "good society?"
>Fascism, communism, even monarchist "the king is good and all is good in this great kingdom" feelings promote an illusory, and dead wrong, view that individuals are subsumed into a greater whole and made better through the virtue signaling and propaganda displays of a Great Leader or monarch.
I agree that political systems based on the principle of popular sovereignty have serious problems, but I don't think you understand the basis of monarchism. The whole point of monarchism is for the average person to be made completely irrelevant in the sphere of politics, such that the immense disruptions caused by popular politics disappear and the state is made free to pursue its prerogatives.
>Imperial Japan is actually a great example of how you can teach people to recite creeds about being honorable samurai and supposedly be on a great mission with a righteous foundation in the Emperor's rule and blah blah blah, and actually, in reality and in practice, be a bunch of murderers, idiots, suckers, and victims on a massive national suicide mission.
I think this is a reductive view of what took place under the Japanese Empire, and also of Mishima's beliefs. I would caution you to not project the political mistakes and conflicts of the period from 1937 to 1945 onto the entire history of a polity that was born in 1868.
>The only greatness is individual.
No. The individual does not have any meaning in and of itself. We all exist in a complex web of relationships that define every facet of our being, from the way we think and speak down to the way we dress. Greatness is, by definition, the role that one plays in relation to one's surroundings.
>The only great kingdom is what YOU are the king of.
I am not a king. I can never be a king. I am not interested in being a king.
>All else is superficial and illusory.
I prefer not to think that my family and my work are "superficial and illusory." Without them, I am nothing.

>>16354122
I just sent you an email from cheapjapanesetranslation@gmail.com If anyone else has any articles, essays, or music they would like to see translated, please feel free to send me an email.

>>16354664
>I am not a king. I can never be a king. I am not interested in being a king.
>I prefer not to think that my family and my work are "superficial and illusory." Without them, I am nothing.
Your work and family are what you should be the "king of." You don't have to literally rule a country.
The nobles of medieval Europe - actually the aristocrats of any country, anywhere - worked for their own "house" and built that up. Not a nation, not the people, not the common good. Nietzsche talked about this.
One of the effects of liberal democracy is that the rights once afforded only to aristocrats are now given to all. We can all pursue what they once did in a certain sense.

>>16355028
To add one more thing to this post:
The aristocrats of all ages thought of "society" - peasant, mass society - as gross, degenerate, dumb. The feeling of working in life to create a refuge from the masses, to cultivate your mind, body, and space to literally and symbolically eject common (gross) people and ideas from yourself, was the norm. This required strength.
The /pol/tard (and Mishima) mentality of looking at society and wanting a fascistic or communist leveling of all it to "purify" it and make things right again is a complete and utter failure of the old aristocratic instinct to arise in those people. this is what I meant by: you can't build a good society. The elites of history always knew this. You can build a good house, the rest is only relevant insofar as it comes into play directly with your own interests.
Don't like the cities of the day? Aristocrats never liked the cities. That's why they lived in country villas. This is normal and expected.

>>16355028
>One of the effects of liberal democracy is that the rights once afforded only to aristocrats are now given to all. We can all pursue what they once did in a certain sense.
I don't see how. We don't have anything close to the same authority over our selves, our property, or our families that they did, and we are at the mercy of the legal system under all circumstances. We cannot live the lives of aristocrats, because we do not live in an aristocratic society.
>>16355087
I agree with this in principle, but we need to create a fundamentally different sort of society for any of it to make sense. Every single one of us is locked into society. Even if you move out into a cave or into the woods somewhere, you cannot escape the long arm of society. The only path forward is to change it, and perhaps to make the people irrelevant again.

>>16355873
>we need to create a fundamentally different sort of society
Yeah that's a no from me, anon.
>Even if you move out into a cave or into the woods somewhere, you cannot escape the long arm of society.
Disagree. Eject society from yourself. Reference: Ernst Jünger - Eumeswil; Max Sterner - The Unique and his Property.
>to make the people irrelevant again.
I agree with this, but this is a program for the individual, not for "society", the state, etc.

>>16355946
Alright, here's a question: How are we to go about creating families and setting our children on the same path, if almost all women are locked into the system, and essentially all educational institutions are as well? Do you say that we should find a woman with a similarly aristocratic spirit, or at least one who is willing to obey and support us on our path away from society?
Also, I've never read Eumeswil, but Yarvin mentions it frequently. What is actually in the book? Is it worth reading?

>>16356182
>Do you say that we should find a woman with a similarly aristocratic spirit, or at least one who is willing to obey and support us on our path away from society?
I'm not sure it's even possible for women to have this kind of spirit. Women aren't about being independent nor should they be. If they love and respect you they should go along with your mindset sufficiently. You could find many examples through to the present time of women going along with men on all kinds of ridiculous, dangerous, even criminal endeavors out of love, this is nothing so extreme.
I wouldn't put so much stock into education and "indoctrination," that can all dissolve very quickly when her passions come into play. Most of that is about fitting in.
>Also, I've never read Eumeswil
It's about the figure of the Anarch. From the introduction:
>the emphatic individual who refuses any ultimate allegiance, maintaining his inner freedom and always reserving the option to decamp.
Detachment, elitism, spiritual aristocracy, living under tyranny are all major themes. Overall it's the greatest explication of his own philosophy that Jünger wrote, comparable to one of Nietzsche's greater works in the form of a post-apocalyptic novel. Read it.

Loving this thread and your efforts, OP. Keep up the good work.

>>16356457
And where are we to find the sort of woman who would love and respect a man enough to go in the opposite direction of everything she has known and grown up with? And how many men do you think are capable of inspiring such feelings in women? And for how long do you think such feelings would last?

>have a decent thread
>leftards can't resist doing all they can to shit it up
Every time.
>>16347421
Thank you for your work, anon.

>>16357236
>>16356574
Thanks for the encouragement. I'll keep working on the translation and post more excerpts here every once in a while.

Good thread, OP. Is there a copy of Sun and Steel that doesn't cost like hell and ships around the world?

bump

>>16361401
Interesting.

I like this thread.

Imagine learning Japanese just to translate Mishima's political faggotry. Holy fuck, thank God you're just an incel on the literature board of this shithole. Any decent University or researcher in Japan would tell you to fuck off.

>>16362191
You tell em buddy

>>16362191
Not only do I have a girlfriend whom I love very much, I also did not learn Japanese in order to read Mishima. This is an interest I picked up along the way. Also, Mishima is still quite popular over there. I doubt you'll find anyone at all literate who hasn't at least heard of him.

>>16362191
they would actually probably appreciate a foreigner being interested in Japanese literature to learn the language. Also:

>Mishima's reputation in Japan has grown in the new century. The Mishima Yukio Literary Museum, newly built near the shore of Lake Yamanaka in order to house his manuscripts and letters, opened its doors to the public in 1999. The following year Mishima's publishers began releasing a new edition of his complete works; containing much new material, this edition comprises a total of forty-three hefty volumes. Today there is no question that Mishima is a popular writer in Japan. Even his minor novels have proved surprisingly durable, and a play by Mishima is performed at a theater somewhere in Japan almost every month of the year. His essays and critical writings have also made a comeback, a fact that is surely not unrelated to Japan's recrudescent nationalism. Mishima's criticisms of the blandness of modern Japanese society, of its declining artistic and literary standards, of unimaginative bureaucratic interference in cultural matters, of apathy and lack of vigor among Japanese youth, and other such complaints appear to strike an even stronger chord among the general public today than they did fifty years ago.

Thank you OP for translating Mishima's essays. Andrew Rankin in his book on Mishima notes that 1/4 of Mishima's overall writing is nonfiction and not much has been translated. I've said before if I were a billionaire I would get a bunch of translators together for a project to translate his complete works, with annotations and everything.

>>16362487
Thanks for your support.
>Andrew Rankin in his book on Mishima notes that 1/4 of Mishima's overall writing is nonfiction and not much has been translated. I've said before if I were a billionaire I would get a bunch of translators together for a project to translate his complete works, with annotations and everything.
I don't think I'd be any good at translating his novels, but perhaps I should make translating his essays into a long-term project. I doubt if many other people would be interested - scholars of Japan tend to be dogmatically supportive of the left consensus over there - but perhaps I can produce something good and useful far off in the future.

Bizump

Man this board has gone to shit. I regret coming back her after being away for a few months. Whiny leftists really do deserve to be lined up against a wall. Anyways, thanks for the translations op. This is some interesting stuff and an actually creative thread.

>>16366364
Indeed, which used to be more prevalent.

>>16366364
It's been a terrible leftist circle jerk for quite awhile now desu. It was okay for a time when most of them fucked off to /leftypol/ but after infinitychan was shut down it got worse.

>>16347486
nobody cares about such thing whitoid cuck

I don't want to derail this great thread but I'd like to post these extracts from Pasolini's Lutheran Letters, I think a lot of Mishima's ideas can be found here especially >>16351078. It's also to give the prospective of a marxist (so an enemy of Mishima), Pasolini, who didn't always agree with Communists but saw them as a positive force. In other parts of the book he talks about the global man of the future that is also referenced by Mishima

>From the anthropological point of view-that is to say, as far as the foundation of a new culture is concerned -this new capitalist revolution demands from men with no links with the past (the habit of saving money and moralism) that they should live as far as the quality of life, of behaviour and values is concerned, in a state of what one might call weightlessness: a state which allows them to accord to consumption and the satisfaction of its hedonistic demands the privilege of being the only possible existential act.
>One must adapt oneself to what is called reality in order to be able to settle scores with it. This reality has easily recognizable characteristics because their violence has a deadly vitality which spreads over everything: loss of traditional values (however we care to judge them), total and totalizing embourgeoisement, the offsetting of an ostentatious and meaningless democratic urge against the acceptance of consump-tion; the offsetting of an ostentatious and meaningless demand for tolerance against the most degrading and maddening conformism.

>>16351078

Does anyone know what book this pic is from?

>>16354435
>Fascism, communism, even monarchist "the king is good and all is good in this great kingdom" feelings promote an illusory, and dead wrong, view that individuals are subsumed into a greater whole and made better through the virtue signaling and propaganda displays of a Great Leader or monarch.

>The only greatness is individual. The only great kingdom is what YOU are the king of. All else is superficial and illusory.

Well that's quite a claim. It's just, like, your opinion, man. I'm not sure which one to choose, a spiritually charged camaraderie, or an individualist egoism. There really is no right answer, even if you make a goal stated. If the goal is a "perfect" society, which Mishima was actually against, as stated through the earlier posts, then an argument could be made for either form of social organization, but that's not what he was after.
The purpose of the "spiritually charged camaraderie" and Emperor worship that Mishima professed was a means to reach "transcendence" (see >>16351078 ; additionally, read Sun and Steel for Mishima's direct account of his limit experience during the Shinto ritual).

If one peels away the layers wrapped Mishima's beliefs, you don't get the idea that he was a "fascist" like butthurt lefties like to claim, as much as an artist and a mystic desperate to return "soul" back into a society increasingly concerned with decadent materialist values.

>>16368467
What book is this from? Can you tell us more about the author?
>>16366364
Yeah, no problem. I'm surprised this thread is still here, honestly. I haven't had time to work more on the translation, but I should have something for you guys soon.