Mishima thread

[Anonymous No.22945156]

To celebrate Yukio Mishima’s 99th birthday today, January 14th, I have made a thread to discuss his life and works

[Anonymous No.22945173]

Penguin used to publish all four books of the Sea of Fertility in a single omnibus volume. Nowadays Vintage owns the rights to the translations and will only issue them individually. This is annoying to me.

[Anonymous No.22945181]

>>22945173
And their editions are very low quality, perhaps the worst of all vintage books I have owned

[Anonymous No.22945195]

>>22945156
Just finished The Sound of Waves, loved it, it was like a subtle illusion. I think I prefer it to Sailor.

[Anonymous No.22945315]

>>22945156
What was his opinion on WMAF couples?

[Anonymous No.22945330]

>>22945181
Really, how so? I have pic related and at least Spring Snow and The sailor who fell from grace with the sea have a rough texture that feels good in my hands. The other two are smooth and not so good but nothing really bad either. I can't speak for the translations since I have nothing to compare them to.

[Anonymous No.22945336]

>>22945315
I don't know but he supported european male - japanese male couples.

[Anonymous No.22945348]

>>22945315
He preferred WMAM.

[Anonymous No.22945354]

>>22945156
all i know about this guy is that pewdiepie likes him and he's gay?

[Anonymous No.22945375]

>>22945156
Happy Birthday legend. Started reading him because he's my boyfriends role model and every book so far is the best reading exprience I ever have
I've read Patriotism a couple days ago, watched the movie before. Almost cried, wish I could feel the love the main character felt as a man, as a girl I would totally do the same
If you enjoyed reading Mishima and haven't read Patrotism yet, literally go do it right now, will take you about half an hour

[Anonymous No.22945387]

>>22945354
He wrote romantic novels mainly but the right-cels here mainly discuss a handful of essentially political agitprop works such as Patriotism and Sailor who fell from grace.

[Anonymous No.22945702]

>>22945156
Happy birthday Mishima. Will spend an extra thirty minutes fetishizing suicide in his honor.

[Anonymous No.22945845]

>>22945375
I can only hope to have a relationship like this

[Anonymous No.22945873]

>>22945387
his non-fiction was better than his gay novels
>>22945375
Agree with this. Guy should have been a filmmaker.

[Anonymous No.22945892]

im his reincarnation
today is also my birthday
expect new books soon 4chins

[Anonymous No.22945905]

>>22945892
why do you think you are his reincarnation?

[Anonymous No.22946017]

>>22945905
hes literally me

[Anonymous No.22946027]

>>22945156
finally some lgbtq representation on this godforsaken board

[Anonymous No.22946060]

>>22945336
>>22945348
>>22945315
Yukio, why so thirsty?

[Anonymous No.22946097]

>>22946060
who could blame him

[Anonymous No.22946103]

>>22945375
you will never be a woman

[Anonymous No.22946105]

Runaway Horses is amazing

[Anonymous No.22946111]

>>22946103
yeah okay me and my boyfriend hate trannies

[Anonymous No.22946122]

If you're into Mishima, check out this substack https://masakijinzaburo.substack.com/

No I'm not the dude but he translates rare stuff Mishima did to English and posts them there.

[Anonymous No.22946127]

>>22946111
Sure, me and my bf hate them too

[Anonymous No.22946132]

>>22946127
Good for you two

[Anonymous No.22946239]

>>22945156
Mishima, my beloved

[Anonymous No.22946242]

>>22945156
He's such a strange individual and you can tell this through his books. I want to go into his brain and find out everything I can about him.

[Anonymous No.22946259]

>>22945156
A lot is probably lost in translation, but I enjoy his prose.
He lived an interesting life.
Happy birthday and rest in peace.

[Anonymous No.22946271]

>>22945173
>Penguin used to publish all four books of the Sea of Fertility in a single omnibus volume.
NEED, the compilation of Sailor, Temple of the Golden Pavillion, and Confessions of a Mask is one of my favorite books.

[Anonymous No.22946288]

Read confession of a Mask in like a week. I was about to say amazing style of prose but I can't really say I have genuinely read it since it was a translation of the american translation.
Great individual too who embodies a lot of masculine ideals.
Hope you met your favorite saint in Heavens

[Anonymous No.22946299]

>>22946288
What language?

[Anonymous No.22946307]

>>22946299
Le français

[Anonymous No.22946605]

>>22946288
>>22946307
According to the translator's note on the (french) pocket folio edition of my copy of Spring Snow, Mishima had specifically requested (in his will) for any future translations of his works to be based on the American ones, that they "perfectly captured his thoughts and his style". Couldn't find a source for it, but I believe it.

[Anonymous No.22946664]

[Anonymous No.22946719]

>>22946664
Just watched this 30 minutes ago, parts of it were kino. Also good music by P Glass.

[Anonymous No.22946738]

Happy birthday Mishima. Will order another book of yours today in your honour.

[Anonymous No.22946773]

>>22946242
I felt the same way with Julius Evola anon. Both deep, interesting, esoteric men who had a lot to teach about honor, spirit and life.

[Anonymous No.22946783]

>>22946719

The soundtrack is excellent. I think the movie managed to do The Man justice, especially the surreal aesthetic choices.

[Anonymous No.22946807]

>>22946783
Yeah the sets were the most kino parts. Going to watch Kwaidan someday soon, looks kinda similar with surreal and beautiful set designs.

[Anonymous No.22946847]

After watching the 1985 movie about him, I decided to read The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Incredible book so far, and it's only the first of his books that I've read.

[Anonymous No.22946851]

>>22946807


I hadn't heard of Kwaidan until now, thank you. Do you know of any other similar films?

You would appreciate this:
https://archive.org/details/CHSDM1998444MattFlynn

[Anonymous No.22946903]

>>22946851
Appreciate the rec, friend. There's also a japanese horror movie that looks very surreal that I've seen called House. Very beautiful sets and fun effects.

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0076162/

[Anonymous No.22946965]

>>22945173
>smug face
I have that compendium version

[Anonymous No.22946986]

>>22946060
i was born in the wrong generation.......

[Anonymous No.22946994]

>>22946903

Looks interesting, I'll check these out sometime. Thanks.

[Anonymous No.22947032]

>>22946965
Yeah so do I, that's how I know

[Anonymous No.22947050]

>>22945173
how big is it/how small is the text?

[Anonymous No.22947417]

>>22947050
The 1985 Penguin edition is 24cm in height. 821 pages typeset at 46 lines to a page. So it's far more dense than the average trade paperback of today. Which is good, because most of those have so much whitespace they'd be an appalling waste of paper even if they weren't dogshit

[Anonymous No.22947833]

>>22945315
made him absolutely seethe which informed like half his novels

[Anonymous No.22948017]

>>22946122
Hello, Newman-san

[Anonymous No.22948698]

I got gifted Beautiful Star this Christmas (they didn't have The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea in stock). Is it any good?

[Anonymous No.22948703]

>>22945156
In honor of Mishiman, I finally buckled down and finished The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea and goddamn, that was a lot. The cat scene genuinely got me, I had to put the book down for a minute. The revelation about the hole in the dresser was one of the most emotionally impactful yet (somehow?!) stilted pieces of familial drama I've read. All in all, like all of Mishima's work, a whirlwind of emotions (especially sorrow and longing) that causes need for much recollection. [/spolier]

[Anonymous No.22948889]

>>22948703
You sissy, you. It's just a cat.

[Anonymous No.22948903]

>you will never be able to save him from himself

[Anonymous No.22948910]

>>22948903
He didn't need saving, he died the way he wanted to die. The state of Japan today only proves that he was right.

[Anonymous No.22948933]

>>22948910
he deserved a better death than the botched act he put on

[Anonymous No.22948958]

>>22948933
apart from the initial failures to cut off his head, i think his suicide was a success. and similar such failures were actually fairly common in seppuku, to the point that it's mentioned in Hagakure as a pervasive problem. at the end of the day his head still came off. all's well that ends well.

[Anonymous No.22948964]

>>22948958
and what about his thinly veiled cover for the suicide? the coup?
nah, the event surrounding his death should have been more meaningful

[Anonymous No.22948975]

>>22948964
even if the coup itself was doomed to fail, i think he succeeded in getting his message across. i think he fully communicated, to those who are able to understand, the entirety of his political, spiritual and artistic thought in that coup. you and i aren't going to die half as well.

[Anonymous No.22949090]

>>22948703
Are you vegan?

[Anonymous No.22949101]

>>22945156
Redpill me on this guy.

[Anonymous No.22949102]

>>22949101
Is there a bluepill on Mishima to begin with?

[Anonymous No.22949118]

>>22948975
>even if the coup itself was doomed to fail
it was
you don't actually believe it was a real coup, do you?

[Anonymous No.22949251]

Alrighty fags, this is the year I finally tackle him. Where do I really start? Sailor? Confessions? Tetralogy?

[Anonymous No.22949348]

>>22946288
>who embodies a lot of masculine ideals.
lol
LOL
DO ZOOMERS REALLY? GO TO CHURCH

[Anonymous No.22949715]

>>22948964
In Sun and Steel, he talks about tragedy being essential to a glorious death. He probably knew his spergout wouldn't result in some sort of neo-Meiji restoration and that it would probably fail but that was the point

[Anonymous No.22949737]

>>22949251
Try the Golden Pavilion

[Anonymous No.22949754]

>>22949348
Begging for justice in an imagined future world as compared with someone who faced death bravely to address the injustice in front of him sounds very feminine.

[Anonymous No.22949762]

>>22948703
>The cat scene genuinely got me, I had to put the book down for a minute
The scene was indeed really weird, but, come on, are you a woman or just a sissy?

[Anonymous No.22949781]

Reading Forbidden Colors and it's fascinating how gays manage to be sexual deviants no matter the culture or era.

[Anonymous No.22950337]

>>22949118
Are you illiterate?

[Anonymous No.22950647]

>>22948703
I just finished this book yesterday

Surprisingly I feel for the romance between Ryuji and the mum pretty hard

So much so that at the end of the book I was so angry and distressed and what the kids were going to do to him

You may call me a woman or sissy for this but I was upset for the rest of the day about it, Ryuji deserved so much better

especially with the last thing he hears from his wife is 'don't go and disappear on me now haha'

[Anonymous No.22950729]

>>22946122
that guy seethes about china yet japs are 70% chinese genetically
kek

[Anonymous No.22950737]

>>22946288
He had more feminine features than masculine ones. Narcissistic and homosexual, for example. He used masculinity more as a cope, he had to cope with being a frail midget after all and he remained one all his life despite working out a lot. Sabotaged by his genes

[Anonymous No.22950754]

>>22950647
Anyone who calls you a "sissy" for being upset over the death of a human (especially a good guy like Ryuji, even though he is fictional) is just trying to be all cool and emotionless. RyujiBros never win...

[Anonymous No.22950766]

>>22950647
>but I was upset for the rest of the day about it
you're homosexual

[Anonymous No.22950986]

>>22945156
I read confession of a mask, sun and steel, sound of waves and a collection of short stories called "the house of the dolls" (idk about the English title), all in the Italian translation. I loved the last one because there was a lot of romanticism, strangeness and like a magical vibe in each one.Although I think the prose is captivating,especially the island descriptions, sound of waves was a more traditional story. I definitely don't identify with him politically and I' m pretty sure time defeated his ideas. Despite this I hope he will be remembered

[Anonymous No.22952307]

>>22949251
The order that i've read them in so far is
>confessions
>temple
>sound of waves
>spring snow
>sailor
I started with confessions of a mask and I think it worked out well because the main character is a pretty obvious self-insert and it lets you know a lot about his personality and the way he thinks, even if some of it is exaggerated. in the same way, temple of the golden pavilion gives you a good picture of some of his ideas about beauty. the book is based on a real arson and it would be a good story even if you knew nothing about mishima himself, but once you start reading, you can start to piece together pretty quickly why he was obsessed enough with that event to write a book about it
>>22950647
yup i feel the same way about the ending, i liked ryuji a lot. idk if youve read it but if you liked the romance aspect of that book you would probably like sound of waves, it has a similar setting with all the ships and everything but its mostly just a comfy story and nothing insane happens

[Anonymous No.22952363]

>>22947050
I own this omni- version too and it's like reading A4 papers. It's a cool collector's item, but, truth be told, I'd rather read the vintage reprints any day.

[Anonymous No.22952595]

>>22948703
>>22950647
I read this book some months ago and I didn’t feel that much. I mean I kinda liked the theme of Ryuji abandoning his masculine ideals/the sea for settling down with a woman/the land and then getting murdered by young boys because they felt he betrayed what he was, a man, or at least that’s my interpretation of the book.
But idk I didn’t feel that much, maybe I’m a souless drone, maybe I did feel and just forgot, maybe you two are weak homos, guess we’ll never know.

[Anonymous No.22952649]

>>22952307
Thanks for the rec, I'll give it a go :)

[Anonymous No.22953521]

>>22945156
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b037fgPG9Ow
what the fuck

[Anonymous No.22953654]

>>22953521
Still hasn't checked in since the earthquake

[Anonymous No.22953753]

>>22953654
I think they're alright, if anything happened the news would be out