Many times, crawling through the veils of industrial music, i have come upon the name of this influential historical figure. However i haven't been able to actually tell how in particular he had influenced act's like Grey Wolves, Genocide Organ, Death in June or others. It's because of his life and death, literature, poetry, movies he made? Any suggestions where to start in discovering Mishima's specific influence on industrial culture?
(http://lh3.ggpht.com/_NfFRxjX05L8/TaW-i9a2iSI/AAAAAAAAA1U/MJ_Qr9hXpwo/Yukio%20Mishima-06%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800)
Read his books.
By books you mean plays, novels, essays or poems? He has pretty wide bibliography, so it would be handful to know where to start...
Yukio Mishima is inspiring as an outstanding individual in many ways, his ideals, poetry, books, politics and suicide are all parts of the fascinating whole.
Nice tribute video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxpG9KW9Axg
I recommend starting on his book "The temple of the golden pavilion". In short it is a book about trauma, dedication, obsession and sacrifice. His literature covers a wide range of topics, so I suggest that you do a little bit of research online so that you can connect with the themes that you find most interesting. Maybe you can find some second hand editions online as well.
As a curiosity and new way of viewing and understanding Mishima I suggest to check out the film he did in '66 titled: Yûkoku, aka Patriotism, aka Rite of Love & Death. You can stream it for free via UBUWEB. See link below.
http://www.ubu.com/film/mishima_rite.html (http://www.ubu.com/film/mishima_rite.html)
Enjoy!
The suicide, the politics and the masochist sexuality are similar to how people think about heroin and guns with Burroughs - secondary to the work itself but they certainly helped to bolster a legend.
Temple of the Golden Pavilion is one of his most serious works, but I also enjoy novels with almost trashy thriller-type qualities like The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea and Forbidden Colours. The final epic The Sea of Fertility fused the philosophical and the narrative qualities very well. The only non-fiction I've read was his very thought-provoking book On Hagakure. His autobiographical debut novel Confession Of A Mask is very revealing of who he was as a young man - a lonely, physically weak and alienated homosexual guy whose real-life destiny after that book seems impossible to imagine.
For Finns (or why not others too), I got in Sarvilevyt MISHIMA "Thoughts and Perspectives" (vol 8) series. Edited by Troy Southgate, includes various authors about Mishima. Also plenty of other books of this series (Pound, Evola, Junger,...).
obsessed by him since I have read midsummernight death.
very interested by many of his aspects. military man, narcissist, sexually ambiguos, genious...
the idea of builing his own little army is fantastic...
watched the video of his final hours over and over again...
fave books: confessions of a mask, runaway horses, and of course his book on hagakure...
Thanks, that 's enough hint for start. I belive the as for the rest i shall be guided by his books themselves. I have found a small collection of his works, so i think i will start with them:
Death in Midsummer and other stories
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
Patriotism
The Sea of Fertility tetralogy, comprising:
Spring Snow
Runaway Horses
The Temple of Dawn
The Decay of the Angel
Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on August 29, 2013, 07:48:35 AM
For Finns (or why not others too), I got in Sarvilevyt MISHIMA "Thoughts and Perspectives" (vol 8) series. Edited by Troy Southgate, includes various authors about Mishima. Also plenty of other books of this series (Pound, Evola, Junger,...).
There was a decent article about Mishima in the Misantropian historia book.
Temple of the Golden Pavilion, no question.
Once, in a fit of extreme pretentiousness (to contrast with my fits of more run-of-the-mill pretentiousness), I supplemented an Incapacitants review with a lengthy passage from this book; the point at which the narrator first encounters the Golden Pavilion. (Or the point at which the narrator first encounters the pleasures of flehsh? Both? Will need to dig through some dusty boxes.) The metaphor simply seemed to work perfectly, re- an aesthetic (artificial? illusory?) splitting of consciousness, or something. I forget. Fortunately, I deleted that review and came up with something much more pretentious. Whew. Face saved.
For Finns, article about Mishima just published at Sarastus:
http://sarastuslehti.com/2013/09/08/yukio-mishima-paleokonservatiivi-ja-samurai-osa-1/
Mishima is probably such a striking figure to those into noise and, by extension, its aesthetics is because Mishima's literary practice is based upon principles that more or less parallel topics, either directly or tangentially, that are heavily explored in noise: misanthropy; isolation; the cold, detached practice of dispassion espoused in the Chief's teaching in The Sailor and, although unspoken of as such, unconsciously practiced by most if not all of his protagonists; destruction, usually committed based upon the protagonist's search for and failure to find beauty, as well as his own warped views of beauty; internalization; etc.
Japanese literature has a style that is very sparse, terse and rigid. Entire chapters could take place in one's own internal space, all besides what is in one's own head being of no consequence.
Also, his supreme commitment and tragic resolution of his devotion to a cause makes him a more emblematic figure than one who died as quietly as he wrote.
Also, let's be honest: the guy organized a militia, staged a coup, albeit a failed one, and disembowled himself after having stated his demands.
My problem with The Sea Of Fertility tetralogy has always been that it seemed like Mishima was trying to prove that he was a Buddhist, or accepted reincarnation, for nationalist reasons, much like his hauling around Shinto shrines around Japan earlier, but really, he was an atheist, and didn't believe in any of that shit. In fact, he was publicly against the dethroned emperor whom he wanted to reinstate, he was just captivated by the idea, and not necessarily the beliefs associated with it so much. So much of The Sea Of Fertility just always seemed to me like he was trying to prove that he really believed in such ideas, when privately, it was known all over that he didn't, and it wasn't until I read The Life And Death Of Yukio Mishima by Henry Scott-Stokes, who was Time's Japanese corespondent, who knew him intimately for sometime (#nohomo), that I found validation of my hunches.
Maybe Mishima was merely being objective, using an exploration of Buddhism as a vehicle toward the reader's better understanding of its views regarding the transmigration of souls since that is what the Sea of Fertility is concerned with. There would not be much of a thread especially linking Spring Snow to Runaway Horses had Honda not suspected that Kiyoaki had been reborn as Iinuma; thus it could have rightly existed as a standalone novel. The subsequent entries would not altogether comprise a tetralogy but would all be separate entries not linked by a common thread if Buddhist's beliefs of reincarnation were not explored, discussed and used as the underlying theme of the series.
Quote from: Jordan on September 23, 2013, 02:53:19 AM
he was just captivated by the idea, and not necessarily the beliefs associated with it so much.
Since I have not read the book in question, I will not comment on that, but isn't this very common thing what is quoted above?
It feels like most of people are captivated by the idea, but not the reality.
Like, one would be fundamental nationalist, but still disgusted by the actual nation.
One would be firm defender of democracy, but still always under impression wrong people are in power.
One would be devoted christian, but only in scale what suits own comfort. Or for sake of tradition.
One would be devoted communist, but against any leader or any system of communism that actually happened.
etc..
I'm considering Mishima would be most likely necessity to view as traditionalist, where his personal belief / agreement is not necessity, but acknowledgement of necessity of cultural traditionalism against opposing forces. I'm sure man goes through emotional battles during his lifetime figuring out the right way.
I don't think figure like Dominique Venner would get similar warm interests within industrial movement like Mishima, but in some ways there are few similarities in end. In May 2013 this elderly French author went to Notre Dame cathedral in Paris and shot himself in head. Protest suicide for sake of old europe.
You stated it perfectly.
Mishima's suicide was a reaction to the success of the Meiji Restoration/the assimilation of Western values into Eastern culture. Japan's increasing industrialization and liberalization serves as the historical backdrop to just about every novel of his that I have read, the most obvious being Runaway Horses and, by extension, the Sea of Fertility series as a whole since Mishima enacted the coup the day after he turned in the manuscript to The Decay of the Angel.
It was obvious Mishima had regaled himself with thoughts of how he was going to pass due to the immediate end of a few of his books wherein the protagonist dies. There's no aftermath or a romantic description of the scene afterwards. Only being in one moment and nonbeing, and, befittingly, the end of the story in the next.
Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on September 24, 2013, 09:45:18 AMI don't think figure like Dominique Venner would get similar warm interests within industrial movement like Mishima, but in some ways there are few similarities in end. In May 2013 this elderly French author went to Notre Dame cathedral in Paris and shot himself in head. Protest suicide for sake of old europe.
I don't know if it will be published outside of France but his posthumous book Samouraï d'Occident is a great resume of his views about European civilization. Very well organized and easy to read, a truly inspiring piece of work. His suicide and latest book definitely had a huge influence on me, as much as Mishima with his life/death and books as well.
Does anyone know the Mishima movie, directed by Paul Schrader ? Is it worth watching ?
Quote from: parapluie on September 24, 2013, 02:42:09 PM
Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on September 24, 2013, 09:45:18 AMI don't think figure like Dominique Venner would get similar warm interests within industrial movement like Mishima, but in some ways there are few similarities in end. In May 2013 this elderly French author went to Notre Dame cathedral in Paris and shot himself in head. Protest suicide for sake of old europe.
I don't know if it will be published outside of France but his posthumous book Samouraï d'Occident is a great resume of his views about European civilization. Very well organized and easy to read, a truly inspiring piece of work. His suicide and latest book definitely had a huge influence on me, as much as Mishima with his life/death and books as well.
Does anyone know the Mishima movie, directed by Paul Schrader ? Is it worth watching ?
It is definitely worth watching, I really enjoyed it. Nice Philip Glass soundtrack also.
I have just gotten into this guy recently and am about half way through both "Temple of the Golden Pavilion" and "The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea" and am so far enjoying both quite a bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_aaPW1rASo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_aaPW1rASo)
"Sun and Steel" and "Death in Midsummer" (especially the short story "Patriotism") are really good reads. Yeah, the Schrader movie was pretty good, thing is you'd have to be at least somewhat familiar with Mishima's works/life to get much out of it. Mishima was also in a yakuza movie (Afraid to Die) and a samurai movie (Hitokiri), both of which are worth checking out.
This reminds me that I had recently purchased Patriotism, both the standalone booklet and the short film, and have yet to engage either. Whoops.
As for the Schrader film, it's critical that you are very familiar with Mishima to truly appreciate the film as there are episodic scenes from his stories interspersed throughout the biographical scenes.
I'm looking to buy a copy of Sun and Steel (for a reasonable price), if anyone is looking to sell a copy. Prices online for it, even for poor condition copies, are too much for a Goy like me.
Quote from: theotherjohn on December 01, 2017, 02:52:51 AM
There was a copy on Amazon UK under £8 less than a day ago apparently.
Must have missed that by a Rizla paper as i've been keeping an eye on Amazon and Ebay...cheers though.
Quote from: Major Carew on December 01, 2017, 10:46:28 AM
Quote from: theotherjohn on December 01, 2017, 02:52:51 AM
There was a copy on Amazon UK under £8 less than a day ago apparently.
Must have missed that by a Rizla paper as i've been keeping an eye on Amazon and Ebay...cheers though.
Abebooks.com is also a great place to keep an eye on. Often it's a real brick and mortar store too so you can ring them up and get a discount by buying direct. Good luck.
The Temple of the Golden Pavillion is a top 10 novel for me, though Kyoko's House is perhaps the most disturbingly prophetic of his works.
Paul Schrader's excellent 'Mishima' is a brilliant psychedelic biopic about the author and highly recommended.
"The Frolic of the Beasts" is being released in English for the first time on Nov. 27th (in the US at least) Already pre-ordered my copy months ago.
only read "sun and steel" so far, but it was amazing.. the most poetic meditation on bodybuilding that was ever written! will have to read the temple of the golden pavilion soon..
In my early 20s I'd carry a book in the back pocket of my jeans. Sun and Steel fit and stayed with me for months. One summer day near a basketball court in the south Bronx I was reading it and a teenager approached me. I'd lived in the neighborhood for a year and had been fucked with; eggs thrown at me from windows, a robbery attempt by a crew of kids all probably under 10.
Anyway, he asked about the book and we talked. I told him about Mishima's idea of physical perfection and its near proximity to death and relation to art. It was a great conversation and I gave him the book. No idea what happened thereafter. The next day I had my grocery bags knocked from my hands and stomped on by kids in front of my apartment.
Just a reminder that Frolic of the Beasts is now out. Some stories previously unpublished in English.
Looks like there's another new Mishima translation out.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/306/306763/life-for-sale/9780241333143.html
"When Hanio Yamada realises the future holds little of worth to him, he puts his life for sale in a Tokyo newspaper, thus unleashing a series of unimaginable exploits. A world of murderous mobsters, hidden cameras, a vampire woman, poisoned carrots, code-breaking, a hopeless junkie heiress and makeshift explosives reveals itself to the unwitting hero. Is there nothing he can do to stop it? Resolving to follow the orders of his would-be purchasers, he comes to understand what life is worth, and whether we can indeed name our price."
I have to say that The Frolic of Beasts' translation was not very good. I have read pretty much every word of Mishima's that has been published in English; the economy of his written words is unsurpassed. The Frolic of Beasts is burdened by things like similes where metaphors would be more effective, unnecessary prepositional phrases and drawn out descriptions disrupting the flow. I think it's readable despite the translation, not because of it. The characters are well developed, the plot is taut and has subtle twists in it, building menace. And - spoiler alert - it has a believable and unhappy ending, the latter being a feature of most Mishima novels and the former punctuating almost all his work.
The best place to start with Mishima is The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and Forbidden Colors. If you don't like those two, you likely won't like the rest of his fiction. When you are ready, dive into The Sea of Fertility tetrology, which I have read twice. It is an epic and tragic tale of a man's life, spanning 60 years. As a side note, he mailed the manuscript to the fourth and final book, The Decay of the Angel the morning November 25, 1970. He committed seppuku later that day, when his absolutely hopeless and therefore symbolic attempt to foment a coup d'état failed.
Contrary to what some others have posted, Mishima did not subscribe to Buddhism; it was all around him, a major force that shaped the face of traditional Japan. He could not write about life in Japan, and especially the inner terrain of his characters' psyches, without confronting Buddhism. If you read The Sea of Fertility as an endorsement of Buddhism, you missed one of its major points.
Quote from: frustrated dissector on August 03, 2019, 06:40:33 PM
I have to say that The Frolic of Beasts' translation was not very good. I have read pretty much every word of Mishima's that has been published in English; the economy of his written words is unsurpassed. The Frolic of Beasts is burdened by things like similes where metaphors would be more effective, unnecessary prepositional phrases and drawn out descriptions disrupting the flow. I think it's readable despite the translation, not because of it. The characters are well developed, the plot is taut and has subtle twists in it, building menace. And - spoiler alert - it has a believable and unhappy ending, the latter being a feature of most Mishima novels and the former punctuating almost all his work.
Just finished this and I agree it was the most underwhelming read of any of his work that I've experienced so far.
So, I'm new here, but the very presence of this thread is what enticed me to sign up and start digging into this forum. In short: I believe it's Mishima's influence which veered my own sensibilities in music-making toward industrial which, in turn, is what clued me into power electronics. I certainly had some early exposure which prepped me for such a turn, but it was Mishima's militant and visceral breed of nihilism which honed my appreciation.
As a teenager, almost purely by chance (apart from my adolescent obsession with Japanese culture) I rented A Life in Four Chapters and was completely blown away. I had already developed a strong appreciation for, I guess, transgressively-themed cinema like A Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, and Fight Club by that time and was also reading work like The Rebel by Alert Camus and getting into Nietzsche (as one does), so I was well-primed for the experience. It wasn't long after that that I happened upon an old paperback of Sun and Steel at a used bookstore I frequented, and while I simply read and re-read that for a long while, I eventually picked up Patriotism, Runaway Horses, The Way of the Samurai, The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea, and Decay of the Angel (I believe in that order, as well as more recently listening to an audio version of The Golden Pavilion, though I still have yet to actually read it).
Still, I think it was Sun and Steel, specifically, which tipped me over the edge and drove much of the tone I set out to explore in music-making (bringing to bear, also, a lifelong preoccupation with the martial spirit for which Mishima lent no small amount of recontextualization), reigning in and vulcanizing the weird psychedelic leanings which so thoroughly saturated my earliest musical endeavors. I still haven't fully unpacked Mishima's influence over my work and tastes, but that borne of his work and legacy (largely in tandem with Nietzsche's, I would say) is at least manifest in my very flesh and bones and has occupied so much of my time and mind that I can't help but attribute to such influence the bulk of my endeavors.
Did anyone else purchase the Death of a Man photo book that was recently published? It contains several photo shoots (the "Death of a Man" series, Shield Society anniversary parade, and a samurai seppuku scene). It's interesting and sort of uncanny to see these staged death photos, given that they were taken during the last year of his life.
I think, however, that the book does not include the entire "Death of a Man" photoshoot? From what I remember, the famous St. Sebastian picture was part of the series, but it is not included. I have also read about another photo that staged him as being run over by a construction vehicle, which is also not present. Supposedly the series has never been published before, so perhaps this book only contains those photos from it that have never been released at any point.
Young Japan Translation Project (@youngjapantexts on Twitter/X) is publishing alot of previously untranslated essays by Mishima.
Quote from: Guldur on August 28, 2013, 07:33:39 PMMany times, crawling through the veils of industrial music, i have come upon the name of this influential historical figure. However i haven't been able to actually tell how in particular he had influenced act's like Grey Wolves, Genocide Organ, Death in June or others. It's because of his life and death, literature, poetry, movies he made? Any suggestions where to start in discovering Mishima's specific influence on industrial culture?
(http://lh3.ggpht.com/_NfFRxjX05L8/TaW-i9a2iSI/AAAAAAAAA1U/MJ_Qr9hXpwo/Yukio%20Mishima-06%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800)
Sun and Steel: Art, Action and Ritual Death
Runaway horses
Patriotism
Confession of a mask (for the gay themed part)
Death in Midsummer
Quote from: tiny_tove on January 22, 2024, 12:11:23 PMQuote from: Guldur on August 28, 2013, 07:33:39 PMMany times, crawling through the veils of industrial music, i have come upon the name of this influential historical figure. However i haven't been able to actually tell how in particular he had influenced act's like Grey Wolves, Genocide Organ, Death in June or others. It's because of his life and death, literature, poetry, movies he made? Any suggestions where to start in discovering Mishima's specific influence on industrial culture?
(http://lh3.ggpht.com/_NfFRxjX05L8/TaW-i9a2iSI/AAAAAAAAA1U/MJ_Qr9hXpwo/Yukio%20Mishima-06%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800)
Sun and Steel: Art, Action and Ritual Death
Runaway horses
Patriotism
Confession of a mask (for the gay themed part)
Death in Midsummer
While I don't recall it being listed in any bibliographies of industrial musicians, I imagine that
The Decay of the Angel was probably also in the backs of some of their minds---just for how it depicts the destructive tendencies of consumerism/mainstream culture.
Something tells me also that the biographies that were written on him were probably also instrumental in making him important for the scene.
Turbund Sturmwerk, Grey Wolves, Death in June quoted or had inspiration from his work. I'm sure many other martial industrial/neofolk projects quoted him at some point. as Foresta di Ferro we humbly paid our respect with this
After you have found Mishima's specific influence on industrial culture, why don't you go searching for Mishima's specific influence on your life.
Me, I believe industrial culture as such is undergoing fundamental changes which will be more evidently observable at a later time, after it has happened more concretely.
As for Mishima's influence on the current culture in general: it was a watershed moment for the zoomer generation when PewDiePie said that Mishima was his favourite author.
Quote from: glycineevangelist on January 25, 2024, 12:11:39 PMAs for Mishima's influence on the current culture in general: it was a watershed moment for the zoomer generation when PewDiePie said that Mishima was his favourite author.
Never heard that before. It seems funny, but it also leads me to wonder what might have been prompted (if anything at all) for young people to be exposed to his work in that way.
Excellent Xtwitter space hosted by @KansasRiverGuide discussing Forbidden Colours was just poasted overnight
Here (https://twitter.com/KanasRiverGuide/status/1750875235895701602?t=fH4veX6H4x0yqWlBdhr3Ow&s=19)
Quote from: nezalezhnye on January 21, 2024, 04:13:44 PMYoung Japan Translation Project (@youngjapantexts on Twitter/X) is publishing alot of previously untranslated essays by Mishima.
Lol some of the memes posted by the user on there calling himself Masaki Jinzaburo are just *chefs kiss* perfection.
Some really f*cked up imagery that alot of noise heads would appreciate.
I recently read Musica, very psychologically insightful in regards to the hysterical (literally) female mind. Reminiscent of After the Banquet, although a bit more provocative. Unfortunately hasn't been translated into English, only Italian and Spanish.
Speaking of translations... If Kyoko's House doesn't get translated, I will commit seppuku.
Quote from: ekastaka on January 30, 2024, 06:36:58 AMSpeaking of translations... If Kyoko's House doesn't get translated, I will commit seppuku.
I have been wanting to read that one since I saw the Schrader film/read the summary in the Nathan biography. It sounds great and possibly important among his other novels.