We arrived in Japan without books. Within a day or two we were searching for our local library. The closest one we tried was the Tsurumaki Branch in the Shinjuku Library system. While the branch was very cute, and it had a great Japanese children’s section, there were no books in English. The librarian recommended the Chuo Library which was much larger and even had “Children’s Library” in the name. The Chuo Branch was several times bigger, the Japanese Children’s Library was fantastic, but still there were no books in English (although I did pick up a few issues of “Hiragana Times” which is half in English). This seemed rather bizarre to me, that in a country where learning English is mandatory (although very, very few actually speak it) the libraries don’t carry ANY books in English. You’d think Japanese people would want to improve their English skills by reading books in English. Apparently not.

We were told at Chuo Library that all of the English books are kept at the Okubo Library. So off we trotted on our third library excursion. The Okubo Branch did have books in English. However, the selection is not what we were expecting. There are no more than a few dozen books in English. Many, if not most, are popular novels for which I don’t have any interest. There are a few cookbooks (my wife checked out Harumi’s Japanese Cooking), and then there are a few Japanese classics in English. Needless to say I will consume these without any trouble in the next year.

The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima was the first one I checked out. I read it from cover to cover on two, round-trip train trips from Shinjuku to Ebina. This was the fourth Mishima novel I have read.

The ending of this book was a surprise to me. I have come to expect certain things from Mishima, and this one twisted differently than I expected. I won’t give it away here.

As much as, if not more than, his other novels, a reader can really learn a lot about Japanese culture and Japanese thought through Mishima’s words. I suppose one could just enjoy The Sound of Waves as a well told, very descriptive, love story, but there is so much more here than just that.

The details are not only beautifully written and symbolic, but they make it hard to believe the author isn’t actually there, carefully observing every movement. I offer one example from page 119.

“…there were now more houses that were empty during the daytime, doors unlocked, windows open. Bees entered these empty houses freely, flew about in them lonesomely, and were often startled upon running headlong into a mirror.”

In the end, I realized that I would have appreciated the book even more had I read it in the original Japanese. Perhaps it is a good thing that the libraries offer so few choices in English. I won’t be able to finish works of this length in two days if reading in Japanese, but at the same time I won’t be wondering what Meredith Weatherby, the translator, was translating when she writes things like “get-up-and-go.”

Posted on September 8th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: book review, yukio mishima. Comments: 2

This was my third Mishima novel in the past month. As I read it, with only a few exceptions, I felt that Mishima had mellowed in this work compared to Confessions of a Mask or The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, both of which were written earlier than The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. The last few pages, however, reveal that Mishima was as sick and twisted as ever, maybe even more so. And that’s what makes his books so fascinating to read. I’m addicted and can’t stop.

20 years ago I was a big fan of Steven King. I probably read 10 or more of his books in the space of a few months. I don’t think I’ve read any Steven King since that brief episode in my life though. I think Steven King would be proud of the ending in The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. I’d love to tell it to you, but for those who haven’t read it yet my telling would spoil everything for you.

Why this was named The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea when the Japanese title is 午後の曳航 I have no idea.

Next up is Spring Snow. Are there any other Mishima titles that I should absolutely not miss?

Posted on November 21st, 2008 under Japan. Tags: book review, yukio mishima. Comments: 3

After reading The Temple of the Golden Pavilion I felt like I needed more of Mishima so this is where I randomly turned next. Unless you are into S&M or a homosexual you probably won’t fully appreciate the first half or so of this book. I found the last half of the book to be far more enjoyable myself. This is Mishima’s first major work, and in some ways it shows. I liked The Temple of the Golden Pavilion more, but I still found much of Confessions of a Mask to be interesting–fascinating even, and I have no regrets about reading the whole thing.

In fact, those two works weren’t enough for me so now I’m reading The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea which was much later than either of the above two books. Well, maybe not much later but Mishima’s career was so short that it was relatively much later given his brief life.

The setting for Confessions of a Mask is from pre-World War 2 through just after the war. Therefore, those interested in Japan during the war years from the Japanese, common-person perspective will at least like this account for that reason.

How much of this is autobiographical? I don’t know. You do see many similarities between the main character in this book and the main character in The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Given Mishima’s later views you can certainly see his troubled, earlier mind in his early works. Mishima’s end should have been very predictable by those who read his works and considered them to be at least partially autobiographical. From his account here, his later militaristic views almost seem as if they could have partially been the result of guilt–guilt over avoiding service time in WW2.

In summary, if you plan to start reading Mishima, Confessions of a Mask is probably not the best place to start. Don’t skip it entirely though unless you are seriously homophobic and can’t stomach such thoughts.

Posted on November 11th, 2008 under Japan. Tags: book review, yukio mishima. Comments Off on Confessions of a Mask

Having visited kinkakuji last year, I had heard the story of the monk who burned down the prior version of the temple but not in any detail. Reading Donald Keene’s memoir got me interested in Mishima. The two interests combined finally got me to pick up a copy of the English translation of The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and read.

And what a curious read it turned out to be! The book is said to be historical fiction. I’ve read reviews that claim that Mishima did research and actually interviewed the arsonist so maybe it’s more historical than fiction. In any event, I became thoroughly engrossed in this book.

I won’t go into any plot lines here as you can read them elsewhere on the internet, and I don’t want to provide any major spoilers for those who haven’t read it yet.

As I read the book, I felt like there were some of Mishima’s autobiographical elements coming out in the arsonist’s character. For instance, Mishima has the arsonist say that living to an old age is a curse. (p. 128) He takes special care to emphasize physical limitations (something Mishima, himself, seemed obsessed with). And the thought of suicide is rather glorious to Mishima’s mentally unstable arsonist. Mishima worked tirelessly to become a physical specimen (through body building), thought old age was not a good thing, and committed suicide at a relatively young age.

I thought the story line near the end sounded strangely like Mark David Chapman and his preparations to murder John Lennon. Mark Chapman identified with Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caulfield is not too unlike Mishima or the arsonist in The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. The Catcher in the Rye deals with adolescent aimlessness, a dissatisfaction with everything, being disgusted with the phoniness people, themes of anxiety over sex, the feeling that everything is soiled, and lost innocence–all items touched on in this work of Mishima’s.

Both the arsonist and Chapman went to prostitutes and spent the last of their money before committing their crimes. Both affiliated with a book. For Chapman it was The Catcher in the Rye. For the arsonist in The Temple of the Golden Pavilion it was Crime and Punishment. The similarities seemed so eerie that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Chapman had also read Mishima’s book.

I give this work two thumbs up and highly recommend it–especially if you have been to Kyoto.

Posted on November 2nd, 2008 under Japan. Tags: book review, yukio mishima, 金閣寺. Comments: 1

“I ran. It was fantastic how far I ran without stopping to rest. I can’t even remember what places I passed. I must have… run up the mountain path that was bordered by bamboo grass and azalea and reached the top of Mount Hidari Daimonji. Yes, it was surely on top of Mount Hidari Daimonji that I lay down on my back in the bamboo field in the shadow of the red pines and tried to still the fierce beating of my heart. This was the mountain that protected the Golden Temple from the north.” (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, p. 261)

Posted on November 1st, 2008 under Japan. Tags: japan pictures, kyoto, yukio mishima, 金閣寺. Comments Off on Daimonji 大文字