Mishima: A Biography

by John Nathan

Overview

At forty-five, Yukio Mishima was the outstanding Japanese writer of his generation, celebrated both at home and abroad for The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. In 1970 he startled the world by stepping out onto a balcony in Tokyo before an assembly of troops and plunging a sword into his abdomen; a disciple then beheaded him, completing the ritual of hara-kiri. John Nathan's riveting biography traces the life of this tortured, nearly superhuman personality. Mishima survived a grotesque childhood, and subsequently his sadomasochistic impulses became manifest — as did an increasing obsession with death as the supreme beauty. Nathan, who knew Mishima professionally and personally, interviewed family, colleagues, and friends to unmask the various — often seemingly contradictory — personae of the genius who felt called by "a glittering destiny no ordinary man would be permitted."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306809774
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	04/07/2000
Edition description:	Subsequent
Pages:	348
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.75(h) x (d)

About the Author

John Nathan, the Takashima Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has translated the novels of both Yukio Mishima and the Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oë. He also published Sony, a portrait of the giant Japanese corporation.