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The God Shelf
In the Mishima story, “Patriotism,” the characters pay homage to what is translated as the “god shelf.” “On the god shelf below the staircase, alongside the tablet from the Great Ise Shrine, were set...
View ArticleAdbusters on “The Soul of Japan”
A smug, pro-post-modernist article that mentions Mishima dismissively (almost in a bitchy way, actually), yet more or less summarizes the fears Mishima expressed about the “spirit” (or psychology) of a...
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Hitokiri (Tenchu!) – Another on-screen hara-kiri filmed in 1969
Mishima’s character in the yakuza film “Afraid to Die“ actually dies in the end. In “Patriotism,” Mishima famously filmed himself going through the motions of hara-kiri four years before he eventually...
View ArticleIs Japan’s New Prime Minister asking Mishima-esque Questions?
Came across this article from the Japan Times, written by Hiroaki Sato, who is working on a biography of Mishima. Apparently, Japan’s new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is getting criticism for saying...
View ArticleHagakure – New edition
I was in Barnes and Noble today and I found a beautiful, hardcover edition of the Hagakure, which Mishima referred to as the “womb of his oeuvre” and wrote his own commentary on. It is bound in bright...
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