Another FG Looking For The Soul Of Mishima

[Mulboyne]

[floatr][/floatr]"Mishima's Sword: Travels in Search of a Samurai" by Christopher Ross
"...Ross stands in a long line of westerners who have tried to make sense of Mishima's extraordinary death. He approaches his subject through a passion, shared with his subject, for Japanese swords and the art of iaido - swordsmanship. Martial-arts enthusiasts are an occupational hazard of expatriate life in Japan. Every second western man you meet is a wage-slave English teacher by day but, by night, a cat-footed warrior disciple...Mishima's Sword resembles a bento...more...."

This Guardian review notes that this book's author appears as a character in Robert Twigger's Angry White Pyjamas where he is described as "the original whiz-kid", now washed up in Japan, "trapped by the easy money of English teaching, rewriting and doing voiceovers for business videos".

More reviews here, here and here.

[Taro Toporific]

["Mishima's Sword: Travels in Search of a Samurai" by Christopher Ross
"...Ross stands in a long line of westerners who have tried to make sense of Mishima's extraordinary death. He approaches his subject through a passion, shared with his subject, for Japanese swords and the art of iaido ...

I cannot find the old FG thread, but Steve said he kept Mishima's sword behind the refrigerator.

Hey Steve, are you getting a cut of this?

Happy Mishima Day!

[Mulboyne]

I cannot find the old FG thread, but Steve said he kept Mishima's sword behind the refrigerator.

I remember him saying that too but I couldn't find the comment anywhere either.

[Greji]

[Choeki]

The sad, isolated (nationalist) latently homosexual suicide of Yukio Mishima aside, I find it sad that the current JSDF doesn't even have an inkling of the belief that he wholeheartedly wished for them to engender. Granted, even the average Japanese citizen cares very little for the "self-defence forces" that supposedly protect Japan from external enemies (such as North Korea), you would think that even a modicum of national pride would be allowable in this day and age...