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Silk and Insight: A Novel
This is a tale based on the strike which took place in the mid-1950s at Omi Kenshi, a silk manufacturer not far from Tokyo. The events described reflect the management / labour tensions of the period and is a piece of social commentary on the transformation of Japanese business.
240 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1987
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274 people want to read
About the author
Yukio Mishima
460 books9,150 followersYukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫) was born in Tokyo in 1925. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University’s School of Jurisprudence in 1947. His first published book, The Forest in Full Bloom, appeared in 1944 and he established himself as a major author with Confessions of a Mask (1949). From then until his death he continued to publish novels, short stories, and plays each year. His crowning achievement, the Sea of Fertility tetralogy—which contains the novels Spring Snow (1969), Runaway Horses (1969), The Temple of Dawn (1970), and The Decay of the Angel (1971)—is considered one of the definitive works of twentieth-century Japanese fiction. In 1970, at the age of forty-five and the day after completing the last novel in the Fertility series, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide)—a spectacular death that attracted worldwide attention.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 1, 2020
Komazawa, the factory owner, is feudal and new rich (if such a thing is possible); totally uncool. He runs his factory a bit like Willy Wonka runs his: lots of singing, no one being allowed out at night, everyone being patted on the head when the Big Man does his tours.
Murakawa, sophisticated, owner of well-cut suits and a huge black Mercedes, is an heir to the zaibatsu. Old rich, European breakfasts, American management techniques; he hates Komazawa.
Okano, with a shady ultranationalist past, is now a shady ultra-capitalist who makes his money as a go-between on huge, shady deals between the heirs to the zaibatsu and government ministers. He loves German existentialists and manipulating people into doing things that aren't good for them (i.e. fucking with people).
Kikuno wants to retire from her Kyoto geisha life and Okano manipulates her into deciding that she wants to work at Komazawa's sad factory on the shores of Lake Biwa.
Otsuki is the strong youth in a white windbreaker. Okano manages to manipulate Komazawa into making life really tough for Otsuki and for Otsuki's girl. Evil Okano then puts Otsuki in touch with weird labour union pals...
An enjoyable read, but it's not very sexy. It's rusting machinery in polluted fields next to dirty lakes. It's those old Japanese offices: damp, crammed with dull grey metal furniture, yellowing photographs on the wall, a mouldy stuffed animal in a dusty case.
Murakawa, sophisticated, owner of well-cut suits and a huge black Mercedes, is an heir to the zaibatsu. Old rich, European breakfasts, American management techniques; he hates Komazawa.
Okano, with a shady ultranationalist past, is now a shady ultra-capitalist who makes his money as a go-between on huge, shady deals between the heirs to the zaibatsu and government ministers. He loves German existentialists and manipulating people into doing things that aren't good for them (i.e. fucking with people).
Kikuno wants to retire from her Kyoto geisha life and Okano manipulates her into deciding that she wants to work at Komazawa's sad factory on the shores of Lake Biwa.
Otsuki is the strong youth in a white windbreaker. Okano manages to manipulate Komazawa into making life really tough for Otsuki and for Otsuki's girl. Evil Okano then puts Otsuki in touch with weird labour union pals...
An enjoyable read, but it's not very sexy. It's rusting machinery in polluted fields next to dirty lakes. It's those old Japanese offices: damp, crammed with dull grey metal furniture, yellowing photographs on the wall, a mouldy stuffed animal in a dusty case.
December 1, 2018
This is probably the worst or least interesting of Mishima's novels. But if you are familiar with Mishima, "worst" doesn't mean "bad" at all.
It seems that Mishima's later works took a more socially conscious bent, away from the dark, breathy introspection and evil of his earlier works. Whereas the characters in novels like "Confessions" or "Sailor Who" are driven by their fallible, terrible natures, in books like "Banquet" or "Silk" he's moved to a focus on more societal machinations. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, for Mishima is adroit with all facets of humanity, it just makes for a far less interesting topic for a plot. Here it is a fictional rendering of an actual strike at a silk-processing factory near Kyoto in the 1950s. The story focuses on the deluded asshole corporate bastard Komazawa who just can't understand why his workers, veritable slaves, would rise up against their gentle father. A washed-out Geisha and Okano, an ambiguous political player (and the most uncertain of the characters, unfortunately), contrive to send the silk factory into chaos via young love.
I'd encourage the Mishima completist to read this: it probably doesn't get the attention it deserves. If you're interested in corporate assholery and want to see company heads literally pissing themselves in terror, you'll also like it.
It seems that Mishima's later works took a more socially conscious bent, away from the dark, breathy introspection and evil of his earlier works. Whereas the characters in novels like "Confessions" or "Sailor Who" are driven by their fallible, terrible natures, in books like "Banquet" or "Silk" he's moved to a focus on more societal machinations. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, for Mishima is adroit with all facets of humanity, it just makes for a far less interesting topic for a plot. Here it is a fictional rendering of an actual strike at a silk-processing factory near Kyoto in the 1950s. The story focuses on the deluded asshole corporate bastard Komazawa who just can't understand why his workers, veritable slaves, would rise up against their gentle father. A washed-out Geisha and Okano, an ambiguous political player (and the most uncertain of the characters, unfortunately), contrive to send the silk factory into chaos via young love.
I'd encourage the Mishima completist to read this: it probably doesn't get the attention it deserves. If you're interested in corporate assholery and want to see company heads literally pissing themselves in terror, you'll also like it.
January 2, 2021
More enjoyable than I had thought it was going to be. A fictional account of a strike over better working conditions in a silk factory in 1950's Japan, based on a real incident.
January 10, 2020
In the chronological order that I have mostly followed while reading Yukio Mishima’s books, I feel that having finished this book, I have completed a final speed bump of his mediocre English translated books. The choice of a factory as the setting and the characters halted this novel at a one star rating. I felt almost no attraction to the characters in this novel, a rarity in a novel by Mishima; Okano’s philosophical thoughts, and his overtaking of Komazawa’s position after Komazawa’s death; Kikuno’s transformation from geisha to dormitory mother and later caregiver of the dying Komazawa; Ōtsuki’s transition from a bumbling worker to a union leader; and Hiroko’s transition from a sick girl to Ōtsuki’s wife. I especially came to dislike Ōtsuki and Hiroko’s involvement in the strike which most likely lead to Komazawa’s death. Mishima’s usual sensuous depiction of women did evince any response from me. Of the only positives from having read this book, I enjoyed reading the later chapters on Komazawa’s belief in the purpose of the employment of workers and my application of his belief to capitalism. Komazawa as the tragic figure, which becomes pronounced in the final chapters, drew me in more and pushed me to his side after I had took neither side during the labor strike, although previously siding with the workers prior to the strike. This book has made me question further the limits to which unions can demand things from their employers.
I also felt that Yukio Mishima was attempting to do too much with this novel, not that it irritates me but puts me off because of what I have come to expect from him. He writes from the perspective of many characters, which he has done so in the past (Forbidden Colors comes to mind), but here it feels unfinished and the manner in which everything ties together in the end feels makeshift. For example, in chapter four, when Hiroko goes to live at the same sanatorium as Fusae, Komazawa’s wife, they do not interact until chapter eight on page one hundred and sixty two. I can understand the necessity of prolonging the encounter between the two women because nothing useful came out of their encounters until the later chapters, but this prolonging felt obvious, and because it felt obvious to me that nothing useful would come out of their encounter starting earlier, I feel that Mishima should have had found something useful in an earlier interaction between them. After a while, reading the perspectives of all the characters resulted in me believing that there was a formulaic style to the expression of their perspectives.
In my rankings of Mishima’s books, I place Silk and Insight as the worst of Mishima’s works, below After the Banquet. However, After the Banquet is not much better. After the Banquet benefits from a riveting political climax, whereas this factory strike does not reach the same heights.
Notes
Introduction: Having only read the introduction, I understood this book to be a book that sympathizes with the capitalistic submission of the Japanese laborers, which seems unlike Mishima since he was vehement about the capitalist focus of modern Japan. It will be disappointing to see if this is true. In addition, the book's supposed focus on a labor strike seems boring and not to my taste. I will be dumbfounded if I enjoy the novel by the time I have finished it.
Chapter One: Having finished the first chapter, I do not like the business setting. This book is currently reaching the same heights of After the Banquet.
Chapter Three: Even the end of this chapter concluding with Komazawa's implied maliciousness towards the two young factory workers, although abhorrent, does not stir me to enjoy the book so far. It is worse than After the Banquet so far.
Chapter Four: Just a boring story so far. Not really interested in Horoki and Komazawa's wife at the same sanitarium.
Chapter Five: Satoni's lust for Horoki is crude of Mishima. I believe this is the first lesbian encounter that I have read from his books so far.
Chapter Six: Another point of crudeness: Satoni, a dormitory mother, flashes at a union crowd in exchange for the delivery of a letter to Ōtsuki.
Chapter Six: It struck me now, on page one hundred and thirteen, the importance of the footnotes for better understanding Mishima’s books. This is the most annotated book of a Mishima translation and the notes have been helpful.
Chapter Seven: Another strange move by Mishima is now humor. When Okano and Kikuno are questioning a stranger’s choice of back violet hair, the woman turns around with a face full of wrinkles and lipstick everywhere, to which Okano and Kikuno "suppress their smiles" (137). This is very odd of Mishima to create this imagery and humor effect.
On page 148, I am struck by the simplicity of the novel. By that, I mean I am able to read each page with only having to consult a dictionary once or twice, and the narrative is easy to understand. This is in contrast to much of Mishima's previous books. Perhaps this is because of the American translators instead of the usual British translators.
Having read until then, I desire and have felt drawn to continue reading this book, so to see where the rest of the novel proceeds now with Komazawa returning to Japan in the midst of the strike.
Chapter Nine: Having begun chapter nine, I am dismayed at the length of the riot and its inconclusiveness.
I have increasingly disliked the translation style of this book. The use of vulgar language in a translation of Mishima’s works is unfound for me. One example: "For the first time, a flush of anger began to rise in the young man's [Ōtsuki’s] face. Komazawa tightened his ass in his seat" (185). Another example: "His ideas were, he knew, treated as shit in the propaganda documents of the "reds," but he could not bring to imagine how a human being with a modicum of humane feelings could find his ideas truly harmful, let alone get angry with them and loathe them" (188). These two examples are the only use of such vulgar language but it has pushed me enough to place this translation in the lower ranking of translations, alongside The Frolic of the Beasts
I have actually enjoyed a scene in this novel: When Komazawa pours his love to Ōtsuki, only to be rejected and walked away from, Komazawa sees his dead son and everyone else walking away from him. Komazawa has become a tragic figure with hubris.
Chapter Ten: I have enjoyed reading some of Komazawa's final thoughts on the strike and capitalism in general.
November 15, 2019
Rating Update
I have had to rethink my previous statement in the original section of this review in which I wrote that Silk and Insight was ranked as the lowest of Mishima's books, lower than After the Banquet. In rethinking my ranking order of Mishima's books, Forbidden Colors and Silk and Insight both rose from the ninth rank to the seventh rank and from the eleventh rank to the eighth rank respectively, while The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea fell from the seventh rank to the ninth rank.
I changed the rating of this book from one star to two stars. This is an alright book, although I took an eternity in reading it, it is alright to read and benefits from a character that I enjoyed: Komazawa. Silk and Insight is a two star-rated book for the most part with a three star-rated character. This puts Silk and Insight above Thirst for Love automatically because I thought Thirst for Love was just bland to read and it was a book that I neither liked nor disliked. Thirst for Love is the standard two star-rating for my ranking of Mishima books and for my entire library. It is also wrong to place Silk and Insight below After the Banquet because there were many sections in After the Banquet that I disliked, which was enough to rate After the Banquet at one star. A two star rating is a definite rating.
December 28, 2019
Update
A note for the December 27, 2019, rankings from my "Yukio Mishima Rankings" document: "Star above Silk and Insight because it came down to Kayo and Komazawa as the tie-breaker. They are the respective four star-rated characters, however, Komazawa was not enjoyed until the later half, whereas Kayo was static and I enjoyed her in almost all scenes". This note was also added to the Star review.
January 1, 2020
Update
I changed the rating type of this book from a 2L to a 2M. The rating type is befitting since Star also received the 2M rating type and, in the previous update of this book, they were evaluated at nearly the same ranking with similar positive and negative aspects.
January 10, 2020
Update
I have thought that the later four star-rated sections with Komazawa would require some two star-rated buildup to achieve at least a 2.5 star-rating. I must remind myself that I was not initially enthralled with Komazawa and disliked him. Apart from him, the characters and their actions were bland and not to my liking. If I need more examples of my negatively perceived aspects of this book, I should consult the notes. In this update, I seem to have forgotten the negatives and neutral aspects of this book, that outnumbered the positives.
I believe this is a book that with a reread, would reach a higher rating since I view Komazawa in a positive light and will come to see the entire story as linear progression of his tragic fall.
To correct the previous update, I find this statement incorrect: "A note for the December 27, 2019, rankings from my "Yukio Mishima Rankings" document: "Star above Silk and Insight because it came down to Kayo and Komazawa as the tie-breaker"". I do not see this as correct since there appear more negatives in Silk and Insight than Star despite both books sharing the book type. Also, The Sound of Waves is rated above Silk and Insight but below Star, depicting a difference between the two books.
I also felt that Yukio Mishima was attempting to do too much with this novel, not that it irritates me but puts me off because of what I have come to expect from him. He writes from the perspective of many characters, which he has done so in the past (Forbidden Colors comes to mind), but here it feels unfinished and the manner in which everything ties together in the end feels makeshift. For example, in chapter four, when Hiroko goes to live at the same sanatorium as Fusae, Komazawa’s wife, they do not interact until chapter eight on page one hundred and sixty two. I can understand the necessity of prolonging the encounter between the two women because nothing useful came out of their encounters until the later chapters, but this prolonging felt obvious, and because it felt obvious to me that nothing useful would come out of their encounter starting earlier, I feel that Mishima should have had found something useful in an earlier interaction between them. After a while, reading the perspectives of all the characters resulted in me believing that there was a formulaic style to the expression of their perspectives.
In my rankings of Mishima’s books, I place Silk and Insight as the worst of Mishima’s works, below After the Banquet. However, After the Banquet is not much better. After the Banquet benefits from a riveting political climax, whereas this factory strike does not reach the same heights.
Notes
Introduction: Having only read the introduction, I understood this book to be a book that sympathizes with the capitalistic submission of the Japanese laborers, which seems unlike Mishima since he was vehement about the capitalist focus of modern Japan. It will be disappointing to see if this is true. In addition, the book's supposed focus on a labor strike seems boring and not to my taste. I will be dumbfounded if I enjoy the novel by the time I have finished it.
Chapter One: Having finished the first chapter, I do not like the business setting. This book is currently reaching the same heights of After the Banquet.
Chapter Three: Even the end of this chapter concluding with Komazawa's implied maliciousness towards the two young factory workers, although abhorrent, does not stir me to enjoy the book so far. It is worse than After the Banquet so far.
Chapter Four: Just a boring story so far. Not really interested in Horoki and Komazawa's wife at the same sanitarium.
Chapter Five: Satoni's lust for Horoki is crude of Mishima. I believe this is the first lesbian encounter that I have read from his books so far.
Chapter Six: Another point of crudeness: Satoni, a dormitory mother, flashes at a union crowd in exchange for the delivery of a letter to Ōtsuki.
Chapter Six: It struck me now, on page one hundred and thirteen, the importance of the footnotes for better understanding Mishima’s books. This is the most annotated book of a Mishima translation and the notes have been helpful.
Chapter Seven: Another strange move by Mishima is now humor. When Okano and Kikuno are questioning a stranger’s choice of back violet hair, the woman turns around with a face full of wrinkles and lipstick everywhere, to which Okano and Kikuno "suppress their smiles" (137). This is very odd of Mishima to create this imagery and humor effect.
On page 148, I am struck by the simplicity of the novel. By that, I mean I am able to read each page with only having to consult a dictionary once or twice, and the narrative is easy to understand. This is in contrast to much of Mishima's previous books. Perhaps this is because of the American translators instead of the usual British translators.
Having read until then, I desire and have felt drawn to continue reading this book, so to see where the rest of the novel proceeds now with Komazawa returning to Japan in the midst of the strike.
Chapter Nine: Having begun chapter nine, I am dismayed at the length of the riot and its inconclusiveness.
I have increasingly disliked the translation style of this book. The use of vulgar language in a translation of Mishima’s works is unfound for me. One example: "For the first time, a flush of anger began to rise in the young man's [Ōtsuki’s] face. Komazawa tightened his ass in his seat" (185). Another example: "His ideas were, he knew, treated as shit in the propaganda documents of the "reds," but he could not bring to imagine how a human being with a modicum of humane feelings could find his ideas truly harmful, let alone get angry with them and loathe them" (188). These two examples are the only use of such vulgar language but it has pushed me enough to place this translation in the lower ranking of translations, alongside The Frolic of the Beasts
I have actually enjoyed a scene in this novel: When Komazawa pours his love to Ōtsuki, only to be rejected and walked away from, Komazawa sees his dead son and everyone else walking away from him. Komazawa has become a tragic figure with hubris.
Chapter Ten: I have enjoyed reading some of Komazawa's final thoughts on the strike and capitalism in general.
November 15, 2019
Rating Update
I have had to rethink my previous statement in the original section of this review in which I wrote that Silk and Insight was ranked as the lowest of Mishima's books, lower than After the Banquet. In rethinking my ranking order of Mishima's books, Forbidden Colors and Silk and Insight both rose from the ninth rank to the seventh rank and from the eleventh rank to the eighth rank respectively, while The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea fell from the seventh rank to the ninth rank.
I changed the rating of this book from one star to two stars. This is an alright book, although I took an eternity in reading it, it is alright to read and benefits from a character that I enjoyed: Komazawa. Silk and Insight is a two star-rated book for the most part with a three star-rated character. This puts Silk and Insight above Thirst for Love automatically because I thought Thirst for Love was just bland to read and it was a book that I neither liked nor disliked. Thirst for Love is the standard two star-rating for my ranking of Mishima books and for my entire library. It is also wrong to place Silk and Insight below After the Banquet because there were many sections in After the Banquet that I disliked, which was enough to rate After the Banquet at one star. A two star rating is a definite rating.
December 28, 2019
Update
A note for the December 27, 2019, rankings from my "Yukio Mishima Rankings" document: "Star above Silk and Insight because it came down to Kayo and Komazawa as the tie-breaker. They are the respective four star-rated characters, however, Komazawa was not enjoyed until the later half, whereas Kayo was static and I enjoyed her in almost all scenes". This note was also added to the Star review.
January 1, 2020
Update
I changed the rating type of this book from a 2L to a 2M. The rating type is befitting since Star also received the 2M rating type and, in the previous update of this book, they were evaluated at nearly the same ranking with similar positive and negative aspects.
January 10, 2020
Update
I have thought that the later four star-rated sections with Komazawa would require some two star-rated buildup to achieve at least a 2.5 star-rating. I must remind myself that I was not initially enthralled with Komazawa and disliked him. Apart from him, the characters and their actions were bland and not to my liking. If I need more examples of my negatively perceived aspects of this book, I should consult the notes. In this update, I seem to have forgotten the negatives and neutral aspects of this book, that outnumbered the positives.
I believe this is a book that with a reread, would reach a higher rating since I view Komazawa in a positive light and will come to see the entire story as linear progression of his tragic fall.
To correct the previous update, I find this statement incorrect: "A note for the December 27, 2019, rankings from my "Yukio Mishima Rankings" document: "Star above Silk and Insight because it came down to Kayo and Komazawa as the tie-breaker"". I do not see this as correct since there appear more negatives in Silk and Insight than Star despite both books sharing the book type. Also, The Sound of Waves is rated above Silk and Insight but below Star, depicting a difference between the two books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2017
I never thought I was going to say it, but I didn't love this book AT ALL. In fact, I just thought it was barely average. Yukio Mishima has proven in his other works his talents and views of the world with GORGEOUS writing, fantastic storytelling, and wonderful characters. "Silk and Insight" doesn't have any of that. The story if FINE, but the cliches and problems are VERY obvious. The characters are probably the best part, but only one of them, a woman named Kikuno, got any REAL development or any REAL character to them. The others were just average and forgettable. However, the thing that disappointed me the most out of this book was the writing. I don't think Mishima could have been more bland with some passages if he tried. The writing was just bad. I don't think I could have been more let down. So, "Silk and Insight" is the first Mishima book that I didn't like. For how big his bibliography is, it was inevitable. However, I just love him as a writer so much that I was hoping for a great book here. Unless if you are a huge Mishima fan like me, I say this one is an easy skip.
I am giving this one a 2.5 out of 5 stars.
I am giving this one a 2.5 out of 5 stars.
July 28, 2019
This was my first Mishima Yukio and I'm very impressed. His writing is romantic, beautiful, and precise. The plot isn't elaborate (I'm sure appears boring) and none of the characters are believable, but it doesn't matter because the book isn't about that. The transition from old to new world Japan was depicted wonderfully.
I look forward to reading his other works.
I look forward to reading his other works.
May 24, 2025
A mix of nostalgia and criticism of the post restoration managment style and bureaucracy where it casts the authoritarian but somewhat passive factory owner who insists that his factory is like his family as the tragic hero of the story, although the story goes pretty far in criticizing him and describing his and the old japanese managment style as obsolete. Not his most outwardly appealing book due to its somewhat limited scope and especially not compared to the powerful and universal books in his bibliography but an interesting read nonetheless.
December 25, 2010
not mishimas best prose and also if you get it from new york public library be warned the copy is mising pages 170 - 200 so be prepared to read it on google books or something... but still cool book about how hard and cool unions are
March 5, 2016
Not bad, but kind of...distant. The plot meanders and the characters aren't very interesting, although Okano reminds me a bit of Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley. It's definitely not one of Mishima's best, but it's worth a read.
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