Acts of Worship: Seven Stories

by Yukio Mishima, John Bester (Translator)

When Mishima committed ritual suicide in November 1970, he was only forty-five. He had written over thirty novels, eighteen plays, and twenty volumes of short stories. During his lifetime, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times and had seen almost all of his major novels appear in
English. While the flamboyance of his life and the apparent fanaticism of his death have dominated the public's perception of his achievement, Japanese and Western critics alike are in agreement that his literary gifts were prodigious.

Mishima is arguably at his best in the shorter forms, and it is the flower of these that appears here for the first time in English. Each story has its own distinctive atmosphere and each is brilliantly organized, yielding deeper layers of meaning with repeated readings. The psychological
observation, particularly in what it reveals of the turmoil of adolescence, is meticulous.

The style, with its skillful blending of colors and surfaces, shows Mishima in top form, and no further proof is needed to remind us that he was a consummate writer whose work is an irreplaceable part of world literature.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Japan, Japanese Literature, Literature, Classics, Asia

207 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Yukio 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.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Fountains in the rain" – boy's joy in the dumping of first girlfriend. Girl manages to ruin it.

"Raisin Bread" – Yukio Mishima meets Haruki Murakami! I didn’t quite understand if they were foreigners, or cool-cat, jazz-loving J-boys who'd adopted funky names.

"Sword" – Sexy young man takes his kendo very seriously. As all young men should. Other members of the team want to be him, destroy him, shag him, or a little bit of all three. Mishima by numbers.

"Sea and Sunset" – Weird.

"Cigarette" – Public school boys 1: Fragile, unattractive boy crashes a fag from the captain of the rugby team.

"Martyrdom" – Public school boys 2: Fragile, unattractive boy steals porn from the ruler of the dormitory.

"Act of Worship" – repellent poet and his boring maid travel to some Shinto sights.

[Mrs.Martos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magistrales todos los relatos.

[rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first found Mishima, I wondered why I'd never heard of him before. I quickly fell in love with his style of writing tight, consistent, entertaining, and vexing novels. "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" is one of my all time favorite novels, and with reading it I found Mishima to be my favorite author.

But I had never read a short story (or play) from him until I found this collection.

Now I feel even more strongly about Mishima, and even more solidly convinced that his detractors have no validity. These seven stories are all radically different; characters, time period, length--but they all hold something very poignant about them. Like the Professor recommending to his maid in "Act of Worship" the beautifully written prose of vast scenery and metaphoric imagery -- I too recommend this collection for those reasons.

"Fountains in the Rain" is a simple and short narrative between two lovers, with Mishima juxtaposing the female's tears' with the fountains they (the couple) stumble upon while in rain. Wonderful layering here, but this is the one "throw-away" story (if you could even call it that). The following, "Raisin Bread", is where the stories take an almost psychologically horrific turn; the subject matter is dark from here on out, but Mishima wields this territory like a blade.

"Sword" is next, one of this collection's two largest stories (the other one being the self-titled) concerning, yes, a kendo/swordplay training school. Characters are introduced quickly and tension is held high as we see guilt and honor flowing together until the final line reveals the story's conclusion. You can feel the sweat on the students' faces and can nearly see the golden hue of the dojo floor.

"Sea and Sunset" takes a very different story (which is itself told inside of another story) about a French farm hand sold into slavery, landing in a Buddhist shrine in Japan. The two items in the title seem to suggest a waning of life for the protagonist. Wonderful little story.

Now, the two most brilliant pieces come next. They express, alone, why I think Mishima is head and shoulders above most any Japanese literature -- and also why his detractors (who claim he falls from being able to create the metaphysical dreamscapes of Haruki Murakami, or the Japanesque erotic footsy of Tanizaki) should reconsider his worth.

"Cigarette" is a personal diatribe from an adolescent that would otherwise be boring if not for being so acutely written. In a few pages, I felt that Mishima and I had had the same childhood. He crossed into territory that many do (think the typical "teen experience" movie) but the end result is something entirely believable and fascinating. The grinding of adolescence on culture; feeling the need to "fit in"; feeling unwelcomed anywhere -- Mishima captures it all with clarity that I have never seen anywhere else. I'll be re-reading this one many times.

When I first started "Martyrdom", I didn't expect it to hold much. Demon King? I wondered. But by the end, I was shocked. This piece holds such poetry and metaphor in every line, and crosses paths between Christian mythology and Japanese idealism. The tortured protagonist (making the last story's main character to look brave in comparison) and his story are probably predictable with the story's title, but there is more than expected, and when I finished this story I could only be reminded of what Murakami had said of Mishima, and I wondered if he had had a chance to read this! It truly moved me like not many of his novels have.

Mishima changed the landscape of Japanese literature. He wrote around 20 volumes of short stories, these being but a few. He also, unlike many of his influences, was able to see many of them translated into English and made popular among his current generation (also a rare thing among Japanese authors).

His untimely death is what people most remember about him. Let them, then. In my own life, I'll only remember that he changed the way I felt about everything.

[Ensiform · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. "Fountains In the Rain." An arrogant youth dumps his girlfriend; when she won’t stop crying, he takes her to fountains in the rain, hoping her tears will find their match in them. Instead, he himself becomes fascinated with the sight of the cascading waters. Good descriptions, and a humorous account of youth coming to terms with its own unimportance.

2. "Raisin Bread." Jack, an alienated young man, “made of some clear crystalline substance, had as his sole aim to become quite invisible.” A failed suicide, he remains morbidly detached, even in his social and sexual relations. Beautiful, powerful with quite subtle prose, but as a whole it lacks the drama that makes a story moving: there is no conflict or change in Jack. It’s a slice of life scene, but an alien life.

3. "Sword." 53 pages. Jiro, an excessively upright aloof fencing student, the captain of the team, distances himself from what he sees as the shame of the world. Eventually his disappointment with society, including a young student who hero-worships him, leads him to suicide. It’s an interesting story as a demonstration of notions of Eastern honor and the pressures of interaction among social unequals, as well as the craft of fencing. But like the other Mishima stories, there’s something detached about the whole, much as Jiro detaches himself from society. I never really understood the characters’ actions. This could also be a cultural or language barrier.

4. "Sea And Sunset." An old man in Japan, Anri, climbs to the top of a mountain to watch the sunset and tell the story of how he saw a vision as a young boy in France, took part in the children’s crusade, and was sold into slavery. Now settled in Japan, he has rejected his old Western life, “and never indulged in foolish fantasies of an afterlife or hankered after unseen lands.” And yet sadness overshadows his view of the sunset and the waves. It’s a subtle, deep psychological portrait, as well as a nice example of the emphasis on the immediate and acceptance of the East.

5. "Cigarette." A very delicate tale of a delicate, bookish boy with homoerotic leanings, who shares a cigarette with some boys at school in hopes of being accepted as one of them. The prose is very poetic, the descriptions of nature clear and elegant, the conflicts raging within the boy subtly understated. It’s good writing, but I don’t identify with it much.

6. "Martyrdom." An enigmatic tale of an overdeveloped 14-year-old who develops a homoerotic love-hate thing for another student. Poetic and strange, ugly and childish, and yet sweet somehow.

7. "Act Of Worship." 60 pages. A very proper, slightly eccentric bachelor professor of Japanese literature goes on a pilgrimage to the shrines of his birth district. Unexpectedly, he asks his female living assistant to accompany him, and with an odd ritual, very subtly reveals something to her of himself, as well as what their relationship has become over ten years. This is a delicate, poetic story, using lyrical descriptions as well as brief lessons in Japanese literature and history to outline the rather sad yet somehow hopeful tale of two alienated people, bound by dictates of society and place. It’s a beautiful piece, powerful and rich.

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps I’ll never re-read the Sea of Fertility tetralogy, but these stories I have read and re-read.

Sometimes Mishima is best in small doses. The difference between medicine and poison is, of course, the dosage.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 2 out of 5]

The rare Mishima miss, my first. Since M is so consistently great, my instinct is to blame either the translator or the selection. The translator isn't familiar to me, at a cursory sweep, so maybe it's the editing. The stories here don't seem to reflect well his best work, though it is an attempt to display his range. Also, much is made, as always, to attempt to define Mishima exclusively by his struggles with his homosexuality (back cover plot blurbs trumpet the homoeroticism of these stories, which is largely nonexistent unless you see phallic imagery in everything from a cigarette butt to a doorstop). Whoever he wanted to shag is his business and it would be a far stretch with a lot of his work to gussy it up this way.
Anyhow, the stories themselves wander from mediocre ("Sword", a tedious tale of fencing students and their betters) to outright what-the?! ("Sea and Sunset", an improbably Frenchmen in 13th century Japan) with a few moments of genius thrown in there ("Raisin Bread"= Mishima channels Bukowski).

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vine a esta colección de cuentos porque quería leer en especial el cuento titulado "Los peregrinos de Kumano", que me ha hecho recordar cuando yo misma fui peregrina en el Kumano kodo.

[Tobi ﾄﾋﾞ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Acts of worship (of men). No, but seriously, this book is stunning.

Yukio Mishima's Acts of Worship, also known as The Way of the Worship, is a collection of short stories exploring various themes such as patriotism, beauty, mortality, and the traditional Japanese concept of bushido, the way of the warrior.

The stories in Acts of Worship exhibit Mishima's fascination with the idea of death, beauty, and the cultural values of traditional Japan. Each story is imbued with Mishima's lyrical prose, often containing vivid descriptions and philosophical contemplations.

One of the notable stories in the collection is Death in Midsummer, which revolves around the tragic drowning of a young boy during a family vacation. The narrative explores the themes of guilt, grief, and the fragility of life.

Regarding the underlying homoeroticism in Mishima's works, including Acts of Worship, there are recurrent motifs and themes that suggest homoerotic undertones. Mishima's exploration of male beauty, the admiration of youthful masculinity, and the intense bonds between male characters are unparalleled (and distracting in the most complimentary way possible).

Similar to everything Mishima did, Acts of Worship reflects Mishima's fascination with traditional Japanese aesthetics and the cultural codes of bushido. Mishima was known for his nationalist views and admiration for Japan's pre-war traditions, which he sought to revive in his literature. His exploration of beauty, mortality, and the cultural ethos of Japan resonates with his personal ideologies and fascination with traditional values.

The stories in Acts of Worship contribute to Mishima's overarching exploration of beauty, death, and the conflict between tradition and modernity. Mishima's literary legacy and the themes presented in this collection continue to be studied and appreciated for their depiction of Japanese cultural values and the human condition.

[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5 ⭐ (he reencontrado esas cosquillas que sentía a los 13 años cuando leía ciertos relatos de chicos adolescentes con los que descubrí mi sexualidad, Mishima es un genio captando ciertos momentos de la sexualidad o la identidad de un individuo) (quiero apuntarme a kendo) (quiero un novio que haga kendo) (es demasiado bueno su estilo, comienza ya con ventaja)

[Tina Tamman · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I like about Mishima's writing is his vitality although sooner or later he brings in the subject of suicide (or death). Strange and fascinating contrast. Fans of Mishima may also be fascinated by the fact that he himself committed suicide. And yet, everything he touches in his writing is alive, full of energy, occasionally stunningly beautiful. Even the title story in this collection, unusually subdued, slightly melancholy, ends on an optimistic note. My favourite, however, is "The Sword" - about fencing that I know nothing about, and yet the author makes me intrigued and engaged. One of the weakest stories - "Cigarette" - carries a hauntingly beautiful image of the narrator, keen to turn around and look behind, spotting instead something crimson ahead. What follows is a description of a cherry tree caught in glowing sunlight.
I don't remember how I acquired the book but it has been languishing on my shelf unread for decades. At one point I was close to giving it away to a charity shop because I had read the first story ("Fountains in the Rain") and was unimpressed. However, I have since got interested in Mishima's novels, read at least two, and now I have also read all of the seven short stories. Which leaves me thoroughly confused as to whether one should persevere with books that do not immediately engage.

[Dave]

So intense it is breathtaking.

[Adam Goddard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beast from the east knocks it out the park with these short stories

[Falk · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing that struck me while reading this book is Mishima's unique ability to use words to sketch vivid images that will continue to stay etched in your memory long after you’ve finished the story. The seven stories in this collection spans a large part of Mishima's career as a writer. It was first published in 1965. The title, Acts of Worship, suggests that there is a kind of leitmotif to these stories – and it sure makes it more interesting to view this collection as a whole that way. The first two stories, Fountains in the Rain and Raisin Bread, were both written in 1963, and the protagonists here are frustrated young men. There is a hint of surrealism in both of these stories, especially the latter where Mishima also very cleverly paraphrases de Lautréamont’s Les Chants de Maldoror. Here, we are introduced to a group of restless westernized youth; the protagonist is called Jack, "with a past that included an attempted suicide", he is described as "twenty-two and made of a clear crystalline substance, [he] had as his sole aim to become quite invisible."

Sword (also 1963) is set in a college kendo club; the main protagonist being the club’s captain, Jiro. It is one of the most lengthy of these stories, and the one I liked the best. It’s easy to see Sword as one of the key stories among Mishima’s work. (Another is undoubtedly Patriotism, which was published in 1966.) Again Mishima’s evocative and poignant images are as important as the storyline:
"To be strong and true had been the most important task he had set himself since early childhood.
Once, as a boy, he had tried to outstare the sun. But before he could tell whether he had really looked at it or not, changes had occurred: the blazing red ball that had been there at first began to whirl, then suddenly dimmed, till it became a cold, bluish-black, flattened disk of iron. He felt he had seen the very essence of the sun....
For a while, wherever he looked he saw the sun's pale afterimage: in the undergrowth; in the shade beneath the trees; even, when he gazed up, in every part of the sky.
The truth was something too dazzling to be looked at directly. And yet, once it had come into one's field of vision, one saw patches of light in all kinds of places: the afterimages of virtue."

The next story, Sea and Sunset (1955), as well as the last in this collection, Act of Worship (1965), deals with more elderly people, and the whole tone is set in a lower, more melancholy pitch. The first of these is set in the thirteenth century; the main character is a reminiscing old Frenchman who had taken part in the Children’s Crusade, then being sold into slavery and eventually ending up as a handyman at a Buddhist temple after being freed by a Zen Master. Well, that's at least the 'skeleton' of the story, which isn't to say that this is what's the story is really about. Mishima is mostly more subtle than that. It is the only story in this collection that I didn’t care much for, while the last is among the best – with its distant echo of Thomas Mann: an aging eccentric professor of literature goes on a pilgrimage to three shrines in his birth district, bringing along his middle-aged house-keeper, both portrayed as unattractive in different ways – he with a walleye, dyed hair, soprano voice, vain... she with hollow cheeks, protruding teeth, "a face devoid of sexual appeal", self-effacing... Slowly the real reason for the pilgrimage comes to light. It rounds up this book perfectly, and it’s no coincidence that this entire collection of stories has gotten its title from this particular story.

In Cigarette (1946), which is a reminiscence of Mishima's school days - one of the first stories that won him attention in the literary world, and Martyrdom (1948), we return to youthful protagonists; both of these stories are succinctly rendered, and in the sublime cruelty depicted in Martyrdom there is a foreshadowing of his 1963 novel The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. These two stories may not be among his best, but still fascinating reading - and on the whole, Mishima's portrayals of youth are in a class by itself.




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

[Conner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing a review for this collection of stories is an intimidating prospect. Prose as exquisite as this seems like it deserves a more lucid write-up than I feel capable of giving. The usual spewing of adjectives: "thought-provoking", "delicate", "sublime", "tragic", "illuminating", and other words, while apt, fail to fully encompass the experience of reading Mishima and the wonderment one feels at his mastery of capturing subtle emotion and psychology through language.

This collection contains seven nicely varied stories. The surprisingly humorous and ironic opening story (Fountains in the Rain) quickly gives way to a darker tone, from the murky Raisin Bread (reminiscent of the modern Ryū Murakami) to the out-and-out tragic Sword. Mishima travels to different time periods as well, with the mythical Sea and Sunset taking place in the 12th century. Two of the stories take place in modern all-male boarding schools, and while these stories are both similar, the first and probably my favorite, is an extremely fragile tale about the desperate search for acceptance and unspoken desire for love that's very hard to summarize without diminishing its poignancy (Cigarette) while the other is redolent of a western Christ parable (Martyrdom). The title story closing the collection has a discussion about medieval Japanese poetry. It is telling about Mishima's skills as a writer that his prose is just as poetic as any of the ancient verses sampled here.

The translation by John Bester is very well done, however I have one small gripe. He gives us this disclaimer in the preface: "there are a few short passages that I have cut because they would have been impossible to translate, or would have been puzzling to the non-Japanese reader." This is perfectly understandable and a common thing to do in translation, but it would have been nice if instead of extracting them completely, he'd have left these passages untranslated, even if he set them aside from the main text. Mishima is one of those writers where each sentence is constructed so precisely that you feel every word is important. This is absolutely gorgeous prose that demands that you slow down to read. I spent quite a lot of time with this book re-reading passages just to fully soak in their beauty.

I was thoroughly impressed by my introduction to Mishima and I already feel confident saying that he is one of the greatest authors I've had the honor of reading. I hear his novels are even better.

[José · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuando leo tengo la costumbre de subrayar las frases y párrafos que me gustan. Con esta colección, conformada por siete cuentos, esto me fue imposible por lo hipnótico que es el uso del lenguaje por parte de Mishima. Siento que este libro es altamente recomendable para aquellos que quieran aprender a escribir cuentos cortos porque, en primer lugar, muestra un equilibrio tanto entre la prosa y lo lírico y el mundo interno y externo de los personajes, pero también porque se ve el desarrollo y el crecimiento del autor, a través de los años.

Los tres mejores relatos son sin duda "Los sables", "Pan de pasas" y "Peregrinos en Kumano"; cada uno revela una faceta diferente del autor y de su sociedad pero al mismo tiempo cubren e integran la misma personalidad y cosmovisión. "Los sables", que le da el nombre a esta antología, es el más "mishimiano" de los tres pero en lo personal siento que "Peregrinos en Kumano" es superior por buscar cierta reconciliación ante las imperfecciones de la vida en vez de caer en esa obsesiva inmolación abnegada tan propia de Mishima que, aunque no carece de belleza, es una manía constante a lo largo de la obra (y de la vida) del autor.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is clearly a work done in Mishima's early years, when he was more obsessed with the idea of vague supermen devoid of feelings of compassion, and fixated on the typical male adolescent fantasies of an existential rage like heroes from Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. So, you know, that gets irritating. The vicious lack of empathy with no reward gets frustrating because many of these stories don't have a real antagonism - the hero is unfeeling and capable, and does what he wants, because nothing gets in the way. He is a spectacle of something you're supposed to find repulsive. And you do.

Still, there is a lot of irresistible beauty here, and there are a lot of well structured stories. I think you're better off reading "The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea" than these stories, though. That's where Mishima really let himself tell a story rather than grousing.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not sure where the subtitle came from ("Japanese for Busy People") but it's wrong! But to the subject of Yukio Mishima's short stories, they're really good. I have been told that in Japanese Mishima is a great stylist - his sentence structures are superb and he's greatly admired for the literal shading and brightness of his prose work. I am hoping that more of his work will get translated into English.

But meanwhile we have this (and another short story collection) and a lot of his novels in print. Read and enjoy - and of course his own life is quite.... interesting. Of course.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Juventud, homosexualidad, belleza, dureza, veneración al superior entre el excesivo y obsesivo respeto, muerte, inseguridad propia, violencia, ascetismo, entrega, ideales rígidos, tradición... Puro Yukio Mishima. Todo bien, aunque dentro de un mundo e ideología particulares, pertenecientes a una época y cultura concretas y a esta persona singular que fue el autor. Pueden compartirse o no, incluso causar rechazo, pero no deja de ser atrayente e interesante como Mishima lo plasma todo en estos cuentos, al igual que en el resto de sus obras.

[naviya · Rating 4 out of 5]

- ah, i really like mishima's voice and details and characterizations.... it makes me want to write short stories

- fountains in the rain: i thought this was so funny, the way the narrator talks about his emotions and his self-importance and then running into that ending HAH
- raisin bread: honestly, I didn't get what the sci/fi part of this was, i really thought this was all imagery or whatever. it was good though. mishima really does write the avoidant gay feelings so well.
- sword: EXCELLENT CHARACTERS....but an expected and terrible ending. like i get it. it's his thing. but i don't have to like it.
- sea and sunset: hrmmm good points were made, but i personally dc.
- cigarette: MORE TEENAGE ANGST. like im so glad i didn't read him in high school bc it would've made me insufferable. but this story was so fun to read. i like descriptions and the stuff he notices.
- martyrdom: yes yes more homoerotic stuff but also sad except the other two stories have already covered this so this doesn't leave much of an impact. not that this is bad though.
- act of worship: insufferable in the beginning. gets so much better. the narrator is really unique to this story. i think it was a little lovely.

- he captures the existential dread, the the burden of living very well (as usual) and i just like the actual content (not story, not plot, not translation) that it's tough to critique
- i like this sort of internalizing prose, it's so hard to do well but it feels so good to read FUCK
- overall, i think 50 percent of it was v excellent and the rest was eh

- i've been reading this book for a couple months now, and somehow never moved past the first two stories but then i finished it all in an evening...

[Fulya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yukio Mişima ve Kobo Abe'nin Japon Edebiyatı'ndan ayrı olarak benim için yeri ayrıdır. Yaklaşık 20 sene önce halk kütüphanesindeki bir öykü derlemesinde keşfetmiştim Mişima'yı. İlk okuduğum ve aşık olduğum Japon yazardır ve bende de yeri çok ayrıdır. Bu öykü derlemesini daha önce okumuşum olarak işaretlemişim ancak büyük ihtimalle başka bir derlemeyle karıştırdım. Aslında sevindim de çünkü Mişima'dan bilmediğim bir şeyi okumak hep heyecan verici olmuştur.

Bu öykü derlemesi aynı temada ilerleyen farklı öykülerden oluşuyor. Hepsinin baş karakteri bir erkek ve onun kendini bulma ya da kaybetme yolculuğu. Yani bir tür rüştünü ispatlama hikayeleri denebilir de. Beni en çok çarpan öykülerden bahsedeyim en başta:

1. Raisin Bread: Adeta bir Kitano filminde olabilecek saçmalık ve bunun yüzümüze çarpılırcasına gerçek olabilme ihtimali. Beni derinden etkiledi. Oldukça da açıklayıcı sahneler, müstehcen olmaktan da öte; mahremin teşhiri resmen.

2. Cigarette: O ergenliği nasıl tarif ediştir öyle! ¨ Çocukluğun hapishanesi kilitli bir sandıktır; ergen kişi onu öyle ya da böyle açmaya çalışır. Ve sandık açılır, içinde hiçbir şey yoktur. Böylece bir sonuca ulaşır; hazine sandığının içi her zaman böyle boştur¨.

3. Acts of Worship: Bu uzun öykü bana yine Mişima'nın en sevdiğim kitabı Şölenden Sonra'yı hatırlattı. Oradaki güç ilişkisi, abartılmış kahramanlaştırma ve kahramanlaştırılan kişinin sadece olgunlaşmamış bir çocuk olduğunu idrak etme.

Fountains in the Rain öyküsüne içten içe güldüm, Sword ve kendinden beklenilenlerin yarattığı baskının sonucundaki sürpriz son, Martyrdom'daki alegorik öğeler; hepsi hepsi Mişima'nın bir yazar olarak ne kadar kudretli bir yerde durduğunu kanıtlar nitelikte. Tek sevmediğim öykü Sea and Sunset oldu ancak onu diğer öykülere göre vasat bulduğum için.

Bir şekilde elinize geçerse tereddüt etmeden okuyun. Henüz Türkçe çevirisi yok ama yayınevleri için keşfedilmemiş bir Japon Edebiyatı eseri işte, tepe tepe kullansınlar.

[Killer of Dreams · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel that this collection of short stories was a joke played on me. The short stories felt pointless and dealt with topics that seemed unlike Mishima.


Notes

Preface: I am disappointed that John Bester, the translator, did not include about a dozen lines because of their inability to render the original as faithful as possible.

I believe that I will come across one or two stories from this collection that I will enjoy and which will reach the heights of three and four stars, while the rest will be two stars.

Fountains in the Rain: Started off great, with the boy rejecting the girl and dragging her along, but then stagnated with his inspection of the fountain and the indefinite ending. I didn't care about the symbolism of fountains or teenage love affairs. Two stars.

Raisin Bread: I enjoyed the atmosphere of the misanthropothic youth. However, the story felt pointless aside from giving this mood. Two stars.

Sword: This felt like a long pointless, nearly 60 page short story. Jiro's death seems out of the blue. I feel that the short story deserves a one star-rating for how long and pointless it ended up being. One star.

Sea and Sunset: Mishima writing about a Christian whose landed in Japan after failing during the Children's crusade? This is very strange of Mishima and this choice has left me with a bitter reception to the short story, especially after Jesus appeared to Anri, the French Christian, and told him to go to the sea where he would part the sea so he could go to the holy land. Lies. One star.

Cigarette: A boy smoking a cigarette and then having the world change around him? Why is Mishima writing about these topics? These short stories are becoming increasingly pointless and dull. One star.

Martyrdom: These short stories are reminding me of primary school stories I was required to read. They inconclusive and try to grasp something higher than what it actually is. An ostracized boy who gets in a relationship with an alpha male and is hanged is not a story that interests me. I hate that his body has disappeared after he was hanged in the end. One star.

Act of Worship: I liked some aspects of the history of Japanese poetry associated with the shrines. I was put off by poor Tsuneko being subservient to the professor and continuing to fulfill the professor’s dreams relating to the girl he once loved. I had liked the story up until the end. I was enjoying Tsuneko’s desire to become proficient at poetry as well as their stops at the shrine. Two stars.

Detailed rating of the collection of short stories:

Fountains in the Rain (Pages 3-12, 10 pages): 0.1063829787234043‬‬ stars
Raisin Bread (Pages 15-33, 19 pages): 0.2021276595744681‬ stars.
Sword (Pages 37-91, 55 pages): 0.2925531914893617‬ stars.
Sea and Sunset (Pages 95-105, 11 pages): 0.0585106382978723 stars.
Cigarette (Pages 109-124, 16 pages): 0.085106382978723 stars.
Martyrdom (Pages 127-142, 16 pages): 0.085106382978723‬ stars.
Act of Worship (Pages 145-205, 61 pages): 0.648936170212766‬ stars.

188 pages total. 1.478723404255318‬ total stars, which rounds down to one star.

December 28, 2019
Update
A note for the December 27, 2019, rankings from my "Yukio Mishima Rankings" document: "Acts of Worship must be above After the Banquet because at least it has two star-rated sections. After the Banquet is brought down considerably by its feel that reading even the two star-rated sections are a waste of time". This note was also added to the After the Banquet review.

January 5, 2020
Update
I must clarify on this statement from the original review: "I was enjoying Tsuneko’s desire to become proficient at poetry as well as their stops at the shrine". This contradicts with a previous statement on how I was "put off by poor Tsuneko being subservient to the professor and continuing to fulfill the professor’s dreams relating to the girl he once loved", which involved visiting the shrines. The imagery of the shrines was beautiful and to my liking, but the later shrines and the unveilment of the professor's actions disappointed me.

January 12, 2020
Update
I have thought of raising the ratings of "Cigarette" and "Martyrdom" but these were short stories that I finished reading and found them to be a waste of time. Even their boring, two star-rated content is buildup that amounts to nothing. This is a case where buildup is considered part of what it amounts to in a negative way.

"Act of Worship" will remain at two stars, despite my liking for it, because of the Professor using Tsuneko to help bury articles of his dead lover.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

No, this did nothing for me. Sometimes I love his books, sometimes not (a previous cat torture scene can't be forgiven).

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mishima from his diary: “Only by preserving Japanese irrationality will we be able contribute to world culture 100 years from now”

So lyrical; mishimas values and obsessions writ large. Honour; death; tradition; but also wry humour
He writes directly after the Second World War. You can hear the grief

Rains and fountains is brilliant

Raisin bread; the loss of tradition, the shallowness of westernization

Sword: poetry; homoeroticism; the spiritual goodness of discipline and order; nature and humanity; Death of Jiro

Martyrdom - the eroticism is almost unbearable as is the brutality; but it is also the most anti-Japanese piece he has written, perfect t description of how atrocity can occur. Lord of the flies - resonance with the cat skinning in the The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

It builds at a horrid compelling pace in the last two pages(the movement of the pigeons). The ending is brilliant in its ambivalence

Acts of worship- is such a contrast to martyrdom. It’s gentle pace and gentle cruelty lose me at points. It’s dull and meanders. But as the woman emerges as stronger it becomes more compelling. The ending where she sees through him is great. He’s a loser- a sub Stoner. Acts of worship of her, of the students, his fabricated worship - critique of the religion. As with all Mishima the only true pure bliss is nature

Inspires me to read women’s medieval Japanese poetry; Eifuku Monin, then ono no Kamachi


Plutarch's Lives, is a series of 48 biographies of famous men, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings,

Compare Cellini and his fascism with Mishimas nationalism - Mishima seeks protection of positive identify, Cellini just hates others

In the postwar prosperity called Shōwa Genroku, where there are no Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Ihara Saikaku, Matsuo Bashō, only infestation of flashy manners and customs in there. Passion is dried up, strong realism dispels the ground, and the deepening of poetry is neglected. That is, there are no Chikamatsu, Saikaku, or Basho now.[156]

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a group of Mishima's stories, written between 1946 and 1965, and collected in 1989. He primarily wrote novels, but these stories demonstrate that he could write great short pieces too. I once loved his writing, but I now find a lot of it disturbing. Perhaps this is due to me finding his life and death disturbing - his intense narcissism, his political extremism, and his closeted bi or homosexuality. In his writing he seemed to be after some sort of purity and beauty, but he associated these things with violence and suicide. He lived a life of great success and achievement, but was never satisfied, and began to come unglued toward the end. Still, there is no denying his power - he could write lines of perfect, radiant prose. He portrayed the subtle inner lives of repressed characters with great power and feeling.

A couple of these are early stories and not especially interesting, altho they do show the young writer beginning to exercise his talent. "Sword" is well written, and it showcases Mishima's fascination with kendo and youthful masculinity. "Sea and Sunset" is proof that Mishima had a great sense of humor, one that he did not show often enough. "Act of Worship" is the real masterpiece of the book, and shows the author at the height of his powers, doing what he does best - describing an uptight, repressed woman with the hots for a man who is out of her reach. In this case, an old maid becomes the housekeeper for a brilliant, wall-eyed old poetry professor, a man who commands great respect, but is deeply lonely. Mishima describes their subtle communications and interactions brilliantly. This is worthwhile reading for fans, and a good place to start if you have never Mishima's stuff before.

[Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Selección de cuentos bastante representativa de la obra del genial Kimitake Hiraoka. Alianza Editorial ha puesto la vara bastante alta: la calidad de los relatos no solo es superlativa, sino que refleja también la evolución conceptual del escritor. Por ejemplo, mientras que en Tabaco y El martirio, se muestra al Mishima de Confesiones de una máscara; en Los sables, se evidencia el de Caballos desbocados.

Por supuesto, han habido algunos que me han gustado más que otros, pero en general puedo decir sin temor a exagerar, que no tiene desperdicio.

Puntuaciones individuales:

• Tabaco ★★★⯪
• El martirio ★★★★
• Arreboles sobre el mar ★★★★★
• Los sables ★★★★
• Pan de pasas ★★★
• Las fuentes dentro de la lluvia ★★★
• Peregrinos en Kumano ★★★★★

P. D.: Mi favorito ha sido este último, Peregrinos en Kumano. Muchos se asombrarán de que tanta sensibilidad cupiese en el cuerpo de un fisicoculturista. Es obvio que no conocen a Mishima.

[Monkeyshines]

Some highs and some lows. Sea and Sunset, Sword, and Cigarette will probably be the three that'll stick with me the longest, just for the worlds they painstakingly created in my head. The sense of resignment in Sea and Sunset is as relaxing as it is melancholy. The characters in Sword reminded me of myself... a little too much, actually. As for Cigarette, it's probably the best story in the collection when it comes to dealing with adolescence and the pains that come with growing up.

A lot of the stories did feel over my head, though. The second halves of Raisin Bread and Martyrdom especially left me confused. And as for Act of Worship itself, I felt miserable reading the whole thing up until the last ten pages. It's not like Sword where I actually cared about the characters. For the most part, it's an excruciating journey into something I wanted no part of.

Overall, worth reading, though. Mishima channels a different energy when it comes to short stories over novels. I've only read The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea , and I can already tell. Can't wait to read more.

[Alor Deng · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is there to say about Mishima that I haven't already stated? The man was the apotheosis of genius. A prose writer who wrote with the observational skills of a poet. The mundane to him is given a poetic lift and under the magnifying glass that was his pen, everything he describes turns beautiful. I shudder to think that there might be a better writer that I'll encounter in the future. Yukio Mishima (I say this with all the conviction of my heart) is the greatest writer to have lived. He has genuinely changed my perspective on the world with his words. Is it possible to give higher praise to a writer? I wish he was alive so that I could thank him personally. Instead, I'll pass on his books to anyone and everyone.

This is a collection that hints at Mishima's greatness. No doubt written before he reached the peak of his powers. Still, it's impressive. My two favorites are "Sword" and "Cigarette." "Sword" is wonderfully crafted, but if you must read one short story read "Cigarette." "Cigarette" is tight and controlled and is worth several re-reads.

[Pate Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, as Mishima always is, with a bit of unevenness but a few standout stories that will always be memorable for me in my time going through his works. “Martyrdom” and the titular “Act of Worship” are especially memorable (other early sections as well, but I think I have a bit of recency bias coming off the end of the book), with the former containing such beautiful ambiguity and the latter giving the most interesting and developed female character I’ve read in Mishima’s works so far, yet still providing his searing understanding of masculinity and its difficulties. The ending story is the real standout, its comparatively long length giving Mishima space to develop a more complex tonal register before introducing another bit of ambiguity toward the end, the lies in its denouement allowing for the reader’s projection in all kinds of areas.

I’m so grateful for him and his body of work. Few artists have ever been on his level.

[Guillermo Galvan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think Yukio Mishima is one the greatest modern writers. His works are refined and brutal as a Japanese sword. Unfortunately, after several years, I can finally say, "This Mishima book wasn't good." Out of the seven stories only three are worth a read, and even then just barely. My rating would be lower if I were to rate this book in its entirety, and not just the three worthwhile stories.

If you want some solid Mishima stories read Death in Midsummer and Other Stories. This book doesn't tarnish my image of Mishima. I'm going to treat Acts of Worship like a transsexual and just "pretend it's not there."

[Alicia Sanchez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro de relatos me ha dejado con la sensación de que esperaba más del él. Después de leer El marino que perdió la gracia del mar y dejarme perpleja, fascinada y enamorada de este autor, sin embargo esta recopilación muestra un Mishima muy abigarrado, muy variopinto....muy indefinido. Me ha despistado mucho y no he conseguido conectar totalmente con estas historias. Esa es la verdad. No digo que sean malos relatos, su forma de narrar es INDISCUTIBLE. La belleza de sus párrafos están fuera de toda duda, pero creo que pondré todas mis esperanzas en sus novelas más extensas y más conocidas para seguir conociendo a este grande de la literatura japonesa.