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Yukio Mishima's Report To The Emperor
480 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2002
About the author
Richard Appignanesi
114 books39 followersRichard Appignanesi is a published adapter and an author of young adult books. Published credits of Richard Appignanesi include Manga Shakespeare: Julius Caesar (Manga Shakespeare), Manga Shakespeare: Macbeth (Manga Shakespeare), Manga Shakespeare: Hamlet (Manga Shakespeare), and Manga Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (Manga Shakespeare).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 6, 2013
Suitably mental. It's about Mishima, so how could it be anything else?
Secretly, I wanted to hate this and I planned on abandoning it after the first two chapters. So Appignanesi deserves every credit for getting me to the end, and for providing a very enjoyable ride. It's one part Mishima biography to two parts Mishima's own fiction to three parts Appignanesi madness .... perhaps a little heavy on the Appignanesi madness? Certainly towards the end.
And I much more enjoyed Appignanesi's Mishima in Benares to Mishima's Honda in Benares in "The Temple of Dawn". Appignanesi's was very crazy, but fun. Mishima was naked for the whole first chapter!
I enjoyed spotting the stories and characters throughout: Mishima is instructed by a G.I. to stand on the pregnant Baroness Omiyeke Keiko's belly ("The Temple of the Golden Pavilion"). Mishima and his father follow Kawabata's report of an important game of Go ("The Master of Go"). Odagiri, Mishima's line manager at the kamikaze aeroplane factory, is Kashiwagi, seducing virgins with his disability ("The Temple of the Golden Pavilion"). Mishima's grandmother was Satoko, with a maid exactly like Tadeshina ("Spring Snow"). Mishima then looked for this maid after a Tokyo firestorm (echoing Honda finding Tadeshina in "The Temple of Dawn"). Mishima's sister dies like Etsuko's husband ("Thirst for Love"), Yasunari Kawabata recounts watching a young man masturbate in a bookshop (something that Honda witnesses in "The Temple of Dawn"). Kawabata's gardener buries a mattock in a tree ("Thirst for Love"). Appignanesi gives us "The Patriot", Mishima's first stab at a story around the events of the niniroku ("Patriotism"). We go to Gakijima, model for Utajima, and meet Hatsue ("The Sound of Waves"). Mishima has sex with an attractive young man called Yuichi ("Forbidden Colors"). Count Ito is a wealthier Count Kaburagi ("Forbidden Colors"). Keiko is briefly kendoist Isao Iinuma ("Runaway Horses"), Satoko ("Spring Snow"), Mrs Kaburagi ("Forbidden Colors"), Kazu ("After the Banquet") but mostly, perhaps, she is Keiko Hisamatsu ("The Temple of Dawn" and "The Decay of the Angel").
"Everything physical I do bears the scars of a forceps delivery;"
"Eventually, a reluctant Emperor would appear to accept Surrender out of compassion for his people, a celestially serene way of implying that the people had failed him."
"Noble failure atones for the impossibility of resisting progress successfully."
"'It is simply Japanese conduct, which is naturally moral.'"
"'Am I pleased? Or am I horrified to the point of pleasure?'"
Secretly, I wanted to hate this and I planned on abandoning it after the first two chapters. So Appignanesi deserves every credit for getting me to the end, and for providing a very enjoyable ride. It's one part Mishima biography to two parts Mishima's own fiction to three parts Appignanesi madness .... perhaps a little heavy on the Appignanesi madness? Certainly towards the end.
And I much more enjoyed Appignanesi's Mishima in Benares to Mishima's Honda in Benares in "The Temple of Dawn". Appignanesi's was very crazy, but fun. Mishima was naked for the whole first chapter!
I enjoyed spotting the stories and characters throughout: Mishima is instructed by a G.I. to stand on the pregnant Baroness Omiyeke Keiko's belly ("The Temple of the Golden Pavilion"). Mishima and his father follow Kawabata's report of an important game of Go ("The Master of Go"). Odagiri, Mishima's line manager at the kamikaze aeroplane factory, is Kashiwagi, seducing virgins with his disability ("The Temple of the Golden Pavilion"). Mishima's grandmother was Satoko, with a maid exactly like Tadeshina ("Spring Snow"). Mishima then looked for this maid after a Tokyo firestorm (echoing Honda finding Tadeshina in "The Temple of Dawn"). Mishima's sister dies like Etsuko's husband ("Thirst for Love"), Yasunari Kawabata recounts watching a young man masturbate in a bookshop (something that Honda witnesses in "The Temple of Dawn"). Kawabata's gardener buries a mattock in a tree ("Thirst for Love"). Appignanesi gives us "The Patriot", Mishima's first stab at a story around the events of the niniroku ("Patriotism"). We go to Gakijima, model for Utajima, and meet Hatsue ("The Sound of Waves"). Mishima has sex with an attractive young man called Yuichi ("Forbidden Colors"). Count Ito is a wealthier Count Kaburagi ("Forbidden Colors"). Keiko is briefly kendoist Isao Iinuma ("Runaway Horses"), Satoko ("Spring Snow"), Mrs Kaburagi ("Forbidden Colors"), Kazu ("After the Banquet") but mostly, perhaps, she is Keiko Hisamatsu ("The Temple of Dawn" and "The Decay of the Angel").
"Everything physical I do bears the scars of a forceps delivery;"
"Eventually, a reluctant Emperor would appear to accept Surrender out of compassion for his people, a celestially serene way of implying that the people had failed him."
"Noble failure atones for the impossibility of resisting progress successfully."
"'It is simply Japanese conduct, which is naturally moral.'"
"'Am I pleased? Or am I horrified to the point of pleasure?'"
January 20, 2020
Powerful read! Difficult to judge how much fictional events or characters, but Appignanesi definitely dig deep. Highly recommended if you are in to Japan or Japanese literature!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews