From Publishers Weekly
This revised edition of Stokes' 1974 biography of Japanese novelist Mishima, whose obsession with samurai culture and the Emperor led him to commit hara-kiri as a political protest in 1970, is also available in hardcover for $27.50 (-18623-5). Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
This incisive biography begins with the spectacularly tragic last day of the militant Japanese novelist, perhaps best known for his monumental four-book masterpiece The Sea of Fertility.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

On November 25, 1970, Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) -- author of the masterpiece tetralogy Sea of Fertility and the most gifted Japanese writer of the modern era -- shocked his nation when he took a leading general hostage and exhorted soldiers of the Jietai (Japan's Self Defense Forces) to incite a coup d'etat. When his extraordinary scheme failed, he participated in a shinju (ritual double-suicide for love). It was a spectacularly tragic public display that his countrymen still have difficulty understanding. Mishima, at one time a leading proponent for the westernization of Japanese art and society, had toward the end of his life called for a return to the Imperial (Emperor) system and for nuclear capability for the nation's military.

Novelist, playwright, film actor, martial artist, and political commentator, Mishima was arguably the most famous person in Japan at the time of his death. Henry Scott Stokes, one of Mishima's closest friends, was the only non-Japanese allowed to attend the trial of his compatriots. In this insightful and empathetic look at the writer, Stokes guides the reader through the milestones of Mishima's meteoric and eclectic career and delves into the artist's major works and themes. This biography skillfully and compassionately illuminates the achievements and disquieting ideas of a brilliant and deeply troubled man, an artist of whom Nobel Laureate Yasunari Kawabata had said, "A writer of Mishima's caliber comes along only once every two or three hundred years."

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly