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Mishima's Sword: Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend

Mishima's Sword: Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend

by Christopher Ross (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2006

    $3.25
Synopsis

The stunning new book from Christopher Ross, Sunday Times top 10 bestselling author of 'Tunnel Visions'. On 25 November 1970, after a failed coup d'etat, Japanese writer Yukio Mishima plunged a knife into his tightly muscled belly, and was decapitated using his own antique sword. Mishima's spectacular suicide has been called many things: a hankering for heroism; a beautiful, perverse drama; a political protest against Japan's emasculated post-War constitution; the last act in a theatre of death; the epitaph of a mad genius. But which, if any, is correct? And what happened to Mishima's sword? Thirty years later Christopher Ross sets off for Tokyo on a journey into the heart of the Mishima Incident. While searching for Mishima's sword and reassessing the life and anachronistic death of this uniquely complex man, he encounters those who knew Mishima, craftsmen and critics, soldiers and swordsmen, boyfriends and biographers -- even the man who taught him hara-kiri. The cold trail he follows inspires digressions on, amongst other things, bushido and socks, mutineers and Noh ghosts, nosebleeds and metallurgy -- and how to dress for suicide. Like his best-selling 'Tunnel Visions', Christopher Ross has written another unclassifiable blend of travel writing, autobiography and philosophical quest, an insider's mesmeric account of modern Japan and a death that still haunts the nation.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 272
 Publisher: Fourth Estate
Published: 06 Mar 2006
ISBN 10: 0007135084
ISBN 13: 9780007135080

Media Reviews
'(Ross's) digressive reflections on his quest are personal, pertinent and philosophical: he gives a vivid picture of a Japan still haunted by nostalgia and nationalism.' The Times 'Entertaining, deftly written and wise!a very good book. Its achievement is that not only does it make the reader learn, it makes the reader think.' Daily Telegraph 'An engaging patchwork of a book, a blend of cultural history, memoir, travelogue and philosophical rumination.' Hari Kunzru, Sunday Telegraph ' Mishima's Sword resembles a bento, those beautiful lacquered lunch boxes in which delicacies nestle side by side in separate compartments, each a feast in miniature.' New Statesman 'A fascinating read.' Arena Magazine 'Ross is a very likeable narrator, his tone one of respectful curiosity but never superiority!an enjoyable and idiosyncratic look at Japan and one of it's most notorious sons.' The Irish Times 'Ross's book, lucid, readable and touched with sly humour, has put Mishima back together again in all his angry, screwed-up absurdity.' Jonathan Keates 'Highly original travelogue inspired by the life and death of the writer Yukio Mishima. Ross recounts his own engaging ventures in Japan as he attempts to track down the samurai sword with which Mishima was beheaded in 1970.' GQ 'Ross's curiosity and enthusiasm are infectious, and his journey a powerful sensory and intellectual one.' Daily Telegraph 'Intelligent.' Independent
Author Bio
Christopher Ross has travelled in over a hundred countries. He now lives in Oxfordshire. His first book, Tunnel Visions: Journeys of an Underground Philosopher, was published in 2001.