Japanese literature – A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity

RKS Literature: Avoidance of Catastrophic Thinking (Yukio Mishima)

“He believed that only a vulgar mentality was willing to acknowledge the possibility of catastrophe. He felt that taking naps was much more beneficial than confronting catastrophe. However precipitous the future might seem, he learned from the game of kemari that the ball must always come down. There was no call for consternation. Grief andContinue reading “RKS Literature: Avoidance of Catastrophic Thinking (Yukio Mishima)”

RKS Literature: The Virus of Elegance (Yukio Mishima)

“A mere 50 years before, the Matsugaes had been a sturdy, upright samurai family, no more, eking out a frugal existence in the provinces. But in a brief span of time, their fortunes had soared. By Kiyoaki’s time, the first traces of refinement were threatening to take hold on a family that, unlike court nobility,Continue reading “RKS Literature: The Virus of Elegance (Yukio Mishima)”

RKS Literature: The Unreal of Wasted Effort (Yasunari Kawabata)

“Though he was an idler who might as well spend his time in the mountains as anywhere, he looked upon mountain climbing as almost a model of wasted effort. For that reason it pulled at him with the attraction of the unreal.” Yasunari Kawabata, “Snow Country”, 1956

RKS Literature: No Such Thing as a Good Father (Yukio Mishima)

“There is no such thing as a good father because the role itself is bad, Strict fathers, soft fathers, nice moderate fathers-one’s as bad as the other. The stand in the way of our progress while they try to burden us with their inferiority complexes, and their unrealized aspirations, and their resentments, and their ideals,Continue reading “RKS Literature: No Such Thing as a Good Father (Yukio Mishima)”

RKS Literature: The Kiss of Death (Yukio Mishima)

“For Ryuji the kiss was death, the very death in love he always dreamed of. The softness of her lips, her mouth so crimson in the darkness he could see it with closed eyes, so infinitely moist, a tepid coral sea, her restless tongue quivering like seagrass….in the dark rapture of all this was somethingContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Kiss of Death (Yukio Mishima)”