“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)”
Tag Archives: Yukio Mishima
RKS Literature: Meditation and Returning Back to the Garden (Yukio Mishima)
“Even though he was plunged in meditation from morning to night, he was loath to direct his immense emotional reserves toward a single conclusion. Meditation had a great deal in common with kemari, the traditional sport of the Ayakuras. No matter how high one kicked the ball, it would obviously come back to earth againContinue reading “RKS Literature: Meditation and Returning Back to the Garden (Yukio Mishima)”
RKS Literature: Imagination (Yukio Mishima)
“Those who lack imagination have no choice but to base their conclusions on the reality they see around them. But on the other hand, those who are imaginative have a tendency to build fortified castles they have designed themselves, and to seal off every window in them.” Yukio Mishima, “Spring Snow”, 1968.
RKS Literature: “The Decline of the Japanese Man” (Yukio Mishima)
“In the present day-when places called cafés are springing up everywhere, drawing thousands of idle people with money to spare, when male and female students behave so shockingly in streetcars that it has become necessary to segregate them-men have lost all trace of that fervor that drove their ancestors to accept the most frightening challenges.Continue reading “RKS Literature: “The Decline of the Japanese Man” (Yukio Mishima)”
RKS Literature: Kiyaoki’s Nasty Letter to Satoko (Yukio Mishima)
“And perhaps you are smiling contemptuously, secure in the knowledge that my lust for paid women will only serve to enhance my esteem for pure ladies like yourself. No, let me disabuse you of any such notion. Since that night (enlightenment being exactly what it says) I have broken through all these standards into territoryContinue reading “RKS Literature: Kiyaoki’s Nasty Letter to Satoko (Yukio Mishima)”
RKS Literature: Marriage and a Noble Japanese Family on the Decline (Yukio Mishima)
“I wonder what’s the matter with her? Or did they think he was too much beneath her? No matter how noble a family the Ayakuras once were, their present fortunes hardly allow them to turn down a young man like that, with a bright future ahead of him with the Ministry of the Interior. TheyContinue reading “RKS Literature: Marriage and a Noble Japanese Family on the Decline (Yukio Mishima)”
RKS Literature: The Useless Knowledge of Wine (Yukio Mishima)
“Since the Marquis was fond of Western food, dinner was served in the small dining room of the Western-style house, and he himself had gone down to the wine cellar to choose the wine. He had taken Kiyoaki with him and had gone to great lengths to expound on the characteristics of the various winesContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Useless Knowledge of Wine (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: 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)”
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