Abstract

This definitive collection of critical analyses comprehensively examines the literature, thought, and actions of Yukio Mishima. The essays feature the author's own experiences with Mishima, while the literary analyses focus on the "Sea of Fertility" tetralogy, meticulously analyzing its structure and intellectual development. The analysis of his actions examines his film appearances, political statements, and dialogues with the University of Tokyo student protest movement from multiple perspectives. The book also includes a 1985 dialogue with the late Kenji Nakagami, and concludes with a philosophical novel depicting a fictional dialogue between Mishima and Pasolini, two of the most representative literary figures of postwar Japan and Italy. Through the encounter of these two men who followed similar destinies in different cultural spheres, an imaginative space unfolds where literature and thought, history and chance intersect. This book opens a new door to understanding Mishima. [Author's Biography] Inuhiko Yomota, born in 1953. Film magazine writer and comparative literature researcher. Studied religious studies at the University of Tokyo and comparative literature at its graduate school. He taught for many years as a professor at Meiji Gakuin University, and has also taught film history and Japanese cultural studies at Columbia University, the University of Bologna, Tel Aviv University, Chung-Ang University (Seoul), and National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan). He has received numerous awards, including the Saito Ryokuu Literary Prize for "Tsukishima Monogatari," the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities for "Invitation to Film History," the Ito Sei Literary Prize and the Kodansha Essay Prize for "Morocco Exile," the Japan Essayist Club Prize for "Seoul Landscapes: Memory and Transformation," the Japan Society for Children's Literature Special Prize for "On Shirato Sanpei," the Kuwahara Takeo Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities for "Japanese Marrano Literature" and "Translation and Miscellaneous Gods," the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award for Artistic Excellence for "Luis Buñuel," and the Ayukawa Nobuo Prize for "The Promise of Poetry." His major works include "Pasolini" and "The Ballad of Decline."

Author’s Information

Born in 1953. Film journalist and comparative literature researcher. Studied religious studies at the University of Tokyo and comparative literature at its graduate school. Taught film studies for many years as a professor at Meiji Gakuin University, and has taught film history and Japanese cultural studies as a visiting professor and visiting researcher at Columbia University, the University of Bologna, Tel Aviv University, Chung-Ang University (Seoul), and National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan). Received the Saito Ryokuu Literary Prize for "Tsukishima Monogatari," the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities for "Invitation to Film History," the Ito Sei Literary Prize and the Kodansha Essay Prize for "Moroccan Exile." Received the Japan Essayist Club Prize for "Seoul Landscapes: Memory and Transformation." Received the Japan Children's Literature Society Special Prize for "A Study of Shirato Sanpei." Received the Kuwahara Takeo Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities for "Japanese Marrano Literature" and "Translation and Miscellaneous Gods," the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award for Artistic Excellence for "Luis Buñuel," and the Ayukawa Nobuo Prize for "The Promise of Poetry." His major works include "Teacher and I," "Pasolini," "Approaching Shinran," and "What is Asian Cinema?"