Book description
Because of the boyhood trauma of seeing his mother make love to another
man in the presence of his dying father, Mizoguchi becomes a hopeless
stutterer. Taunted by his schoolmates, he feels utterly alone untill he
becomes an acolyte at a famous temple in Kyoto, where he develops an
all-consuming obsession with the temple's beauty. This powerful story of
dedication and sacrifice brings together Mishima's preoccupations with
violence, desire, religion and national history to dazzling effect.
Yukio Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of
complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor - the
same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen. He
wrote countless stories and thirty-three plays, in some of which he
performed. Several films have been made from his novels, including
The Sound of Waves
, Enjo
which was based on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea.
Among his other works are the novels Confessions of a Mask
and Thirst for Love
and the short story collections Death in Midsummer
and Acts of Worship
. The Sea of Fertility
tetralogy, however, is his masterpiece. After Mishima conceived the
idea of The Sea of Fertility
in 1964, he frequently said he would die when it was completed. On 25
November 1970, the day he completed The Decay of the Angel
, the last novel of the cycle, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual
suicide) at the age of forty-five.
