On November 25, 1970, the world renowned Japanese writer Yukio Mishima committed seppuku with 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 postwar constitution; the epitaph of a mad genius. Part travelogue, part biography, and part philosophical treatise, Mishima's Sword is the story of Christopher Ross's journey to find a sword and maybe an understanding of Mishima's country. The cold trail the author follows inspires a tale of the most engaging-and occasionally bizarre-sort, with glimpses of the real Japan that is not seen by tourists, with digressions on, among other things, bushido and socks, mutineers and Noh ghosts, nosebleeds and metallurgy-and even how to dress for suicide.
- ISBN10 0786741260
- ISBN13 9780786741267
- Publish Date 17 December 2008 (first published 6 March 2006)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 15 February 2017
- Publish Country US
- Publisher INGRAM PUBLISHER SERVICES US
- Imprint Da Capo Press Inc
- Format eBook
- Pages 272
- Language English