Contains 37 examples of poetry and short stories by 18 acclaimed writers, including Nobel Prizewinner Oe Kenzaburo, Abe Kobo, Ishihara Shintaro, Takahashi Mutsuo, Tamura Ryuichi and Mishima himself. First published by Penguin Books in 1972, the year after Mishima committed ritual suicide, the reissue of this volume is long overdue, not least for the new light Geoffrey Bownas' pen-portrait throws on Mishima, as well as the fact that amongst the authors selected by Mishima and Bownas in the late 1960s are some of today's giants of contemporary Japanese literature.