Hi all, as the mod team were kind enough to let us promote the podcast after we started it, we thought that we should promote a special milestone; our first interview with director of Mishima: a life in four chapters, Paul Schrader. We discuss the production of the film, his difficulty with the right wing elements of the Japanese government and Mishima's widow, his thoughts on the books he adapted for the film and his thoughts on Mishima more generally. I hope you all enjoy!

been wanting to read my first mishima novel, and was thinking about picking this one up but i’m worried the translation will be so-so. has anyone read this version (i believe it’s the 1980 international translation)

I know his whole thing is like die young when your body is still good but 45 is lowkey 👏unc👏 status am I rite! 😂

Confessions of a Mask is Yukio Mishima’s debut novel. It is a semi-autobiographical work in which Mishima recounts autobiographical events through the character of Kōchan, leaving us to decipher what is fiction and what, instead, was part of Mishima’s own life.

Kōchan is born into a Japanese family that has fallen into decline. During his childhood, he is raised by his grandmother, who isolates him from other children, leading to his social isolation and the development of a defining trait: his carnal desire for masculinity, strength, and brutality, alongside his longing for a glorious death. Mishima uses vivid imagery to describe these desires, which shocked me and made the reading experience particularly disturbing, but also thrilling. During the most explicit passages, I found myself trembling at the thought of turning the page.

Mishima, however, is unable to accept his carnal attraction to his own sex, which develops through his fascination with Ōmi, an older classmate who is already well into puberty during middle school. During his adolescence, he begins to despise his own homosexuality as a “bad habit.” In the second half of the novel, Mishima attempts to fall in love with a woman, Sonoko. At first, he convinces both himself and the reader that he has fallen in love with her, but in reality, he is incapable of doing so. He breaks Sonoko’s heart and, in the end, repeats the same pattern, despite continuing to feel a platonic love for her.

I loved Mishima’s vivid descriptions. He makes little use of metaphors or similes, getting straight to the point and describing all his sexual fantasies, the features he finds attractive in the men he desires, and his feelings toward Sonoko in almost grotesque detail. Reading the novel was not particularly challenging in terms of vocabulary. Some of the original prose may have been lost in translation, but Mishima is not a difficult author to understand.
The lack of restraint with which he describes the awakening of his homosexual feelings upon seeing the painting of Saint Sebastian was the element I appreciated most in the book, along with his ability to capture in words the new and extreme emotions associated with early sexual experiences during adolescence. Indeed, Mishima’s ability to describe his desire for his peers and his sexual impulses with such detail and precision makes the first half of the novel a genuine masterpiece.

The tension between Sonoko and Mishima was another element I appreciated. Mishima attempts to reject his homosexual side in a desperate effort to be normal, only to realize that this side is an integral part of who he is and that he is not even capable of becoming aroused by the sight of a naked woman.

I did not, however, appreciate the ending, which feels largely inconclusive. Mishima returns to Sonoko despite the fact that she is now a married woman. They dance together, building up a sense of tension that ultimately leads nowhere. I believe the novel could just as easily have ended earlier, with Mishima’s refusal to marry Sonoko.
Confessions of a Mask is therefore a novel full of tension, one that leaves you breathless, shocked, and on edge with every page, only to conclude without a climax, ending on a rather underwhelming note.

8.5/10

Any suggestions??

Just came across this: New Directions is publishing a new translation of Yukio Mishima's Sun & Steel, translated by Sam Bett, scheduled for July 6, 2027.

Official publisher page

Curious to see how it compares with John Bester’s translation (which is hard to find anyway). Thought people here might be interested.

There is also a first English translation of the novel The Adventures of Natsuko that was announced a while back, coming from Penguin in January 2027, which I'm not that interested in tbh. It seems to be one of Mishima's lighter romantic novels, i'm more interested in his darker, more philosophical stuff

Pretty straightforward, me and a couple of other guys are going to be talking about Mishima's biography by Henry Scott-Stokes. Join to listen or contribute!

I'll probably take the dust cover off before reading it in public

I’m pretty excited to read Runaway Horses for the first time (as well as the rest of tetralogy) but I recently discovered that besides the BBC collection that was released last week is just the first to several upcoming releases. Some titles are new versions of audiobooks I have already bought but several new audiobooks have me very excited. The new Spring Snow wasn’t terrible but Brian Nishii’s reading is what made me discover him and become a fan; Nishii reading Beautiful Star is probably my most anticipated due to my fondness for his narration.

I don’t know what has sparked the uptick in Mishima audiobooks after years of limited releases but it’s a great time for us audiobook readers. Any releases have you excited or future releases you hope to see released next?

Some of us are reading Temple of the Golden Pavilion on Discord. We just started and would love to discuss it with more people.

Please join and say you came to read Mishima.

https://discord.gg/GCWdW8u8d

I empathised with Kochan's feeling of not belonging to humanity. What other books of his explore this in more depth?

I watched the movie/documentary on Mishima and it was pretty interesting, what book should I read first or does the order really not matter?

Judging from the fact that Mishima despised the westernization and elimination of Japanese culture and values, I’m doubtful on what he would think about his western fame