Adam's review
Patriotism
by Yukio Mishima
Adam's review
Patriotism by Yukio Mishima
Adam's review
rating:
bookshelves:
fiction,
short-stories
recommended for: "Authenticity" junkies, Nippon-o-philes
An incredibly straightforward story of a samurai and his wife who are ordered to commit seppuku and then do so. Most of the story is devoted to their last night together and the preparations they go through prior to their ritual double suicide. This story is notable mostly because Yukio Mishima himself committed ritual suicide after attempting a coup d'etat at JSDF headquarters in Tokyo in 1970. Maybe "Patriotism" loses something in translation, but I found it relatively staid and unexciting. Worth reading if you're really into Mishima's whole life-art-death cycle, I suppose.
