Status Updates From 太陽と鉄 [Taiyo to tetsu]

There's a great synergy described by Mishima between spirit and body here that I think is very greatly described. A beautiful mind must be honed by effort in honing one's own body, and vice versa.

It's morbid, perhaps - but also comforting, how the author presents death. As the degradation of life occurs, beauty wastes away - but one must meet death with beauty and hone oneself with the discipline of steel.

Just making a note here that I understand Mishima to be INCREDIBLY fascist - I'm reading this book to understand WHY (what causes someone to be this way? Is there something I can learn from him as a person outside of his toxic political ideology? We'll see)