27.99 NZD
Category: Biographies & Memoirs
In 1970, Japan's most famous writer, Yukio Mishima, cut open his stomach and was then beheaded with his own antique sword.
His anachronistic suicide has been called many things: a desperate heroic gesture; a work of art; a political protest; the antics of a madman.
But, which is correct?
And, w
In 1970, Japan's most famous writer, Yukio Mishima, cut open his stomach and was then beheaded with his own antique sword.
His anachronistic suicide has been called many things: a desperate heroic gesture; a work of art; a political protest; the antics of a madman.
But, which is correct?
And, what became of Mishima's sword?
Thirty years later, Christopher Ross sets out for Japan on the trail of those who might have answers: craftsmen and critics; soldiers and swordsmen; boyfriends and biographers; even the man who taught Mishima hara-kiri. Like his best-selling Tunnel Visions: Journeys of an Underground Philosopher, Christopher Ross has written another unclassifiable blend of travel writing, autobiography and philosophical enquiry to create a mesmeric account of modern Japan and the peculiar death that haunts it to this day.
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