三島由紀夫 Books

Death, homosexuality and the spiritual emptiness of post-war Japan: these are the often shocking subjects which Mishima explores. The old world meets the new in this collection of fiction and drama by one of Japan's most celebrated writers. A husband prepares to commit hara-kiri in the name of patriotism; an ascetic struggles with temptation; and a businessman meets a past love in the streets of San Francisco. Violence colours the work of Mishima, as it did his life. But there is also delicate observation, pathos, humour and irony in these beautifully crafted tales. Contents: - Death in Midsummer - Three Million Yen - Thermos Flasks - The Priest of Shiga Temple and His Love - The Seven Bridges - Patriotism - Dōjōji - Onnagata - The Pearl - Swaddling Clothes

A haunting portrait of a young man’s obsession with idealized beauty and his destructive quest to possess it fully—and the book that “established Mishima’s claim as one of the outstanding writers of the world" (The New York Times). Because of the boyhood trauma of seeing his mother make love to another man in the presence of his dying father, Mizoguchi becomes a hopeless stutterer. Taunted by his schoolmates, he feels utterly alone and develops a childhood fascination with Kyoto’s famous Golden Temple. While an acolyte at the temple, he fixates on the structure’s aesthetic perfection and it becomes his one and only object of desire. But as Mizoguchi begins to perceive flaws in the temple, he determines that the only true path to beauty lies in an act of horrific violence. Based on a real incident that occurred in 1950, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion brilliantly portrays the passions and agonies of a young man in postwar Japan, bringing to the subject the erotic imagination and instinct for the dramatic moment that marked Mishima as one of the towering makers of modern fiction.

5人の登場人物がやり取りする手紙のみで表現された異色の小説。『レター教室』という題名の示すとおり、それぞれの手紙は「借金の申し込み」「身の上相談の手紙」「病人へのお見舞い状」などタイトルがつけられ文例としても使えるようになっている。 5人の書き手による違いはもとより、社交的な手紙から歯に衣着せぬ悪口の手紙まで各人が書き分けるスタイルは実にさまざまである。中には「英文の手紙を書くコツ」などのように手紙の中で手紙の書き方を指南するという凝った仕掛けを施されたものもある。ストーリーは登場人物たちの繰り広げるドタバタ喜劇風の人間模様で、はじめはあっさりしていた人間関係が、恋愛、嫉妬、裏切りなどさまざまな感情によって複雑に絡み合っていく。作者は交錯する感情の中に人間心理の機微を描き出し、手紙という表現手段を用いることで人が常に他者との相対関係にあることを浮き彫りにしている。（林ゆき）