473 words
Author: Yukio Mishima
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1,290 words
1,290 words
Translated by Riki Rei
Translator’s note: Mishima penned this essay titled “Anti-Revolutionary Manifesto” in early 1969, almost two years before his suicide, at the peak of Leftist protests, demonstrations, and riots, which were sweeping not just across Japan, but throughout the entire Western world. (more…)
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2,338 words
2,338 words
Translated by Riki Rei.
Translator’s Note:
This text, entitled A Call to Arms, was left on the spot when Yukio Mishima committed seppuku in the General’s office of the East Japan Division of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force at the Ichigaya military base, Tokyo, on November 25, 1970. (more…)
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580 words
580 words
Translated by Riki Rei.
To the members of Tatenokai [Shield Society]:
Among you there are both those who have stayed with us consistently since the founding of our organization and those of the fifth class who have been with us for only nine months. Yet as far as I’m concerned, regardless of the degrees of your involvement and experience, we are all comrades of a shared identity who have gone beyond the difference of ages (more…)
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Now not all the waves
of the four seas are calm,
but in the land of Yamato,
where the sun rises,
the winds are sated, men devote themselves to pleasure.
Under the virtuous rule of His Majesty
peace reigns everywhere.
(more…)