Publisher Description

Though best known for his novels, Yukio Mishima published more than sixty plays, almost all of which were produced during his lifetime. Among them are kabuki plays and others inspired by No dramas-two types used in classical Japanese theater. Of play-writing Mishima once observed, "I started writing dramas just as water flows toward a lower place. In me, the topography of dramas seems to be situated far below that of novels. It seems to be in a place which is more instinctive, closer to child's play." For English readers, these plays have been one of Japan's best-kept secrets-until now.

In this anthology, Hiroaki Sato translates the brilliance and richness of Yukio Mishima's writing into the English language. He has selected five major plays and three essays on dramaturgy, providing informative introductions to guide the reader. Sato's translations offer a broad historical and personal context in which those new to Mishima's work can place his writing. For those more familiar with Mishima, these translations offer another medium in which one can access his ingenious work.

Notes

Mishima... is the kind of genius that comes along perhaps once every 300 years. -- Yasunari Kawabata, winner of the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature Mishima Yukio has long been regarded in Japan as perhaps the most gifted writer for the stage in the postwar period, but virtually none of his dramatic works have been made available in English since the pioneering translations of Donald Keene more than two decades ago. At last we have in this remarkable anthology arresting English versions of a new selection of his most representative and influential plays, and, as a compelling bonus, a sample of his trenchant essays on the Japanese theatre as he experienced it. This anthology gives us still another Mishima to discover, and to enjoy. -- J. Thomas Rimer, author of A Reader's Guide to Japanese Literature This collection, which includes a brilliant attempt to rehabilitate, by an act of imaginative understanding, the grim phenomenon known as Adolf Hitler, is full of fascinating characters and strange situations. Hiroaki Sato's translations are fluent, strong, and fresh. -- Lane Dunlop, translator of The Paper Door and Other Stories by Shiga Naoya

Author Biography

Yukio Mishima is widely celebrated as one of the most talented Japanese writers of the twentieth century. A proponent of bushido, the samurai code, and an interpreter of Western style, Mishima drew from both modern and ancient literary and dramatic styles to inspire his writing. Three times nominated for the Nobel Prize, Yukio Mishima published numerous poems, essays, short stories, and novels. He is most famous for his tetralogy Sea of Fertility that was completed the day he performed seppuku, a ritualistic samurai suicide, in 1970.Hiroaki Sato has won prizes for Breeze Through Bamboo: Kanshi of Ema Saiko (Columbia, 1997) and, with Burton Watson, for From the Country of Eight Islands: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry (Columbia, 1986). Among his forthcoming books is White Dew, Dreams, & This World: An Anthology of Japanese Women Poets from Ancient to Modern Times.

Review

Mishima is as comfortable with the Western genres of tragic, historical, and naturalistic domestic drama [as he is with] a Kabuki play. Booklist Mishima's brilliant plays are unknown outside Japan, something this scholarly yet fluid English-language anthology attempts to change. Library Journal In this anthology, Hiroaki Sato translates the brilliance and richness of Yukio Mishima's writing into the English language. Rafu Shimpo

Promotional

Acclaimed Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) was also a prolific playwright, penning more than sixty plays, nearly all of which were produced in his lifetime. Hiroaki Sato is the first to translate these plays into English. For this collection he has selected five major plays and three essays Mishima wrote about drama. The title play is a satire that follows the breakdown of friendship between Adolf Hitler and two Nazi officials who were ultimately assassinated under orders from Hitler.

Review Quote

"Mishima's brilliant plays are unknown outside Japan, something this scholarly yet fluid English-language anthology attempts to change." -- Library Journal

Promotional "Headline"

Acclaimed Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) was also a prolific playwright, penning more than sixty plays, nearly all of which were produced in his lifetime. Hiroaki Sato is the first to translate these plays into English. For this collection he has selected five major plays and three essays Mishima wrote about drama. The title play is a satire that follows the breakdown of friendship between Adolf Hitler and two Nazi officials who were ultimately assassinated under orders from Hitler.

Description for Sales People

The first English translation of five plays by a modern master

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