Sun and Steel (essay)
 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Yukio Mishima |
|---|---|
| Original title | 太陽と鉄 Taiyō to Tetsu |
| Language | Japanese |
| Genre | Essay |
| Publisher | Kodansha |
Publication date | 1968 |
| Publication place | Japan |
Sun and Steel: Art, Action and Ritual Death (Japanese: 太陽と鉄, Hepburn: Taiyō to Tetsu) is an autobiographical essay by Yukio Mishima detailing his artistic relationship to his body. Meditating on his transformative experiences with bodybuilding and martial arts training,[1] Mishima considers their impact on his creative practice and concludes that literature, in its ideal form, is inextricable from physical exertion.[2][3]
First published in 1965 by Hihyō, a magazine founded by Takeshi Maramatsu, the essay was published in book form by Kodansha in 1968. An English translation by John Bester followed in 1970, less than a year before the author's death.[4][5] In 1972, the American fiction writer Hortense Calisher billed the book as "a classic of self-revelation" and Mishima as "a mind of the utmost subtlety, broadly educated". Calisher wrote, "To paraphrase him in words not his, [...] is to try to build a china pagoda with a peck of nails. [...] only the frivolous will not empathize with what is going on here; this is a being for whom life—and death too—must be exigeant."[5]
References
[edit]- ^ Abelsen, Peter (July 1996). "Irony and Purity: Mishima". Modern Asian Studies. 30 (3): 651–679. JSTOR 312986. Retrieved 24 February 2025.
[Sun and Steel is] an extensive consideration to the 'deep lying transformation from pallid bookworm into tanned athlete, through the body building he took up at age 30.
- ^ Nakao, Seigo (October 12, 2007) [2002]. "Mishima, Yukio (1925–1970)". In Summers, Claude J. (ed.). glbtq: An encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture. Chicago: glbtq, Inc. § Sun and Steel. Archived from the original on 14 February 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2025.
He praised muscular beauty, which became synonymous with action in his aestheticism.
- ^ Wyschogrod, Edith (Summer 1993). "Killing the Cat: Sacrifice and Beauty in Genet and Mishima". Religion & Literature. 25 (2). The University of Notre Dame: 105–119. JSTOR 40059558. Retrieved 24 February 2025.
- ^ Mishima, Yukio (1970). Sun and Steel. Translated by Bester, John. Grove Press. ISBN 9780394177656.
- ^ a b Calisher, Hortense (1972-11-12). "Spring Snow". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
External links
[edit]- Sun and Steel at The Yukio Mishima Web Page.
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