Acts of Worship: Seven Stories Book

When I first found Mishima, I wondered why I'd never heard of him before. I quickly fell in love with his style of writing tight, consistent, entertaining, and vexing novels. "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" is one of my all time favorite novels, and with reading it I found Mishima to be my favorite author.

But I had never read a short story (or play) from him until I found this collection.

Now I feel even more strongly about Mishima, and even more solidly convinced that his detractors have no validity. These seven stories are all radically different; characters, time period, length--but they all hold something very poignant about them. Like the Professor recommending to his maid in "Act of Worship" the beautifully written prose of vast scenery and metaphoric imagery -- I too recommend this collection for those reasons.

"Fountains in the Rain" is a simple and short narrative between two lovers, with Mishima juxtaposing the female's tears' with the fountains they (the couple) stumble upon while in rain. Wonderful layering here, but this is the one "throw-away" story (if you could even call it that). The following, "Raisin Bread", is where the stories take an almost psychologically horrific turn; the subject matter is dark from here on out, but Mishima wields this territory like a blade.

"Sword" is next, one of this collection's two largest stories (the other one being the self-titled) concerning, yes, a kendo/swordplay training school. Characters are introduced quickly and tension is held high as we see guilt and honor flowing together until the final line reveals the story's conclusion. You can feel the sweat on the students' faces and can nearly see the golden hue of the dojo floor.

"Sea and Sunset" takes a very different story (which is itself told inside of another story) about a French farm hand sold into slavery, landing in a Buddhist shrine in Japan. The two items in the title seem to suggest a waning of life for the protagonist. Wonderful little story.

Now, the two most brilliant pieces come next. They express, alone, why I think Mishima is head and shoulders above most any Japanese literature -- and also why his detractors (who claim he falls from being able to create the metaphysical dreamscapes of Haruki Murakami, or the Japanesque erotic footsy of Tanizaki) should reconsider his worth.

"Cigarette" is a personal diatribe from an adolescent that would otherwise be boring if not for being so acutely written. In a few pages, I felt that Mishima and I had had the same childhood. He crossed into territory that many do (think the typical "teen experience" movie) but the end result is something entirely believable and fascinating. The grinding of adolescence on culture; feeling the need to "fit in"; feeling unwelcomed anywhere -- Mishima captures it all with clarity that I have never seen anywhere else. I'll be re-reading this one many times.

When I first started "Martyrdom", I didn't expect it to hold much. Demon King? I wondered. But by the end, I was shocked. This piece holds such poetry and metaphor in every line, and crosses paths between Christian mythology and Japanese idealism. The tortured protagonist (making the last story's main character to look brave in comparison) and his story are probably predictable with the story's title, but there is more than expected, and when I finished this story I could only be reminded of what Murakami had said of Mishima, and I wondered if he had had a chance to read this! It truly moved me like not many of his novels have.

Mishima changed the landscape of Japanese literature. He wrote around 20 volumes of short stories, these being but a few. He also, unlike many of his influences, was able to see many of them translated into English and made popular among his current generation (also a rare thing among Japanese authors).

His untimely death is what people most remember about him. Let them, then. In my own life, I'll only remember that he changed the way I felt about everything.