The Yukio Mishima Podcast (The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea Book Review)

Today’s podcast is one of my favourite of all time. We’re reviewing Yukio Mishima’s (1925-1970) great, yet controversial, book: The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (1963).

This podcast contains mature themes and topics that some listeners might find upsetting, such as ritualistic suicide, mental illness, and right-wing politics. The show also contains light spoilers, but nothing that would particularly prohibit an enjoyable and rewarding reading experience.

You can read my recommended translation of this great Japanese work here:

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea available from Amazon

See below the audio player for timestamps, show notes, and videos of Yukio Mishima.

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea Book Review – Yukio Mishima Podcast

Podcast Timestamps:

2:19 – hari-kiri/seppuku/ritualistic samurai suicide
3:00 – pre-war Japan vs post-war Japan
4:00 – Japanese suicide vs Western suicide
4:30 – Mishima was a homosexual schizophrenic with sexual death fantasies
5:00 – dying for glory and honour, winning in death
6:00 – beauty in brutality, elegance in violence, death in order
6:30 – living by a code you will die by – a “great cause”
7:00 – my experience living in Japan
10:00 – appreciating books by problematic writers
10:30 – dissing the top reviewer of Mishima’s book
11:00 – we live in a black and white world without nuance
12:30 – the strikingly right-wing last moments of Mishima – the hostage takeover
15:20 – the philosophy of the kamikaze pilots
16:30 – Yukio Mishima’s death was theatre
18:19 – 1-minute book synopsis challenge
20:00 – the beautiful breathtaking language, themes, and imagery
20:40 – the disturbing scene in The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea
22:00 – the spying scene, fatherhood, punishment, and masculinity
25:00 – the ending of The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea
26:40 – Mishima on masculinity through the ages
27:00 – Hemingway and hyper-masculinity as overcompensation
29:00 – uncomfortable artistic experiences, La Haine, and Memories of Murder
31:00 – reading some of my favourite passages from Mishima’s book
36:00 – a note on the podcast’s new branding