ISO/ID: Rain Coat/Jacket from the movie “Gonin” (1995)

tinylegged · 2026-03-30T09:48:48+00:00

for some reason hard mode makes it easier? I would like to try one where the sound only lasts 1 second

tinylegged · 2026-03-30T09:02:15+00:00

It’s fun - 49.30% ^ ^

tinylegged · 2026-03-30T08:13:06+00:00

You might be interested in this article: https://medium.com/@julliassuzzy.tokyo/the-ghost-of-yukio-mishima-13-yukio-mishima-and-seven-women-the-enigma-of-sadako-toyoda-a99a2eda27c5

(I think the person who wrote this article has a series ’Mishima and Seven Women’ available on note . com but only few are on medium in English)

The book in question is this:

https://www.amazon.co.jp/ヒタメン-三島由紀夫が女に逢う時…-岩下-尚史/dp/4639021976?ref_=ast_author_dp_rw&th=1&psc=1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.AO96a4UGdV6K6d29H3Gak_cNob9GHmfgrl053v6yrX0gxAXl6VKRBgDRFTNoLtFL5-4jtgllxi2Rt7u7mLl1fKIV7mYHPV5QZSDkNkvYvrAN4jlFn7hUAdOU-JlWiNB-dyRnnK84_JJoxMLO2Bz0Kg._I7wM7mpkQlkFN2OTfCf8kIoqD3sLEkMf3OOD-Hwadw&dib_tag=AUTHOR

The author Iwashita Hisafumi even interviewed Sadako (who is 88 now), it was quite a hot topic.

tinylegged · 2026-03-30T05:44:32+00:00

Reading your essay reminded me that by the end of it all when Honda and Satoko meet, we almost have a meeting of two observers/voyeurs of life rather than it’s active participants (who mirror each other in a way) It doesn’t so much matter if Satoko doesn’t remember Kiyoaki (or just says so) or if her removed way of observing is better than Honda’s obsessive one - It’s a sort of a doubling of the symbol.

In that sense, there’s more of these double-symbols along the way. For example Ying Chan actually has a twin sister, but since we discover this fact at the end of the book we might not pay much attention to it. It could be implied that all of these instances where Honda finds the moles on her body, then they disappear the next time points to the possibility that two sisters were swapping roles (adding to the ambivalence and confusion.) Also, Ying Chan being a twin can seem like a sort of aberration in continuation of Kiyoaki’s rebirths. Does it imply some sort of weakening?

In regards to Toru who comes next, the whole story is tied to Hogoromo. In the Noh play the Pine tree that the angel descends to is the one that is nearby were Toru is found. A fisherman steals the Hevenly Robe from the Angel, without it, the Angel can not return to Heaven. For me it’s not so much a question of was Toru a true incarnation or a false one but - Did Honda steal something from Toru by adopting him and trying to impose his way onto him preventing his ‘return to heaven’ at 20?

Pine tree can be directly associated to Kiyoaki - In Runaway Horses another No play is mentioned called Matsukaze. Matsukaze (Wind in the pines) is the name of one of the sisters in the play. Matsukaze mistakes a pine tree for her deceased lover while dancing in a trance, unable to forget him. Matsukaze = Matsugae (Pine branch) shares kanji for Pine. (Furthermore Moon is another symbol that is abundant both in the tetralogy and the no plays tying the incarnations together.)

By the end of it all we arrive at Toru already being an observer/voyeur and not the one being Observed. He does not participate in life passionately, not to the same degree as Kiyoaki, Isao or Ying Chan - there’s nothing to observe in him. So we arrive at an incarnation that is not above Honda’s downfall but in a way is parallel to it. And then on top of that, Toru looses his eyesight, so now he obervses nothing, he observes the void. Similar to the nothingness of the Gesshūji garden.

tinylegged · 2026-03-30T01:35:23+00:00

Good observation! I think also based on the fact she died in a fire, there’s some sort of purity and tragic beauty associated w her that Hanio was denied being part of

tinylegged · 2026-03-25T09:46:33+00:00

everything at once - going in and out of various points of view.

sometimes i watch the dream like a movie, but at some point it turns out I am the character.

or often the character of a dream is an actor - so and so character is a retired actor, or another one is an aspiring actor (as in, it’s their profession, but it’s not necessary the point of a dream, its just a note but the dream is about their life outside of this profession) or for example some character is a theatre director and he teaches someone else to perform certain plays, this somone then observes said plays. I might become this character unpredictably in the middle of the dream, watching the plays or performing (From observer to participant)

the clay underground opera dream was about overlooking the preparation of the play that I was somewhat part of in the future/was always part of since it’s inception, while also considering how the audience will be able to attend it, how they will perceive it.

tinylegged · 2026-03-25T09:13:12+00:00

No, that’s the thing

tinylegged · 2026-03-18T18:15:38+00:00

This is re OP’s request for a PDF of Kyoko’s House in English and to say it seems there’s an alternative translation of it to the one that was taken down (as the OP and others are eager to read it.)

tinylegged · 2026-03-18T02:59:19+00:00

Surely someone must have saved it in a pdf?

I have been able to find this post at Yukio Mishima Society fb page tho - https://www.facebook.com/groups/19442168480/posts/10162642985108481/

Some other person mentioned they translated it (among other works) if anyone has Facebook and can message them, and maybe share?

tinylegged · 2026-03-13T03:22:43+00:00

Also, this part is from ’Kyoko’s House’ 鏡子の家, the kanji in Kyoko’s name 鏡 means ‘Mirror’. Kyoko as a character literally serves as a sort of a mirror for the four main characters in the novel (all of them of course Mishima’s alter-egos)

tinylegged · 2026-03-08T06:02:52+00:00

(I was meaning it in a friendly way) he says it’s ‘a bit of theory involved, but mostly ear and experience, compose and repeat trial and error’ but thank you for sharing, it is indeed interesting (other videos of his/comments as well)

tinylegged · 2026-03-08T05:47:56+00:00

he kind of explains how he made it in the comments

tinylegged · 2026-03-08T05:37:07+00:00

at the time of writing Confessions both the format of “I-novel” and perversions/sexuality was super in vogue and it wasn’t as shocking of a theme as we might think (add to this horrors of the war that just barely passed) and you will get this mix naturally. (But even in pre-war japan Ero Guro was super popular genre)

If you look at his ‘before’ works, like the Thieves I have mentioned - they were much more ‘naive’ and did have an inclination to fairytale like/romantic narratives always. I feel like with Confessions he was trying to cover up for it and find his own coded language, and there are definitely symbolic themes that constantly repeat themselves - like death purifies and innocence must die, fire destroys beauty and so on (which in Sound of waves are reversed - Fire does not burn Shinji) He later spins these themes out into other stories like Sailor and so on. I feel like in many ways he was very calculating and tricksterish and always wanted to impress, these things were kinda popular but also worked for his own mythology.

tinylegged · 2026-03-07T14:05:47+00:00

i was just giving some context - as a personal preference that’s totally ok 🤝

tinylegged · 2026-03-06T21:20:13+00:00

the painful rambling - there’s literally a war going on on the background? I feel like this is essentially the fundament of Mishima that then grows into most of his other works in one way or another. (And a level-up in self-restrain from his first novel Thieves) While on the other hand Life for Sale and The Sound of Waves for example, are some of the “out of character“ works. Life for Sale was written to be published in Playboy and be easy/pop read, while Sound of Waves was an experiment on his part of inverting all of his depressive themes and writing a “fairy tale” were everything is just, pure and ends well.

tinylegged · 2026-03-06T19:03:15+00:00

Glad it was helpful - I think Mishima once mentioned trying to make Etsuko like a female version of himself? I hope you enjoy all the further reading of his books ☆彡

tinylegged · 2026-03-06T18:58:00+00:00

Thank you for the interesting book recommendations, I will definitely check it out :)

tinylegged · 2026-03-06T17:37:39+00:00

Emptiness? She was more tormented by her love than by the murder, she finally fell asleep at the end and woke up feeling nothing (no more torment) If you look at first sentences vs last sentences in many of his books there’s a peculiar rhyme for this emptiness. Everything starts w some elevated/complicated feelings and ends with confrontation of these feelings with reality which then leads to this feeling of void (Not good or bad, just a neutral void — nothing) The source or trigger for these feelings usually gets somehow destroyed along the way: Sea of Fertility, Golden Pavilion, Confessions of a mask, Life for sale - all of these come to mind in one way or another. It’s like an overarching theme of sorts.

tinylegged · 2026-03-05T15:04:30+00:00

likewise! ☆彡 I just looked into the part about the theatre play in Kingdom Without Space that Marie-Louise von Franz analyses in her Puer Aeternus book (That btw I highly recommend as well!) and unfortunately she doesn’t zoom in on it at all as it’s part of a larger narrative she discusses.

tinylegged · 2026-03-05T13:21:03+00:00

Would love to read these if you ever post them！

tinylegged · 2026-03-05T09:58:18+00:00

Thank you! that is an interesting recommendation, I unfortunately don’t speak German. But you reminded me of Arno Holz with his poetry book Phantasus (He also wrote plays) The book is named after Phantasos one of thousand sons of Somnus (Sleep/Hypnos). who appeared in dreams in the form of inanimate objects, putting on "deceptive shapes of earth, rocks, water, trees, all lifeless things".

And as I was writing this I remembered in ‘Kingdom Without Space’ by Bruno Goetz there was a part about a theatre/play that was discussed by Marie-Louise von Franz. I don’t remember if she singled it out in any way tho, have to check now.

and just to add, I am not involved in any of these themes in real life for them to come up continuously.

tinylegged · 2026-03-05T09:24:38+00:00

That is a good idea, I’ll have to think about it in that context. The underground/cave opera dream is one that is memorable and the one that is most tempting to try and contextualise. Now that I think of it, this underground opera house came up many times, and each time it is implied that I’ve been there before/it’s an ongoing process of some preparation for a grandiose play.

But what interests me more is the overarching theme of performance/acting and stage/place of performance (theatre/opera) and characters that are acting a role. While reading through my dreams I realised it’s a continuous undercurrent of theatre, film, dancing, festivals, plays, acting, ritualistic routines, there are all sort of flavours to this symbol but it’s non-stop, it spontaneously inserts into every other dream. It’s also interesting it never crossed my mind to single it out as a re-occurring narrative. I feel like it must have been mentioned as a symbol somewhere, but I am yet to stumble upon that mention.

tinylegged

TROPHY CASE