Yukio Mishima’s Death in Midsummer

I only knew Yukio Mishima for his Confessions of a Mask, so I had no idea of his extraordinary range and this collection of short stories was a pleasant surprise.

Sure, you have death, as the titular tale suggests and way beyond, including the detailed account of a double suicide by blade, but you also have the tale of a grand priest who falls in love with the Imperial Concubine, the hilarious tale of a lost pearl, a tale of queer love, and the story of three geishas who vow to cross seven bridges in silence to fulfill some prosaic desires.

Here’s a full list of the stories:

• Death in Midsummer: summer at a beach, a tragedy, the loss of two children out of three and a mother’s struggle to cope with grief and survivor’s guilt;
• Three Million Yen: a couple fooling around with money, and cookies;
• Thermos Bottles: parallel patterns between a man’s lover (and her child), and his own child’s fear of thermos bottles;
• The Priest of Shiga Temple and His Love: a holy man falls in love at the sight of the Royal Concubine, and the Royal Concubine falls in love with the idea of a holy man falling for her, and it’s all a tangle of thoughts of enlightenment and the afterlife;
• The Seven Bridges: three friends and a servant undertake a night stroll through seven bridges as a vow for very trivial wishes, and get what they deserve;
• Patriotism: the detailed account of a soldier committing ritual suicide with his wife, and their happiness while they do it;
• Dōjōji: the screenplay for a wardrobe being put up for auction:
• Onnagata: a man falls for a star of kabuki theatre, an onnagata, a man who plays feminine roles;
• The Pearl: the hilarious account of a pearl being lost, and found, and then found again, at a ladies’ party;
• Swaddling Clothes: a woman’s nurse gives birth to an illegitimate child in her own house, and she reflects on inequalities while she struggles with the memory of that child being wrapped in newspapers from his very birth.

Sad, and moving, and unsettling stories, but also enjoyable and quirky.