Richard Appignanesi interesting and Mr. Appignanesi's descriptive skills are considerable." Almost two decades later Appignanesi published "Yukio Mishima’s Report to the Emperor", a fictional autobiography of the Japanese poet, novelist, playwright, film director, actor and bodybuilder Yukio Mishima (1925 - 1970), one of the most important Japanese literary and artistic figures of the 20th century as well as an extreme-right activist. Appignanesi's novel is set predominantly in post-World War II reconstruction Japan and in Benares, India. Its narrative builds up to Mishima's horrific ritual suicide by seppuku that accompanied his failed right-wing coup against the Japanese government. The novel explores some of
Sotoba Komachi (Mishima) Sotoba Komachi (Mishima) Sotoba Komachi (卒塔婆小町) is one of the stories in Five Modern Noh Plays by Yukio Mishima. The original work was written by Kanami and was later reworked by Mishima Yukio for modern theatre. The kanji 卒塔婆 means stupa and小町 is the synonym of belle or beautiful woman. The story was written in 1952 and published in 1956. It was translated by Japanese literature expert Donald Keene into English in 1957. Sotoba Komachi is the third story of The Five Modern Noh Plays. The original work, Sotoba Komachi written by Kan'ami, was originally a conversation between two priests