Yukio Mishima-Talking a lot about culture-
私は三島由紀夫がこんなにも優しい声で学生と文学について話し合っている姿を見られて幸せです。また彼は英語もフランス語も堪能で、自分の言葉で自分の考えを表現していました。彼の死から50年経ち、ネットフリックスでも映画公開されました。今なお彼の魂は私たち日本人の心を刺激し続けています。 I am happy to see Yukio Mishima discussing literature with students in such a gentle voice. He was also fluent in both English and French and expressed his thoughts in his own language. Fifty years have passed since his death and a movie has been released on Netflix. His spirit still continues to inspire us Japanese.
Yukio Mishima-Talking a lot about culture-Two high school students interview Yukio Mishima
1)
Student (S) ――What made you write the novel at the beginning?
Mishima (M) ――I began writing novels with no particular unconsciousness.
M--I very unconsciously began by trying to write that story or a beautiful and exciting story. My conscious work was at the age of 25.
Until then, I was only thinking of creating something beautiful with my own beautiful words.
I didn't know much more than that.
S-Is that something you thought about based on actual life you have experienced in the past?
M-For example, having a unique experience, climbing Everest and having a feast, etc., are not the only experiences.
That experience is that when you are walking down the road, you may trip over a stone, which may have a significant meaning in your life.
It's just a small stone, but that experience is essential.
It is also essential to have the ability to bring such an experience to a great extent by yourself.
The writer must be able to do both.
If you were raised in a laboratory-like place from the time you were born, you wouldn't be able to experience it from the beginning.
At the same time, the ability to express that experience as one experience is what people call "talent."
2)
S- For example, the writer experienced something, and he felt it himself.
If you turn it into work, what if the reader who read the work did not have that experience?
M-In that case, the writer uses words to tell the other person an experience they do not understand.
For example, sound conveys music, and paintings are represented by color.
However, words belong to everyone.
It is essential that words can be understood. If it doesn't work, it doesn't make sense.
So how do literary people use the words that everyone uses to convey the most difficult things? That isn't easy.
Words are the most important.
You must remember quickly and eat each dictionary page if you become a novelist.
3)
S- What kind of author do you respect?
M- I respect Goethe in foreigners.
In contemporary literature, it's Thomas.
Such people are good writers.
I find that kind of thing very attractive.
And I don't really like being a pure, weak, and beautiful writer.
When Hermann Hesse saw Goethe's portrait, he seemed too emotionless.
Goethe was, in a sense, an icy person.
He was cold, warm, and in a sense, a very nasty person.
Still, he is a model for self-formation. So does Thomas.
4)
S-You are also in a critical position against very famous novelist Osamu Dazai. What does that mean?
In my opinion, Osamu Dazai has a very feminine side.
M-Yes, I wouldn't say I like that.
However, I think there are many similarities between Dazai and me.
I think you guys have similarities with your friends.
If you notice it, it will get annoyed you.
Many of my good friends are different from my personality.
I don't like people who have similarities to me.
I have that feeling towards Osamu Dazai.
The only thing that always makes me feel dangerous is that if I like Dazai and get drowned in emotions, I'm afraid that it will be like him.
Therefore, when I read Dazai's work, I thought it was dangerous if I didn't keep the position that I was different from him.
At that time, a lot of people committed suicide by imitating Dazai.
Eiko Tanaka is the best example.
5)
S-What do you think of novels that push the reader to death, as in his work?
I believe that a novel is about how to live.
I wonder why he has to write a novel that ultimately leads to the death of others.
M-It's more of a writer's problem than a work's.
For example, when Goethe wrote "Wertel," he was still in a situation where he was about to commit suicide.
However, Goethe was revived when "Wertel" committed suicide.
When we look at Goethe, we need to see the trees grow more significant and prominent towards the sun.
There were many such crises in Goethe.
He had lived little by a bit while solving the crisis with literature.
I think literature is that kind of thing.
In the case of Dazai, I don't mind if literature invites death.
Literature is not a medicine or a nutritional supplement.
However, if the author does not come back from there, I wonder what the literature is for.
Dazai is not just a matter of work. I wouldn't say I like the relationship between the artist and his work.
He is a very talented person.
After all, not many people are so talented in modern Japanese literature.
If he had been raised in a lab-like place, he wouldn't be a writer from the beginning.
At the same time, the writer must have the ability to perceive the experience as an experience.
Everyone calls it "talent."
Yukio Mishima-Talking a lot about culture-Two high school students interview Yukio Mishima
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCOKXdlS0Zc
Human Life is Limited [Yukio Mishima]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgExqYkRxz8
Ref)
Yukio Mishima
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima
Osamu Dazai
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osamu_Dazai
Yukio Mishima Killed Himself Fifty Years Ago. Why?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsPBKEnyEp0
Rare Video - Verbal Duel between a Todai Student (Masahiko Akuta) and Yukio Mishima 50 Years Ago
- Yukio Mishima vs. Todai Zenkyoto: 50 Years of Truth | Netflix Japan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWFLRU2PQwM&t=78s