Kyoko's House

10/August/2023 in Kraków

"Kyoko's House"
written by Mishima Yukio in 1959

is probably the most unfortunate novel in his career

Mishima began writing "Kyoko's House" just after his most well-received novel, "Golden Temple"

According to his own explanation, in "Golden Temple", he depicted "an individual", while in "Kyoko's house" he intended to write "the era"


"Kyoko's House" was not well-received by critics back then

They said that 4 main characters in the novel are basically Mishima himself and this novel lacked depth & mostly self-explanatory

Mishima was very confident with "Kyoko's House", hence he was shocked

Some say that if it had been well-received, Mishima's life in 60s, and its consequence of his suicide in 1970, would have been different


"Not well-received by critics back then"

In a sense, this seemingly small thing is still affecting in 2023

Despite its one of the most personal, hence most important works for understanding Mishima, "Kyoko's House" hasn't yet been translated into English

Some foreign Mishima's fans have tried to make it happen for a long time, but not yet successful


Reading "Kyoko's House" always reminds me of some well-composed soundtracks from a film, "Mishima: A Life in Four Chapter (USA/1985)", by Philip Glass

Kyoko's House

Osamu's Theme