Acts of Worship (三熊野詣, Mikumano Moude) is a 1965 short story collection by the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. Kimitake Hiraoka, or better known as Yukio Mishima was a one of Japan's most famous authors. In addition, he is also known as being one of the greatest writers of the 20th century due to both his fictional and non-fictional works. His work, "Acts of Worship" took him most of Yukio Mishima's career to complete. "Act of Worship" consists of seven stories titles "Fountains in the Rain", "Raisin Bread", "Sword" "Sea and Sunset", "Cigarette", "Martydom", and finally "Act of Worship". The story titled "Sword" may be the most typical one out of the seven.
The title story is the tale of a Professor's visit to three Kumano shrines, accompanied by his shy and submissive middle-aged housekeeper, and his reasons for doing so. The collection was translated into English by John Bester, whose work was praised for rendering "Mishima's complex Japanese into fluent and faithful English",[1] and received the inaugural Noma Prize for Translation.[2] The contents were selected by Bester from stories published by Mishima spanning from the 1940s to the mid 1960s.[3]
This collection of short stories relates back to Mishima's personal life in different ways. Most of them are anecdotes from his own life that contains a lot of underlying meanings of life, love, power, violence, homosexuality, and religion.
Synopsis
"Fountains in the Rain"
This story was a great story about our expectations and perception of male-female relationships. On a rainy day, the teenage Akio meticulously breaks up with his girlfriend in a tea shop in the Marunouchi Building. In the story, Akio wanted to break up with his girlfriend because he wanted to "savoy her dismay" (Bester, 1989). His girlfriend breaks down into floods of tears, but only later does he discover that she was crying about something else.[4]
However, at the end his girlfriend's tears started to inspire a sort of female resistance which lead to Akio ending up feeling more angry and humiliated than happy.
"Raisin Bread"
An autobiographical story about a group of young, fashionable Japanese people with Western names in the '50s who attend a party near a beach. Raisin Bread follows Jack, Keeko, Gogi, and Peter that lives in a world full of jazz and music. There is no clear plot to this story, rather it just talks about a series of events. The group of people are written as people who live in the moment and want to live life "stupidly".
"Sword"
Describes the relationship between the captain of the university kendō team, Kokubu Jiro, and his younger admirer, Mibu. Kokubu Jiro is the captain of his university's Kendo team. Jiro's younger brother, Mibu highly admires Jiro. However, due to growing age, Mibu starts to distain Kendo due to Jiro not being able to perform like he used to.
"Sea and Sunset"
The story of an old French shepherd from the Cévennes who had participated in the children's crusade and Anri, a handyman The French man is described as having "clear blue eyes" and a "large nose". Now living in medieval Kamakura, he describes the visions of Christ he experienced to a deaf and dumb boy after climbing a hill behind the Zen temple of Kenchoji. This story's setting is on a beach with a beautiful sunset at Kamakura, a city in Japan.
The French man talked about his youth to Anri in French, while Anri talked about his visions of Christ. They talked about the children's crusade which resulted in of hundred of children being killed. The story continues by talking about Anri's horrific past of being sold as a slave in Egypt, Persia, and India. In India, Anri became a disciple of a Japanese Zen Master named Daigaku back to Japan. Anri talks about how he has lost faith and felt betrayed by Christ due to Christ not listening to any of his prayers.
"Cigarette"
The narrator reminisces about the time he first smoked cigarettes when he was a schoolboy. First published in 1946, this early story brought Mishima recognition in the Japanese literary world.[5] The young Nagasaki liked Imura. Imura was described as macho in the story. Nagasaki goes ahead an attempts to smoke a cigarette in front of Imura to show Imura that they are the same type of person. However, Nagasaki instead choked on the Cigarette, ultimately humiliating themselves.
This short story talks about life, more specifically "boyhood". Mishima used this story to talk about the emptiness of reality. Furthermore, because this story is based on a memory from the past, the story can be seen as unreliable and more extreme compared to the reality of what may have happened.
"Martyrdom"
This is a story of a "homoerotic love revolves around a stolen book" (Bester, 1989). Martyrdom starts out with a group of schoolboys living in a dormitory that revolves around a stolen copy of Plutarch's Lives. Due to the book being stolen, it begins a series of torture and murder in order to try to get it back.
This book shifts between love and power as well as violence to make the reader feel a great amount of uncertainty throughout the book due to the amount of possibilities that can happen.
"Acts of Worship"
Acts of Worship talks about a an ederly coupe. Poet and professor of literature Fujimiya and his housekeeper Tsuneko visit three Kumano shrines, where Professor Fujimiya buries three combs, each inscribed with a syllable of a woman's name: Kayoko. Fujimiya explains that when he was young he was in love with a girl named Kayoko, but her parents had forced them to break up. After he left to go to university, Kayoko died of an illness, and Fujimiya vowed to remain single for the rest of his life. Before she died, Kayoko suggested they visit the three shrines of Kumano, and Fujimiya replied, half-joking, that he would take her when he was sixty. So now having reached that age, he brought the combs bearing her name to the Kumano mountains.
Tsuneko tries her best to do whatever Fujimiya wants her to do and proceeds to take on a role as Fujimiya's "silent accomplice". She starts to fully commit to playing into his fantasy and starts to create a new role as Fujimiya's partner.
Characters
Jiro Kokubu
He is a character in the short story "Sword". He is a kendo champion as well as captain of the Kendō team. Jiro is described as having a lean body, tan skin, and a single-minded devotion to samurai. Not only is Jiro perceived as being almost near "perfect", but he is also described as being "icy" and "priggish". Furthermore, throughout the short story, Jiro has been shown to be "as hollow as the decadent society he inhabits" (Soloman, 1990).
Mibu Kokubu
Mibu is the younger brother of Jiro. In the story, Mibu highly admires Jiro.
Professor Fujimiya
Professor Fujimiya is a 60 year old professor who is a poet. Some of his students calls him "Dr. Weirdo". He is described as someone who is not good looking who has a "dark and insidious" personality.
Tsuneko
A live-in housekeep to Mr. Fujimiya. She is a widow that had a marriage of two years. In the story, Tsuneko is described as someone who is not the best looking as well as lacking "feminine appeal". Furthermore, she is described as having an "undistinguished" personality as well as lacking any "special gifts".
Anri
A current handyman who was a slave sold around the world that ended up in Japan. Anri finds it hard to believe in Christ due to his horrific and tragic past.
