{"product_id":"mishimas-sword","title":"Mishima's Sword","description":"In 1970, the world-famous Japanese writer Yukio Mishima plunged a knife into his belly and was decapitated using his own antique sword. In the decades since, people have asked endless far-ranging questions about this spectacular suicide. Christopher Ross wondered, What on earth happened to Mishima's sword? And so Ross sets off for Tokyo on a journey into the heart of the Mishima legend -- the very heart of Japan. It was a country Ross knew well after nearly five years of living there -- but nothing could have prepared him for this. While searching for the fabled sword, Ross encounters the rather startling range of those who knew Mishima . . . a world, or perhaps more accurately a demimonde, of craftsmen and critics, soldiers and swordsmen, boyfriends and biographers (even the man who taught Mishima hara-kiri). The trail Ross follows inspires a travelogue of the most eye-opening--and occasionally bizarre -- sort, a window into the real Japan that is never seen by tourists and the occasion for digressions on, among other things, socks and the code of the samurai, nosebleeds and metallurgy . . . even how to dress for suicide. \u003ci\u003eMishima's Sword\u003c\/i\u003e is a dazzling read -- the perfect book for all those intrigued by things Japanese, from gangsters to Genji, from \u003ci\u003emanga\u003c\/i\u003e to Mishima.","brand":"Grand Central Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41514399498418,"sku":"9780306815683","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0536\/7418\/0786\/files\/unnamed_1a98ead4-4947-4414-a7dc-0592d15ce223.jpg?v=1724427072","url":"https:\/\/shop.hachettebookgroup.com\/products\/mishimas-sword","provider":"Hachette Book Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}