Mishima's Sword Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend

On November 25, 1970, the world renowned Japanese writer Yukio Mishima committedseppukuwith his own antique sword. Mishima's spectacular suicide has been called many things: a hankering for heroism; a beautiful, perverse drama; a political protest against Japan's emasculated postwar constitution; the epitaph of a mad genius. Part travelogue, part biography, and part philosophical treatise,Mishima's Swordis the story of Christopher Ross's journey to find a sword and maybe an understanding of Mishima's country. The cold trail the author follows inspires a tale of the most engaging-and occasionally bizarre-sort, with glimpses of the real Japan that is not seen by tourists, with digressions on, among other things, bushido and socks, mutineers and Noh ghosts, nosebleeds and metallurgy-and even how to dress for suicide.

Christopher Ross lives in Paris. His first book, Tunnel Visions: Journeys of an Underground Philosopher, was a bestseller in the United Kingdom.