KEN by Mishima Yukio

Mishima Yukio was a famous Japanese post-war author and playwright many of who’s famous works are available in English (as well as other languages). This is not the place to discuss some of the issues surrounding this controversial figure, but I do wish to briefly introduce one of this short stories that will be of interest to kendo people: KEN (剣).

The short story was published in 1963 (the film being released only a year later) and revolves around the story of the captain of a university kendo club – Kokubu – and his relationships with other members of the club, his family, women, and modern society in general.

Without giving too much away the theme is very Mishima-like, with emphasis on purity, youth, beauty, misunderstood youth, and alienation. It ends – as Mishima himself did – with suicide.

It is jam-packed with kendo scenes, all of which look all the more cool for being in black and white. Since it seems a real university club was used to shoot the kendo scenes its also valuable as a resource to show what kendo was like back in the early/mid 60′s.

At any rate, I realise that many people reading this post would have read the novel or perhaps have seen the movie but – after just re-watching it again – I thought it deserved a mention here. For those that haven’t seen/read it yet, then please check it out on Amazon. The short story can be found in English in the Acts of Worship collection, the DVD is – however – only available in Japanese.

Of-course, it’s possible that this post was just an excuse to share the cool poster-scan…!!