Customer Reviews

Silk and Insight: A Novel (Studies of the Pacific Basin Institute)

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While I had heard of Mishima for years, I had never actually sat down with one of his books. This book takes an intimate look at a silk production factory; in which the working conditions are so deplorable that the overworked employees finally go on strike.

What makes this book so interesting is Mishima's ability to flesh out all his characters. He does not fall into the simplistic "worker=good/boss=bad" trap, Mishima enjoys creating morally ambiguous characters. First, Komazawa-san, the company president, appears to be very hard working and inspiring to his employees. However, as I read about the horrible working conditions within the company, I found myself rooting for Otsuki-san, the strike leader. As Mishima continues to dig deeper into his characters' psyches, revealing their ethical blindspots, I discovered that no one is completely good or evil. How the protesters conscript other workers to join the strike, and how Komazawa-san's deteriorating self image reveals his pitiful humanity, make for very compelling reading.

The use of a strike situation is a wonderful crucible in which to combine all these differing emotions, motivations, and deceptions; resulting in characters on both sides of the picket line who are forever changed (scarred?) by the whole experience.

You may not be able to look at silk the same way again.

This book was apparently the reason for a falling-out between Mishima and his translator-to-be-biographer John Nathan, and after reading this tardy translation it's easy to see why. Mishima got lazy, and it's difficult to believe that he really thought this was his best work. It seems instead like he wrote it just for the sake of writing something. It is apparent from it that he was a writer of skill and experience: the characters behave consistently, their motivations are developed, the events are grounded by believable scenery and the story is evenly paced - but it's just lifeless. Mishima doesn't seem to care about any of the characters, there are no memorable scenes (like the festival in Thirst For Love) or interesting ideas, and the resolution offers no fresh perspective on the issues involved. The strike itself is practically glossed over. The only parts I enjoyed were the ones involving Okano and his complex cynical philosophy, especially near the end, but this could have stood to be developed more, instead of the motivations of the other characters. Although Nathan missed out on translating the Sea of Fertility by refusing to translate Silk and Insight, I really can't blame him.

I'm not too sure what Mishima was trying to do with this one. Yes, it _is_ the story of a strike, technically speaking...except the strike really doesn't take up that many pages. In fact, it barely takes up any. Society's response to it is outlined sketchily at best, the details of it aren't shown much concern for, and for most of its duration it is located offscreen, out of the writer's focus. The summaries are misleading - the effects of the strike and of unions on Japanese culture are, in fact, never discussed at all. Don't expect a Japanese Germinal here.

The novel works much better as a character study of Komazawa Zenjiro, the owner of the company in which the strike occurs. I'm thinking that must have been Mishima's true purpose, seeing as every chapter title starts with Komazawa's name. Komazawa is a man who lives quite firmly in the past, and tries to adapt the ways of the past to this modern world. (This bears more than a slight parallel to Mishima himself.) His quasi-religious faith in those ways is poignant, and though he clearly has the author's sympathies, Mishima has admirably chosen not to whitewash his faults - Komazawa's hypocrisy, his occasional pointless cruelty and his refusal to even try to understand anything not in the scope of the old ways are all highlighted quite clearly.

However, a good character study does not a good novel make, and the other characters seem, to put it nicely, "unfinished." Otsuki, the strike leader, has precious few appearances to put in for such an important role, and his only motive for what he does, according to the author, is an almost childish chagrin at Komazawa's separation of him from his girlfriend. He seems like more of a plot device than a character. More frustrating, though, is the fact that this novel has many potentially fascinating characters that it simply chooses not to develop. Take the ex-geisha Kikuno, for instance, whose motives are never made anything approaching "clear" - does she love Komazawa? What is the source of her admiration of him? Why did she even want to quit being a geisha in the first place? Or what about the ominous intellectual Okano, who is depicted as a Machiavellian scheming sort of man, but is never given (and never gives) any rationalization for his actions? Did he do what he did solely out of mischief? Was he motivated by financial concerns? What about Komazawa's wife Fusae, who seems to have a (similarly unexplained) martyrdom complex? All these are things Mishima could really have taken some time to flesh out.

As it is, the novel's an often interesting portrait of a very specific type of person, but that's about it. It could have been more. If you're a fan of Mishima, you are of course going to read this, but if this is your first contact with his work, I doubt it will impress you enough to make you delve into the rest of his oeuvre.