Star (short story)

"Star" (Japanese: スタア, Hepburn: "Sutā") is a short story by Yukio Mishima. It was originally published in the November 1960[1] issue of Gunzo, a literary magazine published by Kodansha.[2] It was later included alongside "Patriotism" and "Hyakuman'en senbei" (百万円煎餅) in the short story collection of the same name, Sutā (スタア), which was published on 30 January 1961 by Shinchosha.[3][4]

"Star"
Author	Yukio Mishima
Original title	"スタア (Sutā)"
Translator	Sam Bett
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Published in	Gunzo
Publication type	Periodical
Publisher	Kodansha
Media type	Print (Magazine)
Publication date	November 1960
Published in English	4 April 2019

Published shortly after Mishima had his first starring role in a film, "Star" tells the story of a popular young actor disillusioned with fame and the anxietes he has over his with his career and public image. Relatively forgotten in Japan and overshadowed by Mishima's other works, "Star" was later translated into English by Sam Bett. Bett's translation was published as a standalone novella in paperback format by New Directions Publishing on 30 April 2019 (ISBN 978-0-8112-2842-8)[5] and through the Penguin Modern Classics series of Penguin Books on 4 April 2019 (ISBN 978-0-241-38347-6).[6] Bett was awarded the 2019–2020 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature for his translation of Mishima's short story.[7][8]

Background

"Star" was written either during or shortly after Mishima acted in Afraid to Die (1960), a Yakuza film directed by Yasuzo Masumura. In the film, Mishima played a young gangster recently released from prison, where he served time for avenging the murder of his mobster boss father.[5][9][2] It was his first starring role in a film.[2] The process was physically and mentally draining for Mishima. Masumura was unsatisfied Mishima's acting skills, and demanded many retakes as a result. Production of the film was further marred when, on 1 March 1960, Mishima fell down an escalator and injured his head. He was hospitalized for nine days. Filming concluded on 15 March 1960, and Mishima told reporters the next day he "had had his fill of appearing in films."[10]

"Star" has been described as being "mostly forgotten" now in Japan and overshadowed by Mishima's other works.[1][2]

In Bett's translation, he changed the protagonist's original name, Yutaka, to Rikio, in part to help English-language readers "access the symbolism" of the story but also due to the phonetic similarity between Rikio and the name Takeo, the name of Mishima's character in Afraid to Die.[2]

Plot

The story centers on Rikio "Richie" Mizuno, a twenty-three-year-old actor disillusioned with fame and the film industry. He acts in a series of films where he plays a tough and hardened Yakuza gangster. Rikio prides himself for his appearance and physical build, and is adored by crowds of obsessive fans. However, in the story, Rikio is dominated by an anxiety about himself and he repeatedly expresses both fear and excitation over the inevitability of his aging. He finds emotional and sexual release through his relationship with Kayo, his personal assistant and lover. She is an unattractive women, but Rikio is drawn to her authenticity. She is honest in her characterizations of herself, including her physical appearance and her age, especially when compared to the youthful Rikio. She often mocks Rikio to his face about his body, his flamboyant and flirtatious lifestyle, stardom, copious letters of fan mail as well as the starlets he acts alongside in films. Her authenticity contrasts with Rikio's inauthenticity, with the masks he wears as an actor daily and the false public persona and bravado he has carefully cultivated for his fans and the media. In one scene, an aspiring actress ambushes Rikio while he is filming on set. She succeeds in persuading the director of the film to write a role for her into the script. However, her charm wears off on the director as she messes up the part and reveals herself rather unskilled in acting. After being cut from the script, she escapes to the dressing room and attempts suicide. In the dramatic scene, everyone on the set witnesses as she is saved by a doctor who she repeatedly attempts to push away to stop interfering with her suicide attempt. The studio's public relations team spins the story as Rikio intervening to save the woman's life. Kayo and Rikio later laugh about the incident, with Kayo mocking the actresses dramatic flailing and protestations.

Reception

Translation

Bett's translation, published in 2019 as the novella Star, received mostly favourable reviews from critics.

At the review aggregator website Book Marks, which assigns individual ratings to book reviews from mainstream literary critics, the novella received a cumulative "Positive" rating based on 7 reviews: 3 "Rave" reviews, 3 "Positive" reviews, and 1 "Pan" review.[11]

Publishers Weekly wrote, "Mishima is a master of the psychological: he blurs distinctions between Rikio's identity and the characters he plays in disorienting but never jarring transitions between movie scenes and reality."[12]

In a less favourable review, Kirkus Reviews wrote that "the weightless story is mercifully brief."[13]

In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Jan Wilm wrote, "Even if Star is a relatively minor work in the pantheon of Mishimas greatness, it is an exquisite contemplation of existence and death, and Mishima's prose is extremely powerful and the translation finely executed."[14]

Thomas Gebremedhin of The Wall Street Journal called it "pitch-perfect novella" and "a stunning addition to the oeuvre of one of postwar Japans greatest storytellers."[15]

In The New York Times Book Review, musician and writer Patti Smith called the novella "a startlingly modern, hypervisual jewel."[16]

In his review in The Kenyon Review, Daniel Felsenthal wrote that Bett "manages to preserve a difficult balance of precision and lyricism that captures Mishima's coldly ecstatic voice".[17]

Bett's translation was also reviewed in The Times Literary Supplement,[1] The Japan Times,[2] The Japan News,[18] Booklist,[19] Complete Review,[20] PopMatters,[21] Columbia Journal,[22] and Spectrum Culture.[23]

References

1. Flanagan, Damian (26 July 2019). "Big in Japan". The Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
2. Gattig, Nicolas (27 April 2019). "Yukio Mishima's attempt at personal branding comes to light in the rediscovered 'Star'". The Japan Times. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
3. 新潮. 新潮社. 1989. p. 283.
4. "スタア (新潮社): 1961". 国立国会図書館サーチ. National Diet Library. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
5. "Star". New Directions Publishing. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
6. "Star". Penguin Books UK. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
7. "Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes for the Translation of Japanese Literature And Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Prizes". Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
8. Niiya, Yoshiko (15 November 2019). "Announcement of Recipients of Japan-United States Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature and the Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize" (PDF). Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
9. Damian Flanagan (15 August 2014). Yukio Mishima. Reaktion Books. p. 165. ISBN 978-1-78023-419-9.
10. Damian Flanagan (15 August 2014). Yukio Mishima. Reaktion Books. p. 166. ISBN 978-1-78023-419-9.
11. "Book Marks reviews of Star by Yukio Mishima, Trans. by Sam Bett". Book Marks. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
12. "Fiction Book Review: Star by Yukio Mishima, trans. from the Japanese by Sam Bett". Publishers Weekly. 30 January 2019. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
13. "Star by Yukio Mishima". Kirkus Reviews. 21 January 2019. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
14. Wilm, Jan (18 June 2019). "All the World's a Stage: On Yukio Mishima's "Star"". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
15. Gebremedhin, Thomas (22 March 2019). "The 12 Best Books of Spring". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
16. "How Susan Sontag Influenced Patti Smith's Reading Life". The New York Times Book Review. The New York Times. 5 September 2019. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
17. Felsenthal, Daniel. "On Star by Yukio Mishima". The Kenyon Review. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
18. Falls, Kiri (6 January 2020). "Mishima's cynical take on celebrity is as relevant now as ever". The Japan News. Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
19. Hong, Terry (29 March 2019). "Star, by Yukio Mishima". Booklist Online. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
20. Orthofer, Michael (17 February 2019). "Star by Mishima Yukio". Complete Review. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
21. Rollmann, Hans (21 May 2019). "Newly Translated Mishima Work, 'Star', Offers Insight into His Pop Culture Persona". PopMatters. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
22. Newman, Aaron (1 May 2019). "Review: Star by Yukio Mishima Translated by Sam Bett". Columbia Journal. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
23. Heinzl, Jeff (11 June 2019). "Star: by Yukio Mishima". Spectrum Culture. Retrieved 3 April 2020.