("Kyoko's House") is a 1959

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

by the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese writer Yukio Mishima. The book tells the interconnected stories of four young men who represent different facets of the author's personality. His athletic side appears as a boxer, his artistic side as a painter, his narcissistic, performing side as an actor and his secretive,

nihilistic Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning of life, meaning. The term was pop ...

side as a businessman who goes through the motions of living a normal life while practicing "absolute contempt for reality". Mishima's biographer and translator, John Nathan, has called ''Kyōko no Ie'' "an unsettling, even a terrifying book", at least partly because it seems prophetic in its anticipation of developments in Mishima's own life: the boxer takes up right-wing politics and the actor becomes involved in a sado-masochistic sexual relationship which ends in double suicide for himself and his lover. The story of Osamu, the actor in ''Kyōko no Ie'', was one of three Mishima works adapted by

Paul Schrader Paul Joseph Schrader (; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first received widespread recognition through his screenplay for Martin Scorsese's ''Taxi Driver'' (1976). He later continued his collabo ...

for his film '' Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters''. Although the novel has not been translated into English, Schrader used it because his original choice, '' Forbidden Colors'', was vetoed by Mishima's widow.Schrader, Paul, ''Schrader on Schrader and Other Writings'' (1990)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kyoko no Ie 1959 Japanese novels Japanese-language novels Japanese novels adapted into films Novels by Yukio Mishima Novels about artists Novels about actors Novels about boxing