Chapter 7 of Bunshō Tokuhon, “Technique” (文章技巧), is the longest chapter in the book at roughly 31,000 characters (overview article). Here Yukio Mishima works through the practical craft of fiction — how to describe a person, how to describe nature, how to describe psychology, how to describe action, and a set of grammatical devices. The seven articles in this feature trace that path in the original text.
Six sections
| Section | Pages | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Characterization — appearance | pp.129–140 | Proper names and the role of physical description. The technique of stimulating the reader’s imagination |
| Characterization — clothing | pp.141–145 | The rise and fall of costume description, from the Meiji style to the age of Western dress |
| Nature description | pp.146–153 | Why Japanese writers excel at landscape |
| Psychological description | pp.154–165 | A specialty of Japanese literature since the women writers of the Heian court |
| Action description | pp.166–173 | Action is not literature’s forte. The Taiheiki example |
| Grammar and technique | pp.174–196 | The problem of grammatical person. Onomatopoeia. Mishima’s own working methods |
The six sections, in brief
Characterization — appearance and clothing. Mishima starts from how we identify real people, by name and by looks — from “that guy, you know, the fat one” to the meaning of a proper name. Costume description mattered in the Meiji style but is losing its point in the age of Western dress (article 2).
Nature and psychological description. Japanese writers, Mishima says, are world-class at landscape description. At the same time, psychological description has been a specialty of Japanese literature since the Heian-era women writers. Mishima treats the two as paired traits of Japanese literature (article 3).
Action description and grammar. If psychological description is literature’s forte, action description is not, Mishima says. Action is grasped from the outside; the actor themself knows nothing of it — only a third party observes it. And at the chapter’s close, Mishima turns to grammar closer to his own working practice: the problem of person, and the use of onomatopoeia (article 4).
A trove of examples
Chapter 7 cites far more works than any chapter before it. Alongside example sentences Mishima composes himself, there are quotations from public-domain works — Kōyō Ozaki’s Konjiki Yasha, Riichi Yokomitsu’s Shien, Sakunosuke Oda’s Meoto Zenzai, and the Taiheiki. It also draws on writers such as Aya Kōda and Taijun Takeda, whose work may still be under copyright; this feature does not quote their text directly.
This feature’s structure
| Article | Content |
|---|---|
| 1 (this article) | Overview |
| 2 | “Characterization”: appearance and clothing |
| 3 | “Nature description” and “Psychological description”: two specialties of Japanese literature |
| 4 | “Action description” and “Grammar and technique”: observed action, and the devices of person |
| 5 | Close reading ①: the Taiheiki passage — the “third-party” nature of action description |
| 6 | Close reading ②: onomatopoeia, contrasting Ōgai with popular fiction |
| 7 | Verdict: is this chapter’s technique still useful today? |
Summary
| Point | Content |
|---|---|
| Length | ≈31,000 characters — the longest chapter in the book |
| Six sections | Appearance / clothing / nature description / psychological description / action description / grammar and technique |
| Character | Dense with concrete quotation, mixing public-domain works with works still under copyright |
In short — Chapter 7 is the most practical chapter in Bunshō Tokuhon, the technique chapter where Mishima works through the craft of fiction with a wealth of examples.