#Abe Kōbō

[shihlun]

[ragazzoarcano]

"La libertà non consiste solo nel seguire la propria volontà, ma a volte anche nel fuggire da essa".

— Kōbō Abe

[dawn-falls]

Do you know what time it is? Time for BSD OCs! This time, I'll be bringing something mentioned on my previous OC post of the Younger Siblinghood: the Shield Society!

The Shield Society is small, but very popular amongst the army, having even aided and been aided by the Hunting Dogs themselves. They take on medium level missions to high level missions, such as Lyubov Dostoievskaya herself. This post will have a different kind of description from the previous one, because I think this is better for me, thank you.

Yukio Mishima: Captain of the Shield Society

Aliases: Kimitake Hiraoka

Age: 17, but pretends he's 42

Ability: Deception of a Mask (Confessions of a Mask)

— Allows him to shape-shift into any other form he wants, being it other people or some small alteration of himself.

— Needs to have seen said form.

— Can copy the voice if heard or imagined it, depending on what form he takes.

— Cannot copy abilities, but can copy physical abilities, like strength and speed.

The young Yukio Mishima has been pretending to be an adult while wearing the military uniform of the Shield Society. He lives a double life, with struggles from both double identities and school. He's not simply pretending to be someone else, he's pretending to be his father, the previous captain of the unit, after he passed away when he was 12. Why? That's a long story to explain another time. The Shield Society knows about his true identity of a kid, but won't say or do anything, they might say that it's to not earn any weird comments or lose their honour, but it's more than that.

He's gay, and is kinda afraid of admitting it, but he has told his unit about it and they're okay with it. One of the members enjoyed that fact a little bit too much. He has been in a relationship with a teenage girl named Sonoko, related to another military unit that went to the same school as his, while being in love with a boy named Omi. Both were killed during his 14s.

He's very insecure of himself, tends to have silent breakdowns when alone and takes to easily admire those strict, tall, good-looking, strong and organised men with powerful physiques or abilities and leadership skills. Some examples of those are Ōchi Fukuchi, Suehiro Tecchō, Yukichi Fukuzawa and his most recent and top of the list, Doppo Kunikida. Changes his personality a lot based on his surroundings, such as the unit, school and with the ADA. Some of his current close friends are Hideaki Sena, Mari Mori, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Yasunari Kawabata and Marcel Proust.

• Yukio Mishima is the main core of the SS, which means lots of characters here we're chosen for a certain connection with him.

• Used his real life story to make his character, so for more reference, check his background! Just warning that there will be mentions of suicide by seppuku (beheading), so go with the warning and caution over that.

Hiromi Kawakami: Vice-captain of the Shield Society

Age: 36

Ability: Tread on a Snake (Novel with same name)

— Can turn into a giant snake

— Has fangs due to that

— Her bite will poison the bitten (but at will, no accidents)

— Her skin is very hard, bullets barely tickle

Hiromi Kawakami is considered one of the very few "pioneer Shield soldiers", since she was part of the unit multiple years before Yukio's father's death. Reached the vice-captain position easily and was a little annoyed at the situation of forced promotion that Yukio had to become captain (unwillingly). Tends to be very calm and collected, and some even say she's the mother of the unit.

Has rescued Mari back when she and her brother lost each other, becoming her mentor, as well as Yukio's (since he surely needed advice, he barely had much idea of what to do as the captain). Both quickly rose in power and strategy, and she's proud of them. Of lately, she has grown a small obsession on seeking Mieko Kawakami, the doctor of a small mafia and former singer that she had an acquaintance with, as visible whenever she's allowed to take over for Yukio during his "outside businesses".

• One of the only two that had no relation or connection whatsoever with RL Yukio Mishima.

• Real Life Mieko and Hiromi never met each other that I'm aware, I just wanted to use it because I found it sillily funny that they have the same surname and kanji for said surname. Not that it's impossible, just wanted to mess with it.

Mari Mori was explained on the previous post, but this is just to put depth of her role in the SS. Check the previous OC post to find her ability and more.

Mari Mori is far from a paragon of a soldier in terms of behaviour, but can be a great example of a soldier physique and physical abilities. Her speed is almost unmatchable, and that is with no ability. She's considered to be the best friend of the captain, mostly because she's the second youngest of the unit, losing to the captain himself only, who she's more than happy to share her male-male romance novels with, and confident on doing so, because he won't judge the love, but might judge the storyline written. She doesn't care, honestly, good criticism is accepted.

• Daughter of Ōgai Mori known for her male-male romances, which were read by Yukio Mishima.

Ruikō Kuroiwa: The biggest brain

Age: 26

Ability: Muzan (Novel with same name)

— Allows him to manifest two sides of his brain: Intuition and Logic

— Both look exactly like Kuroiwa, but Intuition is a sorta red vision of him while Logic is blue

— Intuition sometimes acts as reflex and instinct, mostly being listened to in combat rather than in investigation and interrogation, with Logic taking over that aspect. Intuition also helps him figure out things like poison on a cup or a hidden knife, while Logic helps him figure out locations of evidence

— His brain sides can be separated and stay invisible for others, with only Kuroiwa seeing them

— They can go away from Kuroiwa, but if they start going far, he will start to doze off, like sleeping with eyes open. If they're far enough, he might not react to his surroundings

Ruikō Kuroiwa is a young soldier that may not be considered one of the pioneer soldiers of the SS, due to him joining just a few years before the former captain died, but he's a brilliant and loved soldier known for both his great physical abilities and his great intelligence, that may not be close to Ranpo Edogawa or Yukito Ayatsuji (who he met and is having a small problem with), but is still very impressive.

A huge fan, and calls himself the number one, of Ranpo Edogawa. Would love to work alongside him and is not afraid to admit said admiration towards the man. He's considered to be a fanboy in terms of excessiveness, and some even theorise he started working as an investigative soldier because of him. Usually is the one after evidence of others and hidden documents, since his ability can separate and sneak into places and get stuff without being caught or noticed. Considered to be one of the greatest pieces of the unit, even if not the greatest in terms of combat.

He firstly made acquaintance with Natsuko Imamura, and then went ahead and met Yukito Ayatsuji and Mizuki Tsujimura. Later on, he met Ranpo, Poe and Mushitarō, as well as Agatha Christie and Yōko Ogawa, due to some incidents involving a group called the Falkner.

Kōbō Abe: The Arrester

Age: 24

Ability: The Woman in the Dunes (Novel with same name)

— Traps people in a house in the dunes

— Can either trap everyone inside the same room as his or the particular people he touches, depends on his wishes of who to trap

— The longer people stay in the house, the less they want to leave

— Abilities don't work in the house

Kōbō Abe started of as a pupil of Jun Ishikawa back in a private academy for ability users, and soon joined the military unit Shield Society after catching the attention of the previous captain, Azusa Mishima. He tried his best to avoid a life in the battlefield, but thanks to his father and the previous SS captain, it was all in vain.

A man who tends to play with memories of himself and others (good or bad, anything to his advantage), Abe is often in the front line, usually side by side with Mishima or Kuroiwa, whose abilities are not very fit for combat. Can be considered ruthless and cruel, but just to those he views as an opponent and/or threat. Is not afraid of being honest, and that led to a few beefs with other soldiers from other units and some other people. Abe is the person that understands Mishima the most, since both ended up in positions that neither really wanted to be in.

• Has a connection to Yukio Mishima, and even participated of a protest with him, Jun Ishikawa and Yasunari Kawabata.

[biblioklept]

Last Friday (Books acquired, 30 Dec. 2022)

Last Friday (Books acquired, 30 Dec. 2022)

I picked up first edition hardbacks of The Box Man by Kobo Abe and Fantômas by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre today at the used bookstore I like to wander around every other Friday afternoon (or, if I’ve had a bad week, maybe every Friday afternoon, or even a Monday, or Thursday). I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular (okay, I was looking for a physical copy of Joy Williams’…

[yhancik]

Book cover of the first edition of The Woman in the Dunes (砂の女). Painting by Yasuo Kazuki.

[tamurakafkaposts]

You don't need me. What you really need is a mirror. Because any stranger is for you simply a mirror in which to reflect yourself. I don't ever again want to return to such a desert of mirrors.....

Kōbō Abe

[silvasteel]

the last supper ; jesus christ superstar / / the appearance of jesus christ to mary magdalene ; alexander ivanov / salt in the wound ; boygenius / the hollow / figure it out ; anna tivel / parallel lines / the hunger games ; suzanne collins / power rangers: in space / parallel lines again / the taxi ; amy lowell / till death ; japanese breakfast ; the magnus archives episode 160 / past lives ; celine song / sejanus saves tiberius ; ambrose dudley / anthony padilla and ian hecox / the box man ; kōbō abe / episode 23 ; kamen rider ryuki / the task of the translator of antigone ; anne carson

[thelastrenaissance]

Kōbō Abe (pen name of Kimifusa Abe (March 7, 1924), was a Japanese writer, playwright, musician, photographer, and inventor.

“The most frightening thing in the world is to discover the abnormal in that which is closest to us.”

 Kobo Abe

[crazyfox-archives]

A photographic portrait of the author Abe Kōbō (安部公房) (1924-1993) in 1956

Un retrato fotográfico del autor Abe Kōbō (安部公房) (1924-1993) en 1956

[fionnlaghart]

The box man. - Kōbō Abe

[shihlun]

Annotated photographs by Kobe ABE in his 1973 novel "The Box Man".

[suguru-is-typing]

Hi... big fan of your cult! ＼(^-^)／

My question for you is, do you have any favorite authors?

suguru nods.

"yes, i have a few. my favourite authors are kitarō nishida, ryūnosuke akutagawa, osamu dazai, and kōbō abe."

[bracketsoffear]

How Much of These Hills is Gold (C Pam Zhang) "This book is about a family of Chinese immigrants. The father works in the mines and sometimes takes his two daughters to the hills to try and find gold. They struggle against poverty and racism, trying to carve a better life for themselves."

Woman In the Dunes (Kōbō Abe) "In 1955, Jumpei Niki, a school teacher from Tokyo, visits a fishing village to collect insects. After missing the last bus, in an act of apparent hospitality, he is offered lodging for the night by the villagers at the bottom of a vast sand pit. But when he attempts to leave the next morning, he quickly discovers that the locals have other plans. Held captive with seemingly no chance of escape, he is tasked with shoveling back the ever-advancing sand dunes that threaten to destroy the village. His only companion is an odd young woman, who has lived her whole life in the village and is accustomed to living among the dunes. The novel opens by telling the audience that Jumpei Niki's case has gone cold after being missing for 7 years, and so he's been officially pronounced as dead. The majority of the novel details him trying to find some way to escape the pit, but the audience knows its hopeless because of how the novel begins. He eventually decides to stay when he realizes that he's just as free in his life before the hole, as in his life after. Aside from the obvious claustrophobia being used to comment on the metaphorical claustrophbia of modern life, and the plot of a man choosing to live his life in a small collapsing cabin in a hole on the beach, sand is an ever-present motif. The roof in the cabin is broken open and there's no where to fully wash up, so the sand is ever present, caking itself to their sweaty skin. They have a single umbrella that hangs over the well so that the water doesnt get muddy. They have to sleep with a newspaper over their faces to avoid inhaling any sand and fully nude so that the sand on their bodies doesn't chafe at night. There are constant, grotesque descriptions of the sand coating their skin, mixing with their sweat, crunching on their dry lips, shifting whenever they move and so on. It doesn't need to be a leitner to make me feel like their is a disgusting amount of sand on my skin, but turning it into a leitner wouldn't help."

[bbbeternelle]

Because winds and water currents flow over the land, the formation of sand is unavoidable. As long as the winds blew, the rivers flowed, and the seas stirred, sand would be born grain by grain from the earth, and like a living being it would creep everywhere. The sands never rested. Gently but surely they invaded and destroyed the surface of the earth.

Kōbō Abe, The Woman in the Dunes

[rafipuff]

Hey rafi,I've just started my way into reading books/novels. I know you've read a couple of them. Can you suggest some good ones that you really enjoyed ?

Hello there!

tbh I am a bit rusty with my books, but here are some that I've enjoyed in the past, and also are quite well-known, so you won't feel like you're reading totally random unknown books xd

Kōbō Abe - Woman in the Dunes (砂の女)

A highschool teacher dissatisfied with his life and his marriage goes onto an expedition to find a new sort of plant, when during his travels through a desert he is trapped in a sand hole. There he discovers, that there are other people trapped in the hole, living in some sort of sand town.. but.. nobody seems to want to escape...

Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis

When Gregory wakes up one morning after a series of bad dreams, he discovers that while he was asleep, he transformed from a human into some sort of huge hideous bug. Ugh.. what an inconvenience, now he's definitely gonna be late to work...

Paulo Coelho - Veronika Decides to Die

She always did what others wanted from her, she felt empty.. useless.. hopeless.. now she wakes up in an institute for mentally ill people, after her unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide. There, they tell her that she is actually dying from a severe heart condition. Well god damn, I th- I think.. I don't really wanna die..

Those are just the first three books that came to mind, I encourage everyone to give me their book recommendations in the replies!

Happy reading~

[portraitofglue]

december consumption

these are forms of media that i frequently associate with december

books

Devotion, Patti Smith

A Spy in the House of Love, Anais Nin

After Dark, Haruki Murakami

The Woman in the Dunes, Kōbō Abe

Sleepless Nights, Elizabeth Hardwick

Untold Night and Day, Bae Suah

Paradais, Fernanda Melchor

articles/essays

Everything Visible Is Empty: Toshio Matsumoto, Stuart Monro-Mousse Magazine

As a city, Hong Kong confounds. The sheer aggressiveness, people jostling for trains or shouting from afar, somehow feels more intimate than unsettling.

A Mexican Novel Conjures a Violent World Tinged With Beauty, Julian Lucas-NYT

(on Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor)

Our Doppelgängers, Ourselves, Alan Glynn-Lit Hub

Cannibal Manifesto, Oswald De Andrade

Strange Fruit: the first great protest song, Dorian Lynskey-The Guardian

poetry

The Denial of Death, Louise Glück

Funeral Blues, W.H Auden

A Quiet Poem, Frank O'Hara

Giving Up Smoking, Wendy Cope

I Walked Past a House Where I Lived Once, Yehuda Amichai

Last Curtain, Rabindranath Tagore

Perhaps the World Ends Here, Joy Harjo