<DIV>On November 25, 1970, the world renowned Japanese writer Yukio Mishima committed <I>seppuku</I> with his own antique sword. Mishima&#8217;s spectacular suicide has been called many things: a hankering for heroism; a beautiful, perverse drama; a political protest against Japan&#8217;s emasculated postwar constitution; the epitaph of a mad genius. Part travelogue, part biography, and part philosophical treatise, <I>Mishima&#8217;s Sword</I> is the story of Christopher Ross&#8217;s journey to find a sword and maybe an understanding of Mishima&#8217;s country. The cold trail the author follows inspires a tale of the most engaging-and occasionally bizarre-sort, with glimpses of the real Japan that is not seen by tourists, with digressions on, among other things, bushido and socks, mutineers and Noh ghosts, nosebleeds and metallurgy-and even how to dress for suicide.</Div>