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Kimitake Hiraoka ( , ''Hiraoka Kimitake''; 14 January 192525 November 1970), known by his
On 14 January 1925, was born in Nagazumi-cho, Yotsuya-ku of
pen name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
Yukio Mishima ( , ''Mishima Yukio''), was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shinto
, also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...
ist, ultranationalist
Ultranationalism, or extreme nationalism, is an extremist form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its specific ...
, and the leader of an attempted coup d'état
A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup
, is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...
that culminated in his ''seppuku
, also known as , is a form of Japanese ritualistic suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honor, but was also practiced by other Japanese people during the Shōwa era (particularly officers near ...
'' (ritual suicide).
Mishima is considered one of the most important postwar
A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...
stylists of the Japanese language
is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...
. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...
five times in the 1960s—including in 1968, when the award went to his countryman and benefactor Yasunari Kawabata
was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and ...
. Mishima's works include the novels '' Confessions of a Mask'' and '' The Temple of the Golden Pavilion'', and the autobiographical essay '' Sun and Steel''. Mishima's work is characterized by "its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles, and its obsessive assertions of the unity of beauty, eroticism
Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, scul ...
and death", according to the author Andrew Rankin.
Mishima's political activities made him a controversial figure; he remains so in Japan to the present day. From his mid-30s onwards, Mishima's far-right
Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...
ideology and reactionary
In politics, a reactionary is a person who favors a return to a previous state of society which they believe possessed positive characteristics absent from contemporary.''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'' Third Edition, (1999) p. 729. ...
beliefs became increasingly evident. He extolled the traditional culture and spirit of Japan, and opposed what he saw as Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
-style materialism
Materialism is a form of monism, philosophical monism according to which matter is the fundamental Substance theory, substance in nature, and all things, including mind, mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. Acco ...
, along with , globalism
Globalism has multiple meanings. In political science, it is used to describe "attempts to understand all of the interconnections of the modern world—and to highlight patterns that underlie (and explain) them". While primarily associated wit ...
, and communism
Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
, worrying that by embracing these ideas the Japanese people would lose their "national essence" (''kokutai
is a concept in the Japanese language translatable as "system of government", "sovereignty", "national identity, essence and character", "national polity; body politic; national entity; basis for the Emperor's sovereignty; Japanese constitut ...
'') and distinctive cultural heritage to become a "rootless" people.
In 1968, Mishima formed the Tatenokai ("Shield Society"), a private militia, for the purpose of protecting the dignity of the emperor as a symbol of national identity. On 25 November 1970, Mishima and four members of his militia entered a military base in central Tokyo
The of Tokyo are a special form of Municipalities of Japan, municipalities in Japan under the 1947 Local Autonomy Act, Local Autonomy Law. They are city-level wards: primary subdivisions of a prefecture with municipal autonomy largely comparabl ...
, took its commandant hostage, and unsuccessfully tried to inspire the Japan Self-Defense Forces
The are the military forces of Japan. Established in 1954, the JSDF comprises the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. They are controlled by the Ministry of Defense ...
to rise up and overthrow Article 9 of the 1947 Constitution to restore autonomous national defense and the divinity of the emperor, after which he died by ''seppuku''.
Life and work
Early life
On 14 January 1925, was born in Nagazumi-cho, Yotsuya-ku of Tokyo City
was a Cities of Japan, municipality in Japan and capital of Tokyo Prefecture (1868–1943), Tokyo Prefecture (or ''Tokyo-fu'') which existed from 1 May 1889 until the establishment of Tokyo Metropolis on 1 July 1943. The historical boundari ...
(now part of Yotsuya
is an area in Shinjuku, Tokyo, that previously was a ward (四谷区 ''Yotsuya-ku'') in the now-defunct Tokyo City. In 1947, when the 35 wards of Tokyo were reorganized into 23, it was merged with Ushigome ward of Tokyo City and Yodobashi ...
, Shinjuku-ku
, officially called Shinjuku City, is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) as well ...
, Tokyo). His father was , a government official in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. His mother, , was the daughter of the 5th principal of the Kaisei Academy
Kaisei Academy (, ) is a Private school, private secondary school for boys located in Arakawa, Tokyo.
Overview
Kaisei Academy admits approximately 300 students to its junior high school and 400 to its high school each year. The school's motto ...
. Shizue's father, , was a scholar of the Chinese classics
The Chinese classics or canonical texts are the works of Chinese literature authored prior to the establishment of the imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Prominent examples include the Four Books and Five Classics in the Neo-Confucian traditi ...
, and the Hashi family had served the Maeda clan
The was a Japanese samurai clan who occupied most of the Hokuriku region of central Honshū from the end of the Sengoku period through the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The Maeda claimed descent from the Sugawara clan through Sugawara no Kiyotom ...
for generations in Kaga Domain
The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1583 to 1871.Sadatarō Hiraoka, the third Governor-General of
Mishima was enrolled at the age of six in the elite Gakushūin, the Peers' School in Tokyo, which had been established in the 
Four days after Japan's surrender, Mishima's mentor Zenmei Hasuda, who had been drafted and deployed to the Malay peninsula, shot and killed his superior officer, who blamed Japan's defeat on the Emperor. Hasuda had long suspected the officer to be a Korean spy. After shooting him, Hasuda turned his pistol on himself. Mishima learned of the incident a year later and contributed poetry in Hasuda's honor at a memorial service in November 1946. On 23 October 1945 (Showa 20), Mishima's beloved younger sister Mitsuko died suddenly at the age of 17 from
After Japan's defeat in World War II, the country was occupied by the U.S.-led Allied Powers. At the urging of the occupation authorities, many people who held important posts in various fields were purged from public office. The media and publishing industry were also censored, and were not allowed to engage in forms of expression reminiscent of wartime Japanese nationalism. In addition, literary figures, including many of those who had been close to Mishima before the end of the war, were branded "war criminal literary figures". In response, many prominent literary figures became leftists, joined the Communist Party as a reaction against wartime militarism, and began writing socialist realist literature that might support the cause of socialist revolution. These newly converted leftists held great influence in the Japanese literary world immediately following the end of the war, which Mishima found difficult to accept, and he denounced them as "opportunists" in letters to friends. Although Mishima was just 20 years old at this time, he worried that his type of literature, based on the 1930s , had already become obsolete., collected in
Mishima had heard that the famed writer 
In 1946, Mishima began his first novel, , a story about two young members of the aristocracy drawn towards suicide. It was published in 1948, and placed Mishima in the ranks of the Second Generation of Postwar Writers. The following year, he published '' Confessions of a Mask'', a semi-autobiographical account of a young homosexual man who hides behind a mask to fit into society. The novel was extremely successful and made Mishima a celebrity at the age of 24. In 1947, a brief encounter with 
Mishima made use of contemporary events in many of his works. '' The Temple of the Golden Pavilion'', published in 1956, is a fictionalization of the burning down of the
Mishima was also an actor, and starred in Yasuzo Masumura's 1960 film, '' Afraid to Die'', for which he also sang the theme song (lyrics by himself; music by Shichirō Fukazawa). He performed in films like '' Patriotism or the Rite of Love and Death'' directed by himself, 1966, '' Black Lizard'' directed by
In 1955, Mishima took up
Mishima has been recognized as one of the world's most important literary persons of the 20th century. Mishima wrote 34 novels, approximately 50 plays and 25 books of 
The annual Mishima Prize was established in 1998 by the literary publisher Shinchōsha to recognise groundbreaking Japanese literature. On 3 July 1999, the opened in Yamanakako,
三島由紀夫文学館 The Mishima Yukio Literary Museum website
In Japanese only, with the exception of one page (see "English Guide" at top right)
山中湖文学の森公園「三島由紀夫文学館」Yamanakako Forest Park of Literature "Mishima Yukio Literary Museum"
* *
a ceremony commemorating his 70th birthday * , from a 1980s BBC documentary (9:02) * , from Canadian Television (3:59) * – Full NHK Interview in 1966 (9:21)
Yukio Mishima's attempt at personal branding comes to light in the rediscovered 'Star'
Nicolas Gattig, ''The Japan Times'' (27 April 2019) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mishima, Yukio 1925 births 1970 suicides 1970 deaths 1970s coups d'état and coup attempts 20th-century Japanese essayists 20th-century Japanese dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Japanese male actors 20th-century Japanese novelists 20th-century Japanese short story writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers Attempted coups in Japan Japanese bisexual men Bisexual male writers Bisexual male models Bisexual dramatists and playwrights Bisexual novelists Conservatism in Japan Controversies in Japan Deaths by decapitation Far-right politics in Japan Imperial Japanese Army personnel of World War II Imperial Japanese Army soldiers Japanese activists Japanese anti-communists Japanese male bodybuilders Japanese film directors Japanese government officials Japanese kendoka Japanese male karateka Japanese male models Japanese male short story writers Japanese nationalists 20th-century Japanese poets Japanese psychological fiction writers Kabuki playwrights LGBTQ film directors Japanese LGBTQ novelists Japanese LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights Japanese LGBTQ models LGBTQ people who died by suicide Male actors from Tokyo Noh playwrights Pantheists People from Shinjuku People of the Shōwa era People from the Empire of Japan Seppuku from Meiji era to present University of Tokyo alumni Yomiuri Prize winners Writers from Tokyo Kokkashugi Burials at Tama Cemetery Activists from Tokyo Japanese Shintoists
Karafuto Prefecture
, was established by the Empire of Japan in 1907 to govern the southern part of Sakhalin. This territory became part of the Empire of Japan in 1905 after the Russo-Japanese War, when the portion of Sakhalin south of 50°N was ceded by the R ...
, and . Mishima received his birth name Kimitake (公威, also read ''Kōi'' in on-yomi) in honor of Furuichi Kōi who was a benefactor of Sadatarō. He had a younger sister, , who died of typhus in 1945 at the age of 17, and a younger brother, .
Mishima's childhood home was a rented house, though a fairly large two-floor house that was the largest in the neighborhood. He lived with his parents, siblings and paternal grandparents, as well as six maids, a houseboy, and a manservant.
Mishima's early childhood was dominated by the presence of his grandmother, Natsuko, who took the boy and separated him from his immediate family for several years. She was the granddaughter of Matsudaira Yoritaka, the ''daimyō
were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...
'' of Shishido, which was a branch domain of Mito Domain
was a Japanese domain of the Edo period. It was associated with Hitachi Province in modern-day Ibaraki Prefecture.Hitachi Province
was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan in the area of Ibaraki Prefecture.Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Hitachi fudoki''" in . It was sometimes called . Hitachi Province bordered on Shimōsa Province, S ...
; therefore, Mishima was a descendant of the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868.
The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...
, Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...
, through his grandmother. Natsuko's father, , had been a Supreme Court
In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
justice, and Iwanojō's adoptive father, Nagai Naoyuki, had been a bannerman of the Tokugawa House during the Bakumatsu
were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate Meiji Restoration, ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a Feudali ...
. Natsuko had been raised in the household of Prince Arisugawa Taruhito
was a Japanese career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army, who became the 9th head of the line of '' shinnōke'' cadet branches of the Imperial Family of Japan on September 9, 1871.
Early life
Prince Arisugawa Taruhito was born in Kyoto in ...
, and she maintained considerable aristocratic pretensions even after marrying Sadatarō, a bureaucrat who had made his fortune in the newly opened colonial frontier in the north, and who eventually became Governor-General of Karafuto Prefecture on Sakhalin Island
Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, p=səxɐˈlʲin) is an island in Northeast Asia. Its north coast lies off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, while its southern tip lies north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. An islan ...
. Sadatarō's father, , and grandfather, , had been farmers. Natsuko was prone to violent outbursts, occasionally alluded to in Mishima's works, to which some biographers have traced Mishima's fascination with death. She did not allow Mishima to venture into the sunlight, engage in any kind of sport, or play with other boys. He spent much of his time either alone or with female cousins and their dolls., collected in
Mishima's father, Azusa, had a taste for military discipline, and worried Natsuko's style of childrearing was too soft. When Mishima was returned to his immediate family at the age of 12, Azusa employed extreme parenting tactics, such as holding young Mishima up close to the side of a speeding steam locomotive. He also raided his son's room for evidence of an "effeminate" interest in literature, and often ripped his son's manuscripts apart. Although Azusa forbade him from writing any further stories, Mishima continued to write in secret, supported and protected by his mother, who was always the first to read a new story.
When Mishima was 13, Natsuko took him to see his first Kabuki
is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...
play: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers, an allegory of the story of the 47 Rōnin. He was later taken to his first Noh play ('' Miwa'', a story featuring Amano-Iwato) by his maternal grandmother . From these early experiences, Mishima became addicted to Kabuki
is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...
and Noh. He began attending performances every month and grew deeply interested in these traditional Japanese dramatic art forms., collected in
Schooling and early works
Mishima was enrolled at the age of six in the elite Gakushūin, the Peers' School in Tokyo, which had been established in the Meiji period
The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
to educate the Imperial family and the descendants of the old feudal nobility. Mishima began to write his first stories aged 12, taking inspiration from myth
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
s (Kojiki
The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...
, Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
, etc.) and the works of numerous classic Japanese authors, as well as Raymond Radiguet
Raymond Radiguet (; 18 June 1903 – 12 December 1923) was a French novelist and poet whose two novels were noted for their explicit themes, and unique style and tone.
Early life
Radiguet was born in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, Saint-Maur, Val-de-M ...
, Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...
, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...
, Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...
, Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
, Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...
, Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...
, l'Isle-Adam, and other European authors. He also studied German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
. After six years as a pupil, he became the youngest member of the editorial board of its literary society. Mishima was particularly drawn to the works of Japanese poet , Haruo Satō, and Michizō Tachihara, who inspired Mishima's appreciation of classical Japanese '' waka'' poetry. Mishima's early contributions to the Gakushūin literary magazine included ''haiku
is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...
'' and ''waka'' poetry before he turned his attention to prose.
In 1941, at the age of 16, Mishima was invited to write a short story for the ''Hojinkai-zasshi'', where he submitted , a story in which the narrator describes the feeling that his ancestors somehow still live on within him. The story displays several metaphors and aphorisms that would become Mishima's hallmarks. He also sent a copy of the manuscript to his teacher , who was so impressed that he and his fellow editorial board members decided to publish it in their literary magazine .
In order to protect him from potential backlash from Azusa, Shimizu and the other editorial board members coined the pen-name Yukio Mishima. collected in They took "Mishima" from Mishima Station, which Shimizu and his fellow ''Bungei Bunka'' board member Hasuda Zenmei passed through on their way to the editorial meeting, which was held in Izu, Shizuoka
is a Cities of Japan, city located in central Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 30,678 in 13,390 households, and a population density of 84 persons per km2. The total area of the city was .
...
. The name "Yukio" came from ''yuki'' ( 雪), the Japanese word for "snow", because of the snow they saw on Mount Fuji
is an active stratovolcano located on the Japanese island of Honshu, with a summit elevation of . It is the highest mountain in Japan, the second-highest volcano on any Asian island (after Mount Kerinci on the Indonesian island of Sumatra), a ...
as the train passed. The story was later published as a limited book edition (4,000 copies) in 1944 due to a wartime paper shortage. Mishima had it published as a keepsake to remember him by, as he assumed that he would die in the war.
In the editorial notes of ''Bungei Bunka'' magazine in 1941, when this debut work was serialized, Hasuda praised Mishima's genius: "This youthful author is a heaven-sent child of eternal Japanese history. He is much younger than we are, but has arrived on the scene already quite mature." collected in Hasuda, who became something of a mentor to Mishima, was an ardent nationalist and a fan of Motoori Norinaga
was a Japanese people, Japanese scholar of active during the Edo period. He is conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku (nativist) studies.
Life
Norinaga was born in what is now Matsusaka, Mie, Matsusaka in Ise Province ...
(1730–1801), a scholar of ''kokugaku
was an academic movement, a school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Edo period. scholars worked to refocus Japanese scholarship away from the then-dominant study of Chinese, Confucian, and Buddhist texts in favor of ...
'' from the Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
who preached Japanese traditional values and devotion to the emperor. Hasuda had previously fought for the Imperial Japanese Army in China in 1938, and in 1943 he was recalled to active service for deployment as a first lieutenant in the Southeast Asian theater. At a farewell party thrown for Hasuda by the ''Bungei Bunka'' group, Hasuda offered the following parting words to Mishima: "I have entrusted the future of Japan to you." According to Mishima, these words were deeply meaningful to him, and had a profound effect on the future course of his life.
Later in 1941, Mishima wrote an essay about his deep devotion to Shintō
, also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes ...
, titled . Mishima's story , published in 1946, describes a homosexual love he felt at school and being teased from members of the school's rugby union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
club because he belonged to the literary society. Another story from 1954, , was similarly based on Mishima's memories of his time at Gakushūin Junior High School.
On 9 September 1944, Mishima graduated Gakushūin High School at the top of the class, becoming a graduate representative., collected in Emperor Hirohito
, Posthumous name, posthumously honored as , was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, from 25 December 1926 until Death and state funeral of Hirohito, his death in 1989. He remains Japan's longest-reigni ...
was present at the graduation ceremony, with Mishima later receiving a silver watch from him at the Imperial Household Ministry.
On 27 April 1944, during the final years of World War II, Mishima received a draft
Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to:
Watercraft dimensions
* Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel
* Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail
* Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...
notice for the Imperial Japanese Army
The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...
, barely passing his conscription examination on 16 May 1944 with a less desirable rating of "second class" conscript. Scholars have argued that Mishima's failure to receive a "first class" rating on his conscription examination (reserved only for the most physically fit recruits), in combination with the illness which led him to be erroneously declared unfit for duty, contributed to an inferiority complex over his frail constitution that later led to his obsession with physical fitness and bodybuilding.
Mishima had a cold during his medical check on convocation day (10 February 1945), which the army doctor misdiagnosed as tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
; Mishima was consequently declared unfit for service and sent home. collected in Mishima would later hint in his quasi-autobiographical novel '' Confessions of a Mask'' (1949) that he might have lied to the doctor in order to secure the misdiagnosis. Mishima wrote:
Why had I looked so frank as I lied to the army doctor? Why had I said that I'd been having a slight fever for over half a year, that my shoulder was painfully stiff, that I spit blood, that even last night I had been soaked by a night sweat?...Why when sentenced to return home the same day had I felt the pressure of a smile come pushing so persistently at my lips that I had difficulty in concealing it? Why had I run so when I was through the barracks gate? Hadn't my hopes been blasted? What was the matter that I hadn't hung my head and trudged away with heavy feet? I realized vividly that my future life would never attain heights of glory sufficient to justify my having escaped death in the army...The veracity of this account is impossible to know for certain, but what is unquestionable is that Mishima did not speak out against the doctor's diagnosis of tuberculosis. Researchers have speculated that Mishima's guilt at allowing himself to escape death in the war left a lasting impression on his life and writing, possibly contributing to his later suicide. The day before his failed medical examination, Mishima had written a farewell message to his family, ending with the words , including hair and nail clippings as mementos for his parents.photograph of the will in The unit that Mishima would have enlisted in was eventually sent to the
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
, with few survivors. Mishima's parents were ecstatic that he did not have to go to war, but Mishima's mood was harder to read, and Mishima's mother overheard him express a wish that he could have joined a " Special Attack" unit. He also expressed an admiration for kamikaze pilots and other "special attack" units. In a 21 April 1945 letter to a friend, Mishima wrote:
It was through the kamikazes that "modern man" has finally been able to grasp the dawning of the "present day", or perhaps better said, "our historical era" in a true sense, and for the first time the intellectual class, which until now had been the illegitimate child of modernity, became the legitimate heir of history. I believe that all of this is thanks to the kamikazes. This is the reason why the entire cultural class of Japan, and all people of culture around the world, should kneel before the kamikazes and offer up prayers of gratitude.Mishima's letter to Makoto Mitani (April 21, 1945)Mishima was deeply affected by Emperor Hirohito's radio broadcast announcing Japan's surrender on 15 August 1945, vowing to protect Japanese cultural traditions and to help to rebuild Japanese culture after the destruction of the war.Mishima's letters to his friends (Makoto Mitani, Akira Kanzaki) and teacher Fumio Shimizu in August 1945, collected in He wrote in his diary, "Only by preserving Japanese irrationality will we be able contribute to world culture 100 years from now."
Four days after Japan's surrender, Mishima's mentor Zenmei Hasuda, who had been drafted and deployed to the Malay peninsula, shot and killed his superior officer, who blamed Japan's defeat on the Emperor. Hasuda had long suspected the officer to be a Korean spy. After shooting him, Hasuda turned his pistol on himself. Mishima learned of the incident a year later and contributed poetry in Hasuda's honor at a memorial service in November 1946. On 23 October 1945 (Showa 20), Mishima's beloved younger sister Mitsuko died suddenly at the age of 17 from typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often th ...
after drinking untreated water. Around the same time, he also learned that , a classmate's sister whom he had hoped to marry, was engaged to another man. Mishima used these events as inspiration and motivation for his later literary work., collected in
At the end of the war, his father Azusa "half-allowed" Mishima to become a novelist. He was worried that his son would become a professional novelist, preferring instead that his son follow in the footsteps of himself and Mishima's grandfather Sadatarō and become a bureaucrat. To this end, he advised his son to enroll in the Faculty of Law instead of the literature department. Attending lectures during the day and writing at night, Mishima graduated from the University of Tokyo
The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...
in 1947. He obtained a position in the Ministry of the Treasury and was set for a promising career as a government bureaucrat. However, after just one year of employment, Mishima had exhausted himself so much that his father agreed to allow him to resign from his post and devote himself to writing full time.
In 1945, Mishima began the short story and continued to work on it throughout World War II. After the war, the story was praised by poet , whom Mishima respected.
Post-war literature
After Japan's defeat in World War II, the country was occupied by the U.S.-led Allied Powers. At the urging of the occupation authorities, many people who held important posts in various fields were purged from public office. The media and publishing industry were also censored, and were not allowed to engage in forms of expression reminiscent of wartime Japanese nationalism. In addition, literary figures, including many of those who had been close to Mishima before the end of the war, were branded "war criminal literary figures". In response, many prominent literary figures became leftists, joined the Communist Party as a reaction against wartime militarism, and began writing socialist realist literature that might support the cause of socialist revolution. These newly converted leftists held great influence in the Japanese literary world immediately following the end of the war, which Mishima found difficult to accept, and he denounced them as "opportunists" in letters to friends. Although Mishima was just 20 years old at this time, he worried that his type of literature, based on the 1930s , had already become obsolete., collected in
Mishima had heard that the famed writer Yasunari Kawabata
was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and ...
had praised his work before the end of the war. Uncertain of who else to turn to, Mishima took the manuscripts for and with him, visited Kawabata in Kamakura
, officially , is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km2 over the tota ...
, and asked for his advice and assistance in January 1946. Kawabata was impressed, and in June 1946, following Kawabata's recommendation, ''The Cigarette'' was published in the new literary magazine , followed by ''The Middle Ages'' in December 1946. ''The Middle Ages'' is set in Japan's historical Muromachi Period
The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...
and explores the motif of '' shudō'' (man-boy love) against a backdrop of the death of the ninth Ashikaga shogun Ashikaga Yoshihisa
was the 9th ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1473 to 1489 during the Muromachi period of Japan.Ackroyd, Joyce. (1982) ''Lessons from History: The Tokushi Yoron'', p. 331. Yoshihisa was the son of the eighth ''shōgun'' Ash ...
in battle at the age of 25, and his father Ashikaga Yoshimasa
"Ashikaga Yoshimasa" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 625. was the eighth ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1449 to 1473 du ...
's resultant sadness. The story features the fictional character Kikuwaka, a beautiful teenage boy who was beloved by both Yoshihisa and Yoshimasa, who fails in an attempt to follow Yoshihisa in death by committing suicide. Thereafter, Kikuwaka devotes himself to spiritualism in an attempt to heal Yoshimasa's sadness by allowing Yoshihisa's ghost to possess his body, and eventually dies in a double-suicide with a ''miko
A , or shrine maiden,Groemer, 28. is a young priestess who works at a Shinto shrine. were once likely seen as Shamanism, shamans,Picken, 140. but are understood in modern Japanese culture to be an institutionalized role in daily life, trained ...
'' (shrine maiden) who falls in love with him. Mishima wrote the story in an elegant style drawing upon medieval Japanese literature
Japan's medieval period (the Kamakura period, Kamakura, Nanbokuchō period, Nanbokuchō and Muromachi period, Muromachi periods, and sometimes the Azuchi–Momoyama period) was a transitional period for the nation's literature. Kyoto ceased being ...
and the '' Ryōjin Hishō'', a collection of medieval '' imayō'' songs. This elevated writing style and the homosexual motif suggest the germ of Mishima's later aesthetics. Later in 1948 Kawabata, who praised this work, published an autobiographical work describing his experience of falling in love for the first time with a boy two years his junior.
In 1946, Mishima began his first novel, , a story about two young members of the aristocracy drawn towards suicide. It was published in 1948, and placed Mishima in the ranks of the Second Generation of Postwar Writers. The following year, he published '' Confessions of a Mask'', a semi-autobiographical account of a young homosexual man who hides behind a mask to fit into society. The novel was extremely successful and made Mishima a celebrity at the age of 24. In 1947, a brief encounter with Osamu Dazai
, known by his pen name , was a Japanese novelist and author. A number of his most popular works, such as ''The Setting Sun'' (斜陽, ''Shayō'') and '' No Longer Human'' (人間失格, ''Ningen Shikkaku''), are considered modern classics.
Hi ...
, a popular novelist known for his suicidal themes, left a lasting impression on him. Around 1949, Mishima also published a literary essay about Kawabata, for whom he had always held a deep appreciation, in .
Mishima enjoyed international travel. In 1952, he took a world tour and published his travelogue as . He visited Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
during his travels, a place which had fascinated him since childhood. His visit to Greece became the basis for his 1954 novel '' The Sound of Waves'', which drew inspiration from the Greek legend of Daphnis and Chloe
''Daphnis and Chloe'' (, ''Daphnis kai Chloē'') is a Greek pastoral novel written during the Roman Empire, the only known work of second-century Hellenistic romance writer Longus.
Setting and style
It is set on the Greek isle of Lesbos, whe ...
.'' The Sound of Waves'', set on the small island of " Kami-shima" where a traditional Japanese lifestyle continued to be practiced, depicts a pure, simple love between a fisherman and a female pearl and abalone diver. Although the novel became a best-seller, leftists criticized it for "glorifying old-fashioned Japanese values", and some people began calling Mishima a "fascist". Looking back on these attacks in later years, Mishima wrote, "The ancient community ethics portrayed in this novel were attacked by progressives at the time, but no matter how much the Japanese people changed, these ancient ethics lurk in the bottom of their hearts. We have gradually seen this proven to be the case."
Mishima made use of contemporary events in many of his works. '' The Temple of the Golden Pavilion'', published in 1956, is a fictionalization of the burning down of the Kinkaku-ji
, officially named , is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan and a tourist attraction. It is designated as a World Heritage Site, a National Special Historic Site, a National Special Landscape, and one of the 17 Historic Monuments of Ancient K ...
Buddhist temple in Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
in 1950 by a mentally disturbed monk.
In 1959, Mishima published the artistically ambitious novel '' Kyōko no Ie''. The novel tells the interconnected stories of four young men who represented four different facets of Mishima's personality. His athletic side appears as a boxer, his artistic side as a painter, his narcissistic, theatrical side as an actor, and his secretive, nihilistic side as a businessman who goes through the motions of living a normal life while practicing "absolute contempt for reality". According to Mishima, he was attempting to describe the time around 1955 in the novel, when Japan was entering into its era of high economic growth and the phrase "The postwar is over" was prevalent. Mishima explained, "''Kyōko no Ie'' is, so to speak, my research into the nihilism within me." Although the novel was well received by a small number of critics from the same generation as Mishima and sold 150,000 copies in a month, it was widely panned in broader literary circles, and was rapidly branded as Mishima's first "failed work". It was Mishima's first major setback as an author, and the book's disastrous reception came as a harsh psychological blow. collected in (dialogue with Nagisa Ōshima
was a Japanese filmmaker, writer, and left-wing activist who is best known for his fiction films, of which he directed 23 features in a career spanning from 1959 to 1999. He is regarded as one of the greatest Japanese directors of all time, and ...
)
Until 1960, Mishima had not written works that were seen as especially political. In the summer of 1960, Mishima became interested in the massive Anpo protests against an attempt by U.S.-backed Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi
was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan, prime minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960. He is remembered for his exploitative economic management of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in China in the 1930s, ...
to revise the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan
The more commonly known as the U.S.–Japan Security Treaty in English and as the ''Anpo jōyaku'' or just ''Anpo'' in Japanese, is a treaty that permits the presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil, and commits the two nations to defen ...
(known as "Anpo
The more commonly known as the U.S.–Japan Security Treaty in English and as the ''Anpo jōyaku'' or just ''Anpo'' in Japanese, is a treaty that permits the presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil, and commits the two nations to defen ...
" in Japanese) in order to cement the U.S.–Japan military alliance into place. Although he did not directly participate in the protests, he often went out in the streets to observe the protestors in action and kept extensive newspaper clippings covering the protests. In June 1960, at the climax of the protest movement, Mishima wrote a commentary in the '' Mainichi Shinbun'' newspaper, entitled "A Political Opinion". In the critical essay, he argued that leftist groups such as the Zengakuren student federation, the Socialist Party
Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...
, and the Communist Party were falsely wrapping themselves in the banner of "defending democracy" and using the protest movement to further their own ends. collected in Mishima warned against the dangers of the Japanese people following ideologues who told lies with honeyed words. Although Mishima criticized Kishi as a "nihilist" who had subordinated himself to the United States, Mishima concluded that he would rather vote for a strong-willed realist "with neither dreams nor despair" than a mendacious but eloquent ideologue.
Shortly after the Anpo Protests ended, Mishima began writing one of his most famous short stories, ''Patriotism
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to one's country or state. This attachment can be a combination of different feelings for things such as the language of one's homeland, and its ethnic, cultural, politic ...
'', glorifying the actions of a young right-wing ultranationalist Japanese army officer who commits suicide after a failed revolt against the government during the February 26 incident. The following year, he published the first two parts of his three-part play , which celebrates the actions of the 26 February revolutionaries.
Mishima's newfound interest in contemporary politics shaped his novel '' After the Banquet'', also published in 1960, which so closely followed the events surrounding politician Hachirō Arita
was a Japanese politician and diplomat who served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs for three terms. He coined the term Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which provided an official agenda for Imperial Japan's expansionism.
After the wa ...
's campaign to become governor of Tokyo that Mishima was sued for invasion of privacy
The right to privacy is an element of various legal traditions that intends to restrain governmental and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals. Over 185 national constitutions mention the right to privacy.
Since the global ...
. The next year, Mishima published ''The Frolic of the Beasts
is a 1961 novel by Yukio Mishima. It is considered a minor work from Mishima's middle period. Drawing inspiration from Noh, Noh plays, specifically the 14th-century ''Motomezuka'', the novel centers on a tragic love triangle depraved by adulter ...
'', a parody of the classical Noh play ''Motomezuka
''Motomezuka'' () is a Noh play of the fourth category, written by Kan'ami and revised by Zeami. The name is either a corruption of, or a pun on, ''Otomezuka'' ("The Maiden's Grave"), the original story from episode 147 of '' Yamato Monogatari ...
'', written in the 14th-century by playwright Kiyotsugu Kan'ami. In 1962, Mishima produced his most artistically avant-garde
In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
work '' Beautiful Star'', which at times comes close to science fiction. Although the novel received mixed reviews from the literary world, prominent critic singled it out for praise as part of a new breed of novels that was overthrowing longstanding literary conventions in the tumultuous aftermath of the Anpo Protests. Alongside Kōbō Abe
, known by his pen name , was a Japanese writer, playwright and director. His 1962 novel ''The Woman in the Dunes'' was made into an Woman in the Dunes, award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. Abe has often been compared to Franz Kaf ...
's '' Woman of the Dunes'', published that same year, Okuno considered ''A Beautiful Star'' an "epoch-making work" which broke free of literary taboos and preexisting notions of what literature should be in order to explore the author's personal creativity.
In 1965, Mishima wrote the play '' Madame de Sade'' that explores the complex figure of the Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade ( ; ; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French writer, libertine, political activist and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy and pornography ...
, traditionally upheld as an exemplar of vice, through a series of debates between six female characters, including the Marquis' wife, the Madame de Sade. At the end of the play, Mishima offers his own interpretation of what he considered to be one of the central mysteries of the de Sade story—the Madame de Sade's unstinting support for her husband while he was in prison and her sudden decision to renounce him upon his release. Mishima's play was inspired in part by his friend Tatsuhiko Shibusawa's 1960 Japanese translation of the Marquis de Sade's novel ''Juliette
Juliette is a feminine personal name of French language, French origin. It is a diminutive of Julie (given name), Julie.
People
* Juliette Adam (1836–1936), née Lamber, French author and feminist
* Juliette Atkinson (1873–1944), American ten ...
'' and a 1964 biography Shibusawa wrote of de Sade. Shibusawa's sexually explicit translation became the focus of a sensational obscenity trial remembered in Japan as the , which was ongoing as Mishima wrote the play. In 1994, ''Madame de Sade'' was evaluated as the "greatest drama in the history of postwar theater" by Japanese theater criticism magazine .
Mishima was considered for the Nobel Prize for Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in t ...
in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967 and 1968 (he and Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...
are both the youngest nominees in history), and was a favorite of many foreign publications. However, in 1968 his early mentor Kawabata won the Nobel Prize and Mishima realized that the chances of it being given to another Japanese author in the near future were slim. In a work published in 1970, Mishima wrote that the writers he paid most attention to in modern western literature were Georges Bataille
Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 8 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...
, Pierre Klossowski
Pierre Klossowski (; ; 9 August 1905 – 12 August 2001) was a French writer, translator and artist. He was the eldest son of the artists Erich Klossowski and Baladine Klossowska, and his younger brother was the painter Balthus.
Life
Born in ...
, and Witold Gombrowicz
Witold Marian Gombrowicz (August 4, 1904 – July 24, 1969) was a Polish writer and playwright. His works are characterised by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and absurd, anti-nationalism, anti-nationalist flavor. In 1937, ...
.
Acting and modelling
Mishima was also an actor, and starred in Yasuzo Masumura's 1960 film, '' Afraid to Die'', for which he also sang the theme song (lyrics by himself; music by Shichirō Fukazawa). He performed in films like '' Patriotism or the Rite of Love and Death'' directed by himself, 1966, '' Black Lizard'' directed by Kinji Fukasaku
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Known for his "broad range and innovative filmmaking", Fukasaku worked in many different genres and styles, but was best known for his gritty Yakuza film, yakuza films, typified by the Battles With ...
, 1968 and '' Hitokiri'' directed by Hideo Gosha
was a Japanese director and screenwriter. He was the first Japanese director to make the transition from television to theatrical films, and is best known for his ''jidaigeki'' and yakuza films. Beginning with '' Three Outlaw Samurai'' in 196 ...
, 1969. Maki Isaka has discussed how his knowledge of performance and theatrical forms influenced short stories including .
Mishima was featured as the photo model in the photographer Eikoh Hosoe
was a Japanese photographer and filmmaker who emerged in the experimental arts movement of post-World War II Japan. Hosoe is best known for his dark, high contrast, black and white photographs of human bodies. His images are often psychologicall ...
's book , as well as in Tamotsu Yatō's photobooks and . The American author Donald Richie
Donald Richie (April 17, 1924 – February 19, 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also ...
gave an eyewitness account of seeing Mishima, dressed in a loincloth and armed with a sword, posing in the snow for one of Tamotsu Yatō's photoshoots.
In the men's magazine '' Heibon Punch'', to which Mishima had contributed various essays and criticisms, he won first place in the "Mr. Dandy" reader popularity poll in 1967 with 19,590 votes, beating second place Toshiro Mifune
was a Japanese actor and producer. The recipient of numerous awards and accolades over a lengthy career, he is widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time. He often played hypermasculine characters and was noted for his commandin ...
by 720 votes.
In the next reader popularity poll, "Mr. International", Mishima ranked second behind French President Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...
. At that time in the late 1960s, Mishima was the first celebrity to be described as a "superstar" (''sūpāsutā'') by the Japanese media.
Private life
In 1955, Mishima took up weight training
Strength training, also known as weight training or resistance training, is exercise designed to improve physical strength. It is often associated with the lifting of weights. It can also incorporate techniques such as bodyweight exercises ( ...
to overcome his weak constitution, and his strictly observed workout regimen of three sessions per week was not disrupted for the final 15 years of his life. In his 1968 essay '' Sun and Steel'', Mishima deplored the emphasis given by intellectuals to the mind over the body. He later became very skilled ( 5th Dan) at kendo
is a modern Japanese martial art, descended from kenjutsu (one of the old Japanese martial arts, swordsmanship), that uses bamboo swords ( shinai) as well as protective armor ( bōgu). It began as samurai warriors' customary swordsmanship ex ...
(traditional Japanese swordsmanship), and became 2nd Dan in battōjutsu, and 1st Dan in karate
(; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...
. In 1956, he tried boxing
Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...
for a short period of time. In the same year, he developed an interest in UFOs and became a member of the . In 1954, he fell in love with , who became the model for main characters in and . Mishima hoped to marry her, but they broke up in 1957.
After briefly considering marriage with Michiko Shōda
is a member of the Imperial House of Japan. She was Empress of Japan as the wife of Akihito, the 125th Emperor of Japan reigning from 7 January 1989 to 30 April 2019.
Michiko married Crown Prince Akihito and became Crown Princess of Japan i ...
, who later married Crown Prince Akihito and became Empress Michiko, Mishima married , the daughter of the Japanese-style painter Yasushi Sugiyama, on 1 June 1958. The couple had two children: a daughter named (born 2 June 1959) and a son named (born 2 May 1962). Noriko eventually married the diplomat Koji Tomita.
While working on his novel '' Forbidden Colors'', Mishima visited gay bars in Japan. Mishima's sexual orientation was an issue that bothered his wife, and she always denied his homosexuality after his death. In 1998, the writer published an account of his relationship with Mishima in 1951, including fifteen letters (not love letters) from Mishima. Mishima's children successfully sued Fukushima and the publisher for copyright violation over the use of Mishima's letters. The publisher ''Bungeishunjū
is a Japanese publishing company known for its leading monthly magazine '' Bungeishunjū''. The company was founded by Kan Kikuchi in 1923. It grants the annual Akutagawa Prize, one of the most prestigious literary awards in Japan, as well a ...
'' had argued that the contents of the letters were "practical correspondence" rather than copyrighted works. However, the ruling for the plaintiffs declared, "In addition to clerical content, these letters describe the Mishima's own feelings, his aspirations, and his views on life, in different words from those in his literary works."
In February 1961, Mishima became embroiled in the aftermath of the Shimanaka incident. In 1960, the author Shichirō Fukazawa had published the satirical short story in the mainstream magazine '' Chūō Kōron''. It contained a dream sequence (in which the Emperor and Empress are beheaded by a guillotine) that led to outrage from right-wing ultra-nationalist groups, and numerous death threats against Fukazawa, any writers believed to have been associated with him, and ''Chūō Kōron'' magazine itself. On 1 February 1961, Kazutaka Komori, a seventeen-year-old rightist, broke into the home of Hōji Shimanaka, the president of ''Chūō Kōron'', killed his maid with a knife and severely wounded his wife. In the aftermath, Fukazawa went into hiding, and dozens of writers and literary critics, including Mishima, were provided with round-the-clock police protection for several months; Mishima was included because a rumor that Mishima had personally recommended ''The Tale of an Elegant Dream'' for publication became widespread, and even though he repeatedly denied the claim, he received hundreds of death threats. In later years, Mishima harshly criticized Komori, arguing that those who harm women and children are neither patriots nor traditional right-wingers, and that an assassination attempt should be a one-on-one confrontation with the victim at the risk of the assassin's life. collected in Mishima also argued that it was the custom of traditional Japanese patriots (such as Otoya Yamaguchi
was a Japanese right-wing Ultranationalism (Japan), ultranationalist youth who assassinated Inejirō Asanuma, chairman of the Japan Socialist Party, on 12 October 1960. Yamaguchi rushed the stage and stabbed Asanuma with a wakizashi-like shor ...
) to immediately commit suicide after committing an assassination.
In 1963, occurred within the theatrical troupe Bungakuza
is a Japanese theatre company. Along with the Mingei Theatre Company and the Haiyuza Theatre Company it is considered one of the "Big Three" among Shingeki theatre troupes.
History
The company was founded by Kunio Kishida, Mantarō Kubota ...
, to which Mishima belonged. He wrote a play titled , but star actress Haruko Sugimura and other Communist Party-affiliated actors refused to perform because the protagonist held anti-communist
Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...
views and mentioned criticism about a conspiracy of world communism
World communism, also known as global communism or international communism, is a form of communism placing emphasis on an international scope rather than being individual communist states. The long-term goal of world communism is an unlimited ...
in his lines. As a result of this ideological conflict, Mishima quit Bungakuza and later formed the troupe with playwrights and actors who had quit Bungakuza along with him, including , , and Nobuo Nakamura. When Neo Littérature Théâtre experienced a schism in 1968, Mishima formed another troupe, the , and worked with Matsuura and Nakamura again.
During the 1964 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subseq ...
in Tokyo, Mishima interviewed various athletes every day and wrote articles as a newspaper correspondent. He had eagerly anticipated the long-awaited return of the Olympics to Japan after the 1940 Tokyo Olympics were cancelled due to Japan's war in China. Mishima expressed his excitement in his report on the opening ceremonies: "It can be said that ever since Lafcadio Hearn
was a Greek-born Irish and Japanese writer, translator, and teacher who introduced the culture and literature of Japan to the Western world. His writings offered unprecedented insight into Japanese culture, especially his collections of legend ...
called the Japanese "the Greeks of the Orient", the Olympics were destined to be hosted by Japan someday."
Mishima hated Ryokichi Minobe, who was a socialist and the governor of Tokyo beginning in 1967. Influential persons in the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), including Takeo Fukuda
was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1976 to 1978.
Born in Gunma Prefecture and educated at Tokyo Imperial University, Fukuda served as an official in the Ministry of Finance for two decades before entering pol ...
and Kiichi Aichi, had been Mishima's superiors during his time at the Ministry of the Treasury, and Prime Minister Eisaku Satō came to know Mishima because his wife, Hiroko, was a fan of Mishima's work. Based on these connections LDP officials solicited Mishima to run for the LDP as governor of Tokyo against Minobe, but Mishima had no intention of becoming a politician.
Mishima was fond of manga
are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
and gekiga
is a style of Japanese comics aimed at adult audiences and marked by a more cinematic art style and more mature themes. ''Gekiga'' was the predominant style of adult comics in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. It is aesthetically defined by sharp ...
, especially the drawing style of Hiroshi Hirata
was a Japanese manga artist best known in the United States for the samurai manga series ''Satsuma Gishiden'', which is published in the United States by Dark Horse Comics. Hirata's works belong to the subset of manga known as "gekiga" ("dramatic ...
, a mangaka
A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga.
Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the industry as a pr ...
best known for his samurai gekiga; the slapstick, absurdist comedy in Fujio Akatsuka
was a Japanese manga artist. Known as the Master of Gag Manga, he created many popular manga such as ''Osomatsu-kun'', ''Himitsu no Akko-chan'', and ''Tensai Bakabon''.
Biography
He was born in Rehe Province, Rehe, Manchuria, the son of a Ke ...
's ''Mōretsu Atarō
is a Japanese comedy manga series written by Fujio Akatsuka. It was serialized from 1967 to 1970 in ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday''. Two anime television adaptations were produced by Toei Doga (now known as Toei Animation), and aired by TV Asahi ...
''; and the imaginativeness of Shigeru Mizuki's ''GeGeGe no Kitarō
, originally known as , is a Japanese manga series created in 1960 by Shigeru Mizuki. It is best known for its popularization of the folklore creatures known as , a class of spirit-monster which all of the main characters belong t ...
''. collected in collected in Mishima especially loved reading the boxing manga '' Ashita no Joe'' in ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine
is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga magazine published on Wednesdays in Japan by Kodansha, first published on March 17, 1959. The magazine is mainly read by an older audience, with a significant portion of its readership falling under the male high ...
'' every week. ''Ultraman
The , also known as ''Ultraman'', is a Japanese science fiction media franchise owned and produced by Tsuburaya Productions, which began with the television series '' Ultra Q'' in 1966. The franchise has expanded into many television shows, fi ...
'' and ''Godzilla
is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', that debuted in the eponymous 1954 film, directed and co-written by Ishirō Honda. The character has since become an international pop culture icon, appearing in various media: 33 Japanese films p ...
'' were his favorite kaiju
is a Japanese term that is commonly associated with media involving giant monsters. Its widespread contemporary use is credited to ''tokusatsu'' (special effects) director Eiji Tsuburaya and filmmaker Ishirō Honda, who popularized the ''kaiju'' ...
fantasies, and he once compared himself to "Godzilla's egg" in 1955. On the other hand, he disliked story manga with humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...
or cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan may refer to:
Internationalism
* World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship
* Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community
* Cosmopolitan ...
themes, such as Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu'', – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist and animator. Considered to be among the greatest and most influential cartoonists of all time, his prolific output, pioneering techniques an ...
's '' Phoenix''.
Mishima was a fan of science fiction, contending that "science fiction will be the first literature to completely overcome modern humanism". He praised Arthur C. Clarke's '' Childhood's End'' in particular. While acknowledging "inexpressible unpleasant and uncomfortable feelings after reading it," he declared, "I'm not afraid to call it a masterpiece."
Mishima traveled to Shimoda on the Izu Peninsula
The is a mountainous peninsula with a deeply indented coastline to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of the island of Honshu, Japan, the largest of the four main islands of Japan. Formerly known as Izu Province, Izu peninsu ...
with his wife and children every summer from 1964 onwards. In Shimoda, Mishima often enjoyed eating local seafood with his friend Henry Scott-Stokes. Mishima never showed any hostility towards the US in front of foreign friends like Scott-Stokes, until Mishima heard that the name of the inn where Scott-Stokes was staying was Kurofune (), at which point his voice suddenly became low and he said in a sullen manner, "Why? Why do you stay at a place with such a name?". Mishima liked ordinary American people after the war, and he and his wife had even visited Disneyland
Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...
as newlyweds. However, he clearly retained a strong sense of hostility toward the "black ships" of Commodore Matthew C. Perry, who forcibly opened Japan up to unequal international relations at the end of the Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, and had destroyed the peace of Edo
Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo.
Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...
, where vivid chōnin
was a social class that emerged in Japan during the early years of the Tokugawa period. In the social hierarchy, it was considered subordinate to the samurai warrior class.
Social class
The ''chōnin'' emerged in ''joka-machi'' or castle t ...
culture was flourishing.
Later life
Mishima'snationalism
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...
grew towards the end of his life. In 1966, he published his short story , in which he denounced Emperor Hirohito
, Posthumous name, posthumously honored as , was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, from 25 December 1926 until Death and state funeral of Hirohito, his death in 1989. He remains Japan's longest-reigni ...
for renouncing his own divinity after World War II. Mishima argued that the soldiers who had died in the February 26 incident and the ''Kamikaze
, officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...
'' had died for their "living god" Emperor, and that Hirohito's renunciation of his own divinity meant that all those deaths had been in vain.
In February 1967, Mishima joined his fellow-authors Yasunari Kawabata
was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and ...
, Kōbō Abe
, known by his pen name , was a Japanese writer, playwright and director. His 1962 novel ''The Woman in the Dunes'' was made into an Woman in the Dunes, award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. Abe has often been compared to Franz Kaf ...
, and Jun Ishikawa in issuing a statement condemning China's Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...
for suppressing academic and artistic freedom. However, only one Japanese newspaper carried the full text of their statement.
In September 1967 Mishima and his wife visited India at the invitation of the Indian government. He traveled widely and met with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...
and President Zakir Hussain. He left extremely impressed by Indian culture
Indian culture is the heritage of social norms and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse nation of India, pertaining to the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and the Republic of India post-1947. ...
, and what he felt was the Indian people's determination to resist Westernization
Westernization (or Westernisation, see spelling differences), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt what is considered to be Western culture, in areas such as industr ...
and protect traditional ways. Mishima feared that his fellow Japanese were too enamored of modernization and Western-style materialism to protect traditional Japanese culture. On his way home from India, Mishima also stopped in Thailand
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
and Laos
Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...
; his experiences in the three nations became the basis for portions of his novel '' The Temple of Dawn'', the third in his tetralogy '' The Sea of Fertility''.
In a series of critical essays in the late 1960s, Mishima exalted what he viewed as traditional Japanese values. In 1967, he published , an impassioned plea for a return to bushido
is a Samurai moral code concerning samurai attitudes, behavior and lifestyle. Its origins date back to the Kamakura period, but it was formalized in the Edo period (1603–1868). There are multiple types of bushido which evolved significantl ...
, the putative "samurai code" of Japan's past. Mishima praised the ''Hagakure
''Hagakure'' (Kyūjitai: ; Shinjitai: ; meaning ''Hidden by the Leaves'' or ''Hidden Leaves''), or , is a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior, drawn from a collection of commentaries by the clerk Yamamoto Tsunetomo, former retainer to ...
'', a treatise on warrior virtues authored by the samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo during the Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
that valorized the warrior's willingness to die, as being at the core of his literary production and "the source of his vitality as a writer". Mishima concluded, What ''Hagakure'' is insisting is that even a merciless death, a futile death that bears neither flower nor fruit, has dignity as the death of a human being. If we value so highly the dignity of life, how can we not also value the dignity of death? No death may be called futile.In , collected in Mishima preached the centrality of the emperor to Japanese culture, and argued that Japan's postwar era was a time of flashy but ultimately hollow prosperity (a " Shōwa Genroku"), lacking any truly transcendent literary or poetic talents comparable to the 18th century masters of the original ''
Genroku
was a after Jōkyō and before Hōei. The Genroku period spanned the years from September 1688 to March 1704. The reigning emperor was .Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). ''Annales des empereurs du japon'', p. 415.
The period was known for its peace and ...
'' era, such as the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon
, real name , was a Japanese dramatist of jōruri, the form of puppet theater that later came to be known as bunraku, and the live-actor drama, kabuki. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' has written that he is "widely regarded as the greatest Jap ...
or the poet Matsuo Bashō
; born , later known as was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as th ...
.
In 1968, Mishima wrote a play titled '' My Friend Hitler'', in which he depicted the historical figures of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
, Gustav Krupp, Gregor Strasser
Gregor Strasser (also , see ß; 31 May 1892 – 30 June 1934) was a German politician and early leader of the Nazi Party. Along with his younger brother Otto, he was a leading member of the party's left-wing faction, which brought them into ...
, and Ernst Röhm
Ernst Julius Günther Röhm (; 28 November 1887 – 1 July 1934) was a German military officer, politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party. A close friend and early ally of Adolf Hitler, Röhm was the co-founder and leader of the (SA), t ...
as mouthpieces to express his own views on fascism and beauty. Mishima explained that after writing the all-female play '' Madame de Sade,'' he wanted to write a counterpart play with an all-male cast. Mishima wrote of ''My Friend Hitler,'' "You may read this tragedy as an allegory of the relationship between Ōkubo Toshimichi
Ōkubo Toshimichi (; 26 September 1830 – 14 May 1878) was a Japanese statesman and samurai of the Satsuma Domain who played a central role in the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the Three Great Nobles of the Restoration (維新の� ...
and Saigō Takamori
Saigō Takamori (; 23 January 1828 – 24 September 1877) was a Japanese samurai and politician who was one of the most influential figures in Japanese history. He played a key role in the Meiji Restoration, which overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate ...
" (two heroes of Japan's Meiji Restoration
The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...
who initially worked together but later had a falling out). Given the play's provocative title, Mishima was repeatedly asked if he intended to express admiration or support for Hitler. Mishima wrote in a program note,To be honest, I feel a terrifying interest in Hitler, but if the question is whether I like or dislike him, I can only answer, I don't like him. Hitler was a political genius but was not a hero. He thoroughly lacked the refreshing, sunny quality indispensable to becoming a hero. Hitler is as gloomy as the twentieth century.That same year, he wrote '' Life for Sale'', a humorous story about a man who, after failing to commit suicide, advertises his life for sale. In a review of the English translation, the novelist Ian Thomson called it a "pulp noir" and a "sexy, camp delight", but also noted that, "beneath the hard-boiled dialogue and the gangster high jinks is a familiar indictment of consumerist Japan and a romantic yearning for the past." Like many other right-wingers, Mishima was extremely alarmed by the riots and revolutionary actions undertaken by radical "
New Left
The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...
" university students, who took over dozens of college campuses in Japan in 1968 and 1969. On 25 February 1968, he and several other right-wingers met at the editorial offices of the recently founded '' minzoku-ha'' monthly magazine , where they pricked their little fingers and signed a blood oath promising to die if necessary to prevent a left-wing revolution from occurring in Japan.Hiroshi Mochimaru, "The Tatenokai and the ''Controversy Journal''" (Appendix of ) Mishima showed his sincerity by signing his birth name, Kimitake Hiraoka, in his own blood.
On 13 May 1969, Mishima accepted an invitation to debate with members of the Tokyo University Zenkyōtō on the university's Komaba campus. This debate lasted for 2.5 hours, with both Mishima and the students treating each other amiably and with respect, despite Mishima's initial fears that the students might kill him on the spot for his right-wing views. At this debate, Mishima told the students, "As long as you refer to the Emperor as 'Emperor,' I will gladly join forces with you," but in the end the ideological differences between Mishima and the students could not be overcome. Mishima ended by saying, "I believe in your passion. I believe in this alone. Even if I believe in nothing else of yours, I want you to know that I believe in this alone."(Shinchōsha, 1969) pp.9–119, Yukio Mishima (1969), collected in (Shinchōsha, 1969) pp.124–143, In an essay written after the debate Mishima said that "they could not escape established leftist thinking" and that "the discussion was inevitably at a stalemate." In this essay, Mishima argued that the supposedly revolutionary Zenkyōtō were themselves "weakening the roots of the revolutionary ideal in Japan" by rejecting the idea of the "Emperor", which Mishima claimed was also "a revolutionary ideal deeply rooted in the consciousness of the Japanese people." Mishima's friends interpreted this essay as him expressing his disappointment with the Zenkyōtō.
Throughout this period, Mishima continued to work on his ''magnum opus
A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship.
Historically, ...
'', '' The Sea of Fertility'' tetralogy of novels, which began appearing in a monthly serialized format in September 1965. The four completed novels were '' Spring Snow'' (1969), '' Runaway Horses'' (1969), '' The Temple of Dawn'' (1970), and '' The Decay of the Angel'' (published posthumously in 1971). Mishima aimed for a very long novel with a completely different ''raison d'être'' from Western chronicle novels of the 19th and 20th centuries; rather than telling the story of a single individual or family, Mishima boldly set his goal as interpreting the entire human world. collected in In ''The Decay of the Angel'', four stories convey the transmigration of the human soul as the main character goes through a series of reincarnations. Mishima hoped to express in literary terms something akin to pantheism
Pantheism can refer to a number of philosophical and religious beliefs, such as the belief that the universe is God, or panentheism, the belief in a non-corporeal divine intelligence or God out of which the universe arisesAnn Thomson; Bodies ...
. The novelist Paul Theroux
Paul Edward Theroux ( ; born April 10, 1941) is an American novelist and travel writer who has written numerous books, including the travelogue '' The Great Railway Bazaar'' (1975). Some of his works of fiction have been adapted as feature films ...
blurbed the first edition of the English translation of ''The Sea of Fertility'' as "the most complete vision we have of Japan in the twentieth century" and critic Charles Solomon wrote in 1990 that "the four novels remain one of the outstanding works of 20th-Century literature and a summary of the author's life and work".
Coup attempt and suicide
From 12 April to 27 May 1967, Mishima underwent basic training with the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF). Mishima had originally lobbied to train with the GSDF for six months, but was met with resistance from the Defense Agency. Mishima's training period was finalized to 46 days, which required using some of his connections. His participation in GSDF training was kept secret, both because the Defense Agency did not want to give the impression that anyone was receiving special treatment, and because Mishima wanted to experience "real" military life. Accordingly, Mishima trained under his birth name, Kimitake Hiraoka, and most of his fellow soldiers did not recognize him. From June 1967, Mishima became a leading figure in a plan to create a 10,000-man as a civilian complement to the Self-Defense Forces. He began leading groups of right-wing college students to undergo basic training with the GSDF in the hope of training 100 officers to lead the National Guard. collected in Finding that his plan for a large-scale Japan National Guard with broad public and private support had failed to catch on, Mishima formed the Tatenokai ("Shield Society"), a private militia composed primarily of right-wing college students, on 5 October 1968. Mishima accepted no outside money, and funded the activities of the Tatenokai using royalties from his writing. The Tatenokai primarily focused on martial training and physical fitness, including traditionalkendo
is a modern Japanese martial art, descended from kenjutsu (one of the old Japanese martial arts, swordsmanship), that uses bamboo swords ( shinai) as well as protective armor ( bōgu). It began as samurai warriors' customary swordsmanship ex ...
sword-fighting and long-distance running. Live-fire training was also conducted. Mishima personally oversaw this training. Initial membership was around 50, and was drawn primarily from students from Waseda University
Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...
and individuals affiliated with the ''Controversy Journal''. The number of Tatenokai members was later increased to exactly 100.
On 25 November 1970, Mishima and four members of the Tatenokai— Masakatsu Morita, , , and Hiroyasu Koga—used a pretext to visit , the commandant of , a military base in central Tokyo and the headquarters of the Eastern Command of the Japan Self-Defense Forces
The are the military forces of Japan. Established in 1954, the JSDF comprises the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. They are controlled by the Ministry of Defense ...
. Once inside, they barricaded the door to Mashita's office and tied him to his chair. Mishima wore a white ''hachimaki
A (headband, "helmet-scarf") is a type of Japanese headband, usually made of red or white cloth, typically featuring a design of kanji at the front.
History
The origin of the ''hachimaki'' is uncertain, but the most common theory states th ...
'' headband with a red '' hinomaru'' circle in the center bearing the kanji
are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...
for , a reference to the last words of Kusunoki Masasue, the younger brother of the 14th-century imperial loyalist samurai Kusunoki Masashige
, or , was a Japanese military commander and samurai of the Kamakura period remembered as the ideal loyal samurai.
Kusunoki fought for Emperor Go-Daigo in the Genkō War to overthrow the Kamakura shogunate and restore power in Japan to the ...
, as the two brothers died fighting to defend the emperor.
Holding a prepared manifesto and a banner listing their demands, Mishima stepped out onto the balcony to address the soldiers gathered below. His speech was intended to inspire a coup d'état to restore direct rule to the emperor. He succeeded only in irritating the soldiers, and was heckled, with jeers and the noise of helicopters drowning out some parts of his speech. In his speech, Mishima rebuked the JSDF for their passive acceptance of a constitution that "denies (their) own existence" and shouted to rouse them, "Where has the spirit of the samurai
The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
gone?" In a final that Morita and Ogawa scattered copies of from the balcony, Mishima expressed his dissatisfaction with the half-baked nature of the JSDF: "It is self-evident that the United States would not be pleased with a true Japanese volunteer army protecting the land of Japan."Mishima's (last Manifesto) on 25 November 1970 was collected in
After he finished reading his prepared speech in a few minutes' time, Mishima cried out three times. He then retreated into the commandant's office and apologized to the commandant, saying, "We did it to return the JSDF to the Emperor. I had no choice but to do this." Mishima then committed seppuku
, also known as , is a form of Japanese ritualistic suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honor, but was also practiced by other Japanese people during the Shōwa era (particularly officers near ...
, a form of ritual suicide by disembowelment associated with the samurai. Morita had been assigned to serve as Mishima's second ('' kaishakunin''), cutting off his head with a sword at the end of the rite to spare him unnecessary pain. However, Morita proved unable to complete his task, and after three failed attempts to sever Mishima's head, Hiroyasu Koga had to step in and complete the task.
According to the testimony of the surviving coup members, originally all four Tatenokai members had planned to commit seppuku along with Mishima. However, Mishima attempted to dissuade them and three of the members acquiesced to his wishes. Only Morita persisted, saying, "I can't let Mr. Mishima die alone." But Mishima knew that Morita had a girlfriend and still hoped he might live. Just before his seppuku, Mishima tried one more time to dissuade him, saying "Morita, you must live, not die." Nevertheless, after Mishima's seppuku, Morita knelt and stabbed himself in the abdomen and Koga acted as ''kaishakunin'' again. Another traditional element of the suicide ritual was the composition of death poem
The death poem is a genre of poetry that developed in the literary traditions of the Sinosphere—most prominently in Culture of Japan, Japan as well as certain periods of Chinese history, Joseon Korea, and Vietnam. They tend to offer a reflectio ...
s by the Tatenokai members prior to their entry into the headquarters.
This coup attempt is called the in Japan.
Mishima had planned his suicide meticulously for at least a year, with no one outside a small group of hand-picked Tatenokai members knowing of his plans. Mishima had made sure his affairs were in order and left money for the legal defense of the three surviving Tatenokai members involved in the incident. Mishima had also arranged for a department store to send his two children Christmas gifts every year until they became adults, and had asked a publisher to pay the long-term subscription fee for children's magazines in advance and deliver them every month.
Much speculation has surrounded Mishima's suicide. One of Mishima's biographers, translator John Nathan
John Weil Nathan (born March 1940) is an American translator, writer, scholar, filmmaker, and Japanologist. His translations from Japanese into English include the works of Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburō Ōe, Kōbō Abe, and Natsume Sōseki. Nathan is ...
, suggests that the coup attempt was only a pretext for the ritual suicide of which Mishima had long dreamed. Mishima's friend Henry Scott-Stokes, another biographer, noted a meeting with Mishima in his diary entry for 3 September 1970 at which Mishima, with a dark expression on his face, said: Japan has lost its spiritual tradition, and instead has become infested with materialism. Japan is under the curse of a green snake now. The green snake is biting Japan's chest. There is no way to escape this curse.Scott-Stokes told in 1990 that he took the "green snake" to mean the U.S. dollar. One researcher has speculated that Mishima chose 25 November for his coup attempt in order to set his period of ''
bardo
In some schools of Buddhism, ''bardo'' ( Wylie: ''bar do'') or ''antarābhava'' (Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese: 中有, romanized in Chinese as ''zhōng yǒu'' and in Japanese as ''chū'u'') is an intermediate, transitional, or liminal state b ...
'' until his reincarnation, such that the 49th day after his death would coincide with his birthday, 14 January. Mishima's remains were returned to his family the day after the incident, and were buried in the grave of the Hiraoka family at Tama Cemetery
in Tokyo is the largest municipal cemetery in Japan. It is split between the cities of Fuchū, Tokyo, Fuchu and Koganei, Tokyo, Koganei within the Tokyo Metropolis. First established in April 1923 as , it was redesignated Tama Cemetery in 1935. ...
on what would have been his 46th birthday, 14 January 1971.
Legacy
Mishima has been recognized as one of the world's most important literary persons of the 20th century. Mishima wrote 34 novels, approximately 50 plays and 25 books of short stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...
, more than 35 books of essays, plus a libretto
A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...
and one film.
The annual Mishima Prize was established in 1998 by the literary publisher Shinchōsha to recognise groundbreaking Japanese literature. On 3 July 1999, the opened in Yamanakako, Yamanashi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 787,592 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the n ...
.
The Mishima Incident helped inspire the formation of groups in Japan, such as the " Issuikai", founded by , who was one of Tatenokai members and Mishima's follower. Compared to older pro-American, anti-communist groups such as Bin Akao's Greater Japan Patriotic Party, New Right groups such as the Issuikai tended to emphasize ethnic nationalism and anti-Americanism
Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment and Americanophobia) is a term that can describe several sentiments and po ...
.
A memorial service deathday for Mishima, called , is held every year in Japan on 25 November by the , as well as former members of the . A separate memorial service has also been held annually by former Tatenokai members from 1975 onwards, one year after Masahiro Ogawa, Masayoshi Koga, and Hiroyasu Koga were released on parole.
A variety of cenotaphs and memorial stones have been erected in honor of Mishima's memory in various places around Japan. For example, stones have been erected at Hachiman Shrine in Kakogawa City, Hyōgo Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to th ...
, where his grandfather's permanent domicile was; in front of the 2nd company corps at JGSDF Camp Takigahara; and in one of Mishima's acquaintance's home garden. There is also a "Monument of Honor Yukio Mishima & Masakatsu Morita" in front of the Rissho University Shonan High school in Shimane Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Shimane Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-least populous prefecture of Japan at 665,205 (February 1, 2021) and has a ge ...
.
The Mishima Yukio Shrine
A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...
was built in the suburb of Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,555,818 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Pref ...
, on 9 January 1983.
A 1985 biographical film by Paul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schrader (; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first became known for writing the screenplay of Martin Scorsese's ''Taxi Driver'' (1976). He later continued his collaboration with Scor ...
titled '' Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters'' depicts his life and work, however it has not had a theatrical release inside Japan. A 2012 Japanese film titled '' 11:25 The Day He Chose His Own Fate'' examines Mishima's final day. The 1983 gay pornographic film '' Beautiful Mystery'' satirized homosexual undertones that were present during Mishima's career.
In 2020, a documentary titled was released, based on the debate between Mishima and members of the Tokyo University
The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...
Zenkyōtō on 13 May 1969.
On 14 January 2025, commemorative events to mark the 100th anniversary of Mishima's birth was held at two halls in Tokyo, in which , who was an actress of Mishima's troupe, and Tadanori Yokoo
is a Japanese graphic designer, illustrator, printmaker and painter. Yokoo's signature style of psychedelia and pastiche engages a wide span of modern visual and cultural phenomena from Japan and around the world.
Career
Tadanori Yokoo, bo ...
, an acquaintance of Mishima, talked at each venue about their memories of him.
Awards
* Shincho Prize from Shinchosha Publishing, 1954, for '' The Sound of Waves'' * Kishida Prize for Drama from Shinchosha Publishing, 1955 for * Yomiuri Prize from Yomiuri Newspaper Co., for best novel, 1956, '' The Temple of the Golden Pavilion'' * Shuukan Yomiuri Prize forShingeki
was a leading form of theatre in Japan that was based on modern realism. Born in the early years of the 20th century, it sought to be similar to modern Western theatre, putting on the works of the ancient Greek classics, William Shakespeare, Moli ...
from Yomiuri Newspaper Co., 1958, for
* Yomiuri Prize from Yomiuri Newspaper Co., for best drama, 1961,
* One of six finalists for the Nobel Prize in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...
, 1963.
* Mainichi Art Prize from Mainichi Shimbun
The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by
In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English-language news website called , and publishes a bilin ...
, 1964, for '' Silk and Insight''
* Art Festival Prize from the Ministry of Education, 1965, for '' Madame de Sade''
Major works
Literature
Critical essays
Plays for classical Japanese theatre
In addition to contemporary-style plays such as ''Madame de Sade'', Mishima wrote for two of the three genres of classical Japanese theatre: Noh andKabuki
is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...
(as a proud Tokyoite, he would not even attend the Bunraku
is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a performance: the or (puppeteers), the (chanters) ...
puppet theatre, always associated with Osaka
is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
and the provinces).
Though Mishima took themes, titles and characters from the Noh canon, his twists and modern settings, such as hospitals and ballrooms, startled audiences accustomed to the long-settled originals.
Donald Keene
Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japane ...
translated '' Five Modern Noh Plays'' (Tuttle, 1981; ). Most others remain untranslated and so lack an "official" English title; in such cases it is therefore preferable to use the rōmaji
The romanization of Japanese is the use of Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is sometimes referred to in Japanese as .
Japanese is normally written in a combination of logogram, logographic characters borrowe ...
title.
Films
Mishima starred in multiple films. ''Patriotism
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to one's country or state. This attachment can be a combination of different feelings for things such as the language of one's homeland, and its ethnic, cultural, politic ...
'' was written and funded by himself, and he directed it in close cooperation with Masaki Domoto. Mishima also wrote a detailed account of the whole process, in which the particulars regarding costume, shooting expenses and the film's reception are delved into. ''Patriotism'' won the second prize at the Tours
Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...
International Short Film Festival in January 1966.
Works about Mishima
Collections of Photographs
* ''Ba-ra-kei: Ordeal by Roses'' ( 薔薇刑) by Eikō Hosoe and Mishima (photoerotic collection of images of Mishima, with his own commentary, 1963) (Aperture 2002 ) * ''Grafica: Yukio Mishima'' () by Kōichi Saitō,Kishin Shinoyama
was a Japanese photographer. He is well-known for having photographed the covers for John Lennon and Yoko Ono's albums, ''Double Fantasy'' and ''Milk and Honey (album), Milk and Honey''. Before his marriage to Saori Minami in 1979, he took a ma ...
, Takeyoshi Tanuma, Ken Domon
was a celebrated Japanese photographer known for his work as a photojournalist and as a photographer of Buddhist temples and statuary.
Domon, who began his career in the 1930s contributing photo reportages to magazines that supported the increas ...
, Masahisa Fukase, Eikō Hosoe, Ryūji Miyamoto etc. (photoerotic collection of Yukio Mishima) (Shinchosha 1990 )
* ''Yukio Mishima's house'' () by Kishin Shinoyama
was a Japanese photographer. He is well-known for having photographed the covers for John Lennon and Yoko Ono's albums, ''Double Fantasy'' and ''Milk and Honey (album), Milk and Honey''. Before his marriage to Saori Minami in 1979, he took a ma ...
(Bijutsu Shuppansha 1995 )
* ''The Death of a Man'' () by Kishin Shinoyama and Mishima (photo collection of death images of Japanese men including a sailor, a construction worker, a fisherman, and a soldier, those were Mishima did modeling in 1970) (Rizzoli 2020 )
Books
* ''Reflections on the Death Of Mishima'' byHenry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, so ...
(1972, )
* '' The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away'' () by Kenzaburō Ōe
was a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issue ...
(Kodansha, 1972, ) – In addition to this, Kenzaburō Ōe wrote several works that mention the Mishima incident and Mishima a little.
* ''The Head of Yukio Mishima'' () by Tetsuji Takechi (Toshi shuppann, 1972, ) - A mysterious tale of Mishima's head flying over the Kantō region
The is a geography, geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures of Japan, prefectures: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefe ...
and arguing with the head of Taira no Masakado
was a Heian period provincial magnate (''gōzoku'') and samurai based in eastern Japan, notable for leading the first recorded uprising against the central government in Kyōto. Along with Sugawara no Michizane and Emperor Sutoku, he is of ...
.
* ''Mishima: A Biography'' by John Nathan
John Weil Nathan (born March 1940) is an American translator, writer, scholar, filmmaker, and Japanologist. His translations from Japanese into English include the works of Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburō Ōe, Kōbō Abe, and Natsume Sōseki. Nathan is ...
(Boston, Little, Brown and Company 1974, )
*
* ''La mort volontaire au Japon'', by Maurice Pinguet (Gallimard, 1984 )
* ''Der Magnolienkaiser: Nachdenken über Yukio Mishima'' by Hans Eppendorfer (1984, )
* '' Teito Monogatari'' (vol. 5–10) by Hiroshi Aramata
is a Japanese author, polymath, critic, translator and specialist in natural history, iconography and cartography. His most popular novel was '' Teito Monogatari'' (''Tale of the Capitol''), which has sold over 5 million copies in Japan alone.
...
(a historical fantasy
Historical fantasy is a category of fantasy and genre of historical fiction that incorporates fantastic elements (such as magic (fantasy), magic) into a more "realistic" narrative. There is much crossover with other subgenres of fantasy; those c ...
novel. Mishima appears in series No.5, and he reincarnates a woman Michiyo Ohsawa in series No.6), (Kadokawa Shoten
, formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines ...
1985 )
* ''Yukio Mishima'' by Peter Wolfe ("reviews Mishima's life and times, discusses, his major works, and looks at important themes in his novels", 1989, )
* ''Escape from the Wasteland: Romanticism and Realism in the Fiction of Mishima Yukio and Oe Kenzaburo'' (Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series, No 33) by Susan J. Napier (Harvard University Press, 1991 )
* ''Deadly Dialectics: Sex, Violence, and Nihilism in the World of Yukio Mishima'' by Roy Starrs
Roy Starrs (born 1946) is a British-Canadian scholar of Japanese literature and culture who teaches at the University of Otago in New Zealand. He has written critical studies of the major Japanese writers Yasunari Kawabata, Naoya Shiga, Osamu Daza ...
(University of Hawaii Press, 1994, and )
* ''Rogue Messiahs: Tales of Self-Proclaimed Saviors'' by Colin Wilson
Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English existentialist philosopher-novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his p ...
(Mishima profiled in context of phenomenon of various "outsider" Messiah types), (Hampton Roads Publishing Company 2000 )
* ''Mishima ou la vision du vide'' (Mishima : A Vision of the Void), essay by Marguerite Yourcenar
Marguerite Yourcenar (, ; ; born Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour; 8 June 190317 December 1987) was a Belgian-born French novelist and essayist who became a US citizen in 1947. Winner of the Prix Femina and ...
trans. by Alberto Manguel
Alberto Manguel (born March 13, 1948, in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine Canadian, Argentine-Canadian anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist, editor, and a former director of the National Library of Argentina. He is a cosmopolitan and polyglo ...
2001 )
* ''Yukio Mishima, Terror and Postmodern Japan'' by Richard Appignanesi (2002, )
* ''Yukio Mishima's Report to the Emperor'' by Richard Appignanesi (2003, )
*
* ''The Madness and Perversion of Yukio Mishima'' by Jerry S. Piven. (Westport, Connecticut, Praeger Publishers, 2004 )
* ''Mishima's Sword – Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend'' by Christopher Ross (2006, )
* ''Mishima Reincarnation'' () by (Popurasha, 2007, ) – A story in which the spirit of Mishima, who died at the Ichigaya chutonchi, floating and looks back on his life.
* ''Biografia Ilustrada de Mishima'' by Mario Bellatin (Argentina, Editorian Entropia, 2009, )
* ''Impossible'' () by Hisaki Matsuura (Kodansha, 2011, ) – A novel that assumed that Mishima has been survived the Mishima Incident.
* '' Persona: A Biography of Yukio Mishima'' by Naoki Inose with Hiroaki Sato (Berkeley, California, Stone Bridge Press
Stone Bridge Press, Inc. is a publishing company distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution and founded in 1989. Authors published include Donald Richie and Frederik L. Schodt. Stone Bridge publishes books related to Japan, having ...
, 2012, )
* ''Yukio Mishima (Critical Lives)'' by Damian Flanagan (Reaktion Books, 2014, )
* ''Portrait of the Author as a Historian'' by Alexander Lee – an analysis of the central political and social threads in Mishima's novels (pages 54–55 "History Today" April 2017)
* ''Mishima, Aesthetic Terrorist: An Intellectual Portrait'' by Andrew Rankin (University of Hawaii Press, 2018, )
Film, TV
* '' Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters'' (1985), a film directed byPaul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schrader (; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first became known for writing the screenplay of Martin Scorsese's ''Taxi Driver'' (1976). He later continued his collaboration with Scor ...
* ''The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima'' (1985) BBC documentary directed by Michael Macintyre
* ''Yukio Mishima: Samurai Writer'', a BBC documentary on Yukio Mishima, directed by Michael Macintyre, (1985, VHS , DVD )
* ''Miyabi: Yukio Mishima '' (みやび 三島由紀夫) (2005), a documentary film directed by Chiyoko Tanaka
* '' 11:25 The Day He Chose His Own Fate'' (2012), a film directed by Kōji Wakamatsu
was a Japanese film director who directed such pink films as and . He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film '' In the Realm of the Senses'' (1976). He has been called "the most important director to emerge in the pink film genre," an ...
* ''Mishima Yukio vs. Zenkyōtō of Tokyo University: the Truth revealed in the 50th year'' ( 三島由紀夫vs東大全共闘〜50年目の真実〜) (2020), a documentary film directed by
Music
* ''Harakiri'', by Péter Eötvös (1973). An opera music composed based on the Japanese translation of István Bálint's poetry ''Harakiri'' that inspired by Mishima's hara-kiri. This work is included in 's album in June 2014. * ''String Quartet No.3, "Mishima"'', byPhilip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...
. A reworking of parts of his soundtrack for the film ''Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters'', it has a duration of 18 minutes.
* "Death and Night and Blood (Yukio)", a song by the Stranglers
The Stranglers are an English rock music, rock band formed in 1974. Scoring 23 UK top 40 singles and 20 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have originated in the ...
from the ''Black and White
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...
'' album (1978). (''Death and Night and Blood'' is the phrase from Mishima's novel ''Confessions of a Mask'')
* ''Sonatas for Yukio – C.P.E. Bach: Harpsichord Sonatas'', by Jocelyne Cuiller (2011). A program composed of Bach sonatas for each scene of the novel " Spring Snow".
Songs
* lyrics byYoshio Kodama
was a Japanese right-wing Ultranationalism (Japan), ultranationalist and a prominent figure in the rise of organized crime in Japan. The most famous ''Fixer (person), kuromaku'', or behind-the-scenes power broker, of the 20th century, he was act ...
, composition by Masao Koga
was a Japanese composer, mandolinist, and guitarist of the Shōwa era who was dubbed "Japan's Irving Berlin" by Universal Press Syndicate. His melancholy style, based upon Nakayama Shimpei's '' yonanuki'' scale, was popularly known in Japan ...
, singing by (1971)
* lyrics/composition and singing by (1971)
* " Forbidden Colours", a song on ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
, also known as , is a 1983 war film co-written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima, co-written by Paul Mayersberg, and produced by Jeremy Thomas. The film is based on the experiences of Sir Laurens van der Post (portrayed by Tom Conti as Lt. Col. J ...
'' soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto
was a Music of Japan, Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the Synthesizer, synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his ...
with lyrics by David Sylvian
David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt; 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan (band), Japan. During his time in Japan, Sylvia ...
(1983). Inspired by Mishima's novel ''Forbidden Colors''.
Theatre
* ''Yukio Mishima'', a play by Adam Darius and Kazimir Kolesnik, first performed at Holloway Prison, London, in 1991, and later in Finland, Slovenia and Portugal. * ''M'', a ballet spectacle work homage to Mishima byMaurice Béjart
Maurice Béjart (; 1 January 1927 – 22 November 2007) was a French dancer, choreographer and Theatre director, opera director who ran the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in Switzerland. He developed a popular expressionistic form of modern ballet, tac ...
in 1993
Manga, Games
*''Yuuyake Banchō
is a Japanese manga series written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Toshio Shoji. The term "banchō
is an area in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, consisting of the six "-banchō" districts, to , as well as parts of Kudanminami and Kudankita, ...
'' Volume 15 written by Ikki Kajiwara
, known by the pen names and , was a Japanese author, manga writer, and film producer. He is known for the work about sports and martial arts, with images of heroic young men with the occasional fine details as he moves from one topic to anoth ...
and Illustrated by (1971)
* ''Shin Megami Tensei
''Megami Tensei'', marketed internationally as ''Shin Megami Tensei'' (formerly ''Revelations''), is a Japanese media franchise created by Aya Nishitani, Kouji Okada, Kouji "Cozy" Okada, Ginichiro Suzuki, and Kazunari Suzuki. Primarily developed ...
'' by Atlus
is a Japanese video game developer, video game publisher, publisher, Arcade game, arcade manufacturer and distribution company based in Tokyo. A subsidiary of Sega, the company is known for the ''Megami Tensei'', ''Persona (series), Persona'' ...
(1992) – A character Gotou who started a coup in Ichigaya, modeled on Mishima.
* ''Tekken
is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting games developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco). The franchise also includes film and print adaptations.
The main games in the series follow the events ...
'' by Namco
was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...
(1994) – Mishima surname comes from Yukio Mishima, and a main character, Kazuya Mishima
is a fictional character and one of the main antagonists of Bandai Namco's ''Tekken'' series. Debuting as the protagonist of the original game, Kazuya has since become one of the series' most prominent villains after serving as the penultimate ...
, had his way of thinking based on Mishima.
* (2004, Production I.G)
* ''Jakomo Fosukari'' () by Mari Yamazaki (2012) – The characters modeled on Mishima and Kōbō Abe
, known by his pen name , was a Japanese writer, playwright and director. His 1962 novel ''The Woman in the Dunes'' was made into an Woman in the Dunes, award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. Abe has often been compared to Franz Kaf ...
appears in.
*''Persona 5
is a 2016 role-playing video game developed by P-Studio and published by Atlus. The game is the sixth installment in the ''Persona'' series, itself a part of the larger ''Megami Tensei'' franchise. It was released for PlayStation 3 and PlayStat ...
'' (2016) - A character named after Mishima, named Yuki Mishima, appears. He works to support the main characters from the sidelines and eventually resolves to write a documentary about them.
Poetry
* ''Harakiri'', by István Bálint. *3 ''Tanka
is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature.
Etymology
Originally, in the time of the influential poetry anthology (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to disti ...
'' poems, written by Pierre Pascal (1970)
**and 12 ''Haiku
is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...
'' poems. Appendix of 's book translated into French.
* written by Emmanuel Rothen (1970)
* written by (1971)
**described at the conclusion of the eulogy "Rainbow Gate".
* written by Shūji Terayama
was a Japanese avant-garde poet, artist, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. His works range from radio drama, experimental television, underground (''Angura'') theatre, countercultural essays, to Japanese New Wave and "expande ...
(1971)
* written by Hiromi Itō (1986)
* & ''Haiku
is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...
'' written by Genki Fujii (2007)
**Reading at the 38th , 37th Anniversary of His Death.
Art
* ''Kou'' () by (1976) – Life-sized male bronze sculpture modeled on Mishima. The work was requested by Mishima in the fall of 1970, he went to Wakebe's atelier every Sunday. It was exhibited at the 6th Niccho Exhibition on 7 April 1976. In his will, Mishima wrote that he wanted his divided bones buried in a location with a view ofMount Fuji
is an active stratovolcano located on the Japanese island of Honshu, with a summit elevation of . It is the highest mountain in Japan, the second-highest volcano on any Asian island (after Mount Kerinci on the Indonesian island of Sumatra), a ...
and the ocean, and that he wanted this bronze statue to be placed there concurrently, but as of 2017, this request had not yet been fulfilled.
* ''Season of fiery fire / Requiem for someone: Number 1, Mishima'' () and ''Classroom of beauty, listen quietly: bi-class, be quiet'' () by Yasumasa Morimura (2006, 2007) – Disguise performance as Mishima
* ''Objectglass 12'' and ''The Death of a Man'' () by (2007, 2011) – Mishima dolls
See also
* Hachinoki kai – a chat circle to which Mishima belonged. * Japan Business Federation attack – an incident in 1977 involving four persons (including one former Tatenokai member) connected by the Mishima incident. * Kosaburo Eto – Mishima states that he was impressed with the seriousness of Eto'sself-immolation
Self-immolation is the act of setting oneself on fire. It is mostly done for political or religious reasons, often as a form of protest or in acts of martyrdom, and known for its disturbing and violent nature.
Etymology
The English word ' ...
, "the most intense criticism of politics as a dream or art." collected in
* Kumo no kai – a literary movement group presided over by Kunio Kishida in 1950–1954, to which Mishima belonged.
* Manjirō Hiraoka – Mishima's grand-uncle. Sadatarō Hiraoka's older brother. He was a lawyer and politician.
* Mishima Yukio Prize – a literary award established in September 1987.
* Phaedo
''Phaedo'' (; , ''Phaidōn'') is a dialogue written by Plato, in which Socrates discusses the immortality of the soul and the nature of the afterlife with his friends in the hours leading up to his death. Socrates explores various arguments fo ...
– the book Mishima had been reading in his later years.
* Suegen – a traditional authentic Japanese style restaurant in Shinbashi
, sometimes transliterated Shimbashi, is a district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
Name
Read literally, the characters in Shinbashi mean "new bridge".
History
The area was the site of a bridge built across the Shiodome River in 1604. The river was l ...
that is known as the last dining place for Mishima and four Tatenokai members (Masakatsu Morita, Hiroyasu Koga, Masahiro Ogawa, Masayoshi Koga).
Notes
References
Sources
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * an out-of-print book for copyright violation * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Her maiden name is Shibata. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * was an old friend of Mishima, and her house was model of . Her husband was Japanese TV personality . * * *External links
三島由紀夫文学館 The Mishima Yukio Literary Museum website
In Japanese only, with the exception of one page (see "English Guide" at top right)
山中湖文学の森公園「三島由紀夫文学館」Yamanakako Forest Park of Literature "Mishima Yukio Literary Museum"
* *
a ceremony commemorating his 70th birthday * , from a 1980s BBC documentary (9:02) * , from Canadian Television (3:59) * – Full NHK Interview in 1966 (9:21)
Yukio Mishima's attempt at personal branding comes to light in the rediscovered 'Star'
Nicolas Gattig, ''The Japan Times'' (27 April 2019) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mishima, Yukio 1925 births 1970 suicides 1970 deaths 1970s coups d'état and coup attempts 20th-century Japanese essayists 20th-century Japanese dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Japanese male actors 20th-century Japanese novelists 20th-century Japanese short story writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers Attempted coups in Japan Japanese bisexual men Bisexual male writers Bisexual male models Bisexual dramatists and playwrights Bisexual novelists Conservatism in Japan Controversies in Japan Deaths by decapitation Far-right politics in Japan Imperial Japanese Army personnel of World War II Imperial Japanese Army soldiers Japanese activists Japanese anti-communists Japanese male bodybuilders Japanese film directors Japanese government officials Japanese kendoka Japanese male karateka Japanese male models Japanese male short story writers Japanese nationalists 20th-century Japanese poets Japanese psychological fiction writers Kabuki playwrights LGBTQ film directors Japanese LGBTQ novelists Japanese LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights Japanese LGBTQ models LGBTQ people who died by suicide Male actors from Tokyo Noh playwrights Pantheists People from Shinjuku People of the Shōwa era People from the Empire of Japan Seppuku from Meiji era to present University of Tokyo alumni Yomiuri Prize winners Writers from Tokyo Kokkashugi Burials at Tama Cemetery Activists from Tokyo Japanese Shintoists