Yukio Mishima[a] (三島 由紀夫, Mishima Yukio, January 14, 1925 – November 25, 1970), real name Kimitake Hiraoka (平岡 公威, Hiraoka Kimitake) was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, film director, imperialist, shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai (楯の会, "Shield Society"). Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, but the award went to his countryman and benefactor Yasunari Kawabata.[5] His works include the novels Kamen no Kokuhaku (仮面の告白, "Confessions of a Mask") and Kinkakuji (金閣寺, "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion") as well as the autobiographical essay Taiyo to Tetsu (太陽と鉄, "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 and death".[6]

Mishima's political activities were controversial, and he remains a controversial figure in modern Japan.[7][8][9][10] Ideologically Mishima was a right-winger who protected the traditional culture and spirit of Japan, he opposed the Sengo minshushugi (戦後民主主義, "Post-war Japan's Democracy") in which including Globalism and Communism, and he was worried that the Japanese people would lose their distinctive heritage and they would change into "Déracine"(rootlessness) who abandoned the inherited culture through the Japanese long history.[11][12][13] Mishima formed the Tatenokai, an unarmed civilian militia, for the avowed purpose of restoring sacredness and dignity to the Japanese Emperor.[11][12][13] On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of his militia entered a military base in central Tokyo, took the commandant hostage, and attempted to inspire the Japan Self-Defense Forces to overturn Japan's 1947 Constitution which he called "constitution of defeat".[13] When this was unsuccessful, Mishima committed seppuku.

Life and work [ edit ]

Early life [ edit ]

Mishima in his childhood (April 1931, at the age of 6)

Kimitake Hiraoka (平岡公威, Hiraoka Kimitake), who was later known as Yukio Mishima (三島由紀夫, Mishima Yukio), was born in the Nagasumi-cho, Yotsuya-ku of Tokyo City (now part of Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo). His father was Azusa Hiraoka (平岡梓), a government official, and his mother, Shizue (倭文重), was the daughter of the 5th principal of the Kaisei Academy. Shizue's father, Kenzō Hashi (橋健三), was a scholar of the Chinese classics, and the Hashi family had served the Maeda clan for generations in Kaga Domain. Mishima's paternal grandparents were Sadatarō Hiraoka (平岡定太郎) and Natsuko (なつ) (family register name: Natsu). Mishima's real name Kimitake (公威) (also read Kōi as On-yomi (音読み, "Chinese reading of kanji") style) was named after Furuichi Kōi (古市公威) who was a benefactor of Sadatarō.[14] He had a younger sister, Mitsuko (美津子), who died of typhus in 1945 at the age of 17, and a younger brother, Chiyuki (千之).[15][16]

Mishima's early childhood was dominated by the presence of his grandmother, Natsuko (Natsu), who took the boy, separating him from his immediate family for several years.[17] Natsuko was the granddaughter of Matsudaira Yoritaka (松平頼位), the daimyō of Shishido which was a branch domain of Mito Domain in Hitachi Province.[b] Also, Natsuko had been raised in the household of Prince Arisugawa Taruhito; she maintained considerable aristocratic pretensions even after marrying Sadatarō Hiraoka (Mishima's grandfather), 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.[19] Through his grandmother, Mishima was a direct descendant of Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康).[20][21] Natsuko was prone to violence and morbid outbursts, which are occasionally alluded to in Mishima's works.[22] It is to Natsuko that some biographers have traced Mishima's fascination with death.[23] Natsuko did not allow Mishima to venture into the sunlight, to engage in any kind of sport or to play with other boys; he spent much of his time alone or with female cousins and their dolls.[24] [22]

Mishima returned to his immediate family when he was 12. His father, Azusa was a man with a taste for military discipline, and was worried the soft and weak upbringing of Natsuko's method. So, when Mishima was infant, Azusa employed parenting tactics such as holding his little child up to the side of a speeding train. He also raided Mishima's room for evidence of an "effeminate" interest in literature and often ripped apart his son's manuscripts.[25] Although his authoritarian father had forbidden him to write 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.[25]

When Mishima was 13, Natsuko took him to Kabuki (the play of "Kanadehon Chūshingura"), it was the first time he watched Kabuki drama. And soon, he also was taken to Noh (the play of "Miwa") for the first time by his maternal grandmother Tomi Hashi (橋トミ). From these first experiences, he became addicted to Kabuki and Noh.[26]

Schooling and early works [ edit ]

Mishima’s self-portrait drawn in junior high school

At the age of six, Mishima enrolled in the elite Gakushūin, the Peers' School in Tokyo.[27] At twelve, Mishima began to write his first stories. He voraciously read the works of numerous classic Japanese authors as well as Raymond Radiguet, Oscar Wilde, Rainer Maria Rilke, Thomas Mann, Friedrich Nietzsche and other European authors, in translation. He studied German. After six years at school, he became the youngest member of the editorial board of its literary society. Mishima was attracted to the works of the Japanese author Shizuo Itō (伊東静雄), Haruo Satō (佐藤春夫), Michizō Tachihara (立原道造), which in turn created an appreciation for the classical Japanese poetry form of waka. Mishima's first published works included waka poetry before he turned his attention to prose.

He was invited to write a short story for the Gakushūin literary magazine Hojinkai-zasshi (輔仁会雑誌) and submitted Hanazakari no Mori (花ざかりの森, "Forest in Full Bloom") in 1941, a story in which the narrator describes the feeling that his ancestors somehow still live within him.[c] Mishima's teachers were so impressed that they recommended the story to the prestigious literary magazine Bungei-Bunka (文藝文化), which belongs to Nihon Roman-ha (日本浪曼派, "Japanese Romantic School"). The story makes use of the metaphors and aphorisms that later became his trademarks and was published in book form in 1944 in a limited edition (4,000 copies) because of the wartime shortage of paper. Mishima published this first book as if it were posthumous book of keepsake living in this world.[30][25] To protect him from a possible backlash from his father Azusa, his teacher and Bungei-Bunka’s members(Fumio Shimizu (清水文雄), Zenmei Hasuda (蓮田善明), etc.) coined the pen-name "Yukio Mishima" in 1941.[31][d] In the magazine, Zenmei Hasuda praised Mishima’s genius as below, "This juvenile author is also a heaven-sent child of eternal Japanese history. He is much younger than us, but is the birth of already mature",[33] "He is a spiritual person spoken out of national literature".[34] Mishima at age 16, wrote in his notebook an essay about his deep devotion to Shinto (神道, "Shintoism"), entitled Kannagara no michi (惟神之道, "The way of the Gods").[35] Then, the day of embarking to the Java, Singapore, Johor where Southern Front of Dai Tō-A Sensō (大東亜戦争, "Greater East Asia War") on October 1943, Hasuda told Mishima the last words, "I entrusted you with the future of Japan".[36][37]



(on 9 September 1944) Mishima at age 19, with his sister at age 16(on 9 September 1944)

Mishima's story Tabako (煙草, "The Cigarette"), published in 1946, describes some of a pale homosexual love he felt at school when he teased from members of the school's rugby union club that he belonged to the literary society. And also, Shi o Kaku Shōnen (詩を書く少年, "The Boy Who Wrote Poetry") in 1954 is one of the short story based on Gakushūin Junior high school memories.

On 9 September 1944, Mishima graduated from Gakushūin High school with the highest grade, and became a representative of the graduates.[38][39] His Imperial Majesty(Emperor Hirohito) was present at the graduation ceremony, Mishima received a silver watch from His Imperial Majesty at the Imperial Household Ministry.[38][39][40][41]

Mishima received a draft notice for the Imperial Japanese Army during Pacific War of World War II, and he barely passed the test in second-class on 27 April 1944. However, at the time of his medical check on convocation day of 10 February 1945 he had a cold and the young army doctor heard rales from the lung which were misdiagnosed as tuberculosis so Mishima was declared unfit for service.[42][25] The day before, Mishima had drawn up a will of farewell message to his family, ended as Tenno-heika Banzai (天皇陛下万歳, "Long live the Emperor"), and prepared hair and nails to be kept as a memento for his parents. [25][43] The troops of that unit were sent to Philippines, many soldiers were dead and injured, and almost destroyed. [42] Same day immediate return from convocation, Mishima's parents were so happy that he didn't have to go to the battlefield, but only Mishima was vague due to high fever and tiredness of traveling, he muttered seriously “I wanted to join the Tokko-tai (特攻隊, "Japanese Special Attack Units")”. [25]

After the Jewel Voice Broadcast on 15 August 1945(Surrender of Japan), Mishima took a vow to rebuild Japanese culture and protecting Japanese tradition in Tokyo, which had been burnt-out ruins by Bombing of Tokyo.[44] Mishima noted as below, “Only the preservation of Japanese irrationality will contribute to World Culture 100 years later”.[45] Soon after this, Mishima’s beloved sister Mitsuko (美津子) died of typhus on October, he so cried[25][46], and Kuniko Mitani (三谷邦子) whom Mishima loved, got engaged with another man[47][48]. Kuniko was a sister of Makoto Mitani (三谷信) whom Mishima’s classmate. [e] published in 1949.}} These incidents became the motive power of later Mishima’s literature. [50] And next year Mishima heard a sad and shock news of Zenmei Hasuda (蓮田善明)’s death on 19 August 1945 in Johor.[51] Hasuda committed suicide in the Japanese spirit.[51] Mishima devoted a poetry for Hasuda in the memorial meeting.[51][52][53]

At the end of the war, father Azusa half allowed Mishima to become a novelist, however he was worried that his son could really become a professional novelist, and was hoping that his son would be the same bureaucrat as him and grandfather Sadataro, so advised his son to enroll in the Faculty of Law instead of the literature department.[25] Then attending lectures during the day and writing at night, Mishima graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1947, and entered the Ministry of the Treasury. He obtained a position as an official in the government's Finance Ministry and was set up for a promising career. However, Mishima had exhausted himself so much that his father agreed to his resigning from the position during the first year of employment to devote himself to writing.[25]

Post-war literature [ edit ]

Mishima wrote novels, popular serial novellas, many short stories and literary essays, as well as highly acclaimed plays for the Kabuki theatre and modern versions of traditional Noh drama.

Mishima began the short story Misaki nite no Monogatari (岬にての物語, "A Story at the Cape") in 1945, and continued to work on it through the end of World War II. In the occupation of Japan by SCAP, not only many military personnel were executed as "war criminals," but people who were important posts in various fields were purged from public office. The media and the publishing industry were also censored, called Press Code (プレスコード, "Press Code for Japan"), and were not allowed to praise Japan.[f] As a result, literary figures who were close to Mishima before the end of the war were also accused of being branded "war criminal literary figures", and leftists, communists, and opportunists had been making their influence in the literary world.[56][57] Mishima who was beloved as a genius boy in the Japanese traditions sect Nihon Roman-ha (日本浪曼派, "Japanese Romantic School") before the end of the war, was already become "obsolete" or "outdated" in the postwar literary world, so he was impatient with himself at the age of twenty.[26]

Mishima, who had heard that Yasunari Kawabata had praised Mishima's work before the end of the war, decided to visit Kawabata's house with his last hope.[26] In January 1946, he visited famed writer Yasunari Kawabata in Kamakura, taking with him the manuscripts for Chūsei (中世, "The Middle Ages") and Tabako (煙草, "The Cigarette"), and asking for Kawabata's advice and assistance. In June 1946, following Kawabata's recommendations, Tabako was published in the new literary magazine Ningen (人間, "Humanity"), and in December 1946. Chūsei was published in the same magazine. Chūsei is also included Shudō (衆道, "a kind of homosexual") motif, and is a story of the Muromachi period.



(on January 1953) Mishima at age of 28(on January 1953)

Also in 1946, Mishima began his first novel, Tōzoku (盗賊, "Thieves"), a story about two young members of the aristocracy drawn towards suicide. It was published in 1948, placing Mishima in the ranks of the Second Generation of Postwar Writers. He followed with Kamen no Kokuhaku (仮面の告白, ”Confessions of a Mask”), a semi-autobiographical account of a young homosexual who must hide behind a mask to fit into society. The novel was extremely successful and made Mishima a celebrity at the age of 24. Around 1949, Mishima published a literary essay about Yasunari Kawabata in Kindai Bungaku (近代文学), for whom he had always had a deep appreciation.

His writing gained him international celebrity and a sizeable following in Europe and the United States, as many of his most famous works were translated into English. Mishima traveled extensively (Travelogue of his first tour around the world was published as Aporo no Sakazuki (アポロの杯, ”The Cup of Apollo”)); in 1952 he visited Greece, which had fascinated him since childhood. Elements from his visit appear in Shiosai (潮騒, "The Sound of Waves"), which was published in 1954, and drew inspiration from the Greek legend of Daphnis and Chloe.



(At the roof of the Yukio Mishima (lower) with Shintaro Ishihara in 1956(At the roof of the Bungeishunjū Building in Ginza 6-chome)

Mishima made use of contemporary events in many of his works. Kinkakuji (金閣寺, "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion") published in 1956 is a fictionalization of the burning of the famous temple in Kyoto.

Kyōko no Ie (鏡子の家, "Kyōko no Ie") published in 1959 after marriage, in which Mishima depicted their inner emptiness and nihilism of four young men who lived in the period when Japan began to grow as an economic power which was called Koudo Seicho (高度経済成長, "Japanese economic miracle"), and the work was with all his might. Although this work was sympathized by a small number of critics of the same generation as Mishima, the evaluation of the literary circles was generally harsh, and it was branded as Mishima's first "failure work".[58][59] He lost heart, and it was the first discouragement (turning point) he had experienced as a novelist.[60][61]

Many Mishima's most famous and highly-regarded works were written prior to 1960. However, until that year he had not written works that were seen as especially political.[62] In the summer of 1960, Mishima became interested in the massive protests against Shin Anpo Joyaku (新安保条約, ”Revision of the US-Japan Security Treaty”) (known as Anpo in Japanese). Although he did not participate in the protests himself, he often went out in the streets to observe the protestors in action, and kept extensive clippings of newspaper coverage of the protests.[62] In June 1960, at the climax of the protest movement, Mishima wrote the piece making extensive mention of politics, a commentary in the Mainichi Shinbun newspaper, entitled "A Political Opinion".[62] In the critical essay, he pointed out the deceptions that the Zengakuren, the Socialist Party, and the Communist Party all use it for the slogan "Democracy", and the danger of the people choosing an idealistic person who is more dangerous than Mr. Nobusuke Kishi who is subordinate to the United States and "small nihilist" (Mishima called him so), and Mishima said in conclusion that he wanted to vote for a sturdy and realist person without using any honeyed words.[63]

Shortly after the Anpo protests ended, Mishima began writing his short story Yūkoku (憂国, "Patriotism"), 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.[62] The next year, Mishima published the first two parts of his three-part play Tōka no kiku (十日の菊, "Tenth-Day Chrysanthemum"), further celebrating the actions of the February 26 revolutionaries.[62]

On the other hand, he wrote various works as below, Utage noo ato (宴のあと, "After the Banquet"), published in 1960, so closely followed the events surrounding politician Hachirō Arita's campaign to become governor of Tokyo that Mishima was sued for invasion of privacy.[64] In 1962, Mishima's most avant-garde work, Utsukusii hoshi (美しい星, "A Beautiful Star"), which at times comes close to science fiction, was published to mixed critical response. Kemono no Tawamure (獣の戯れ, ”The Frolic of the Beasts”) in 1961 is considered a parody of the classical Noh play Motomezuka, written in the fourteenth century by the playwright Kiyotsugu Kan'ami.

In 1965, Sado koshaku fujin (サド侯爵夫人, "Madame de Sade") was published. This work was a dialogic play by six women, in which Mishima was exploring the mystery of Madame de Sade's last mysterious determination, while revealing the image of Marquis de Sade who was branded as vice, in the confrontational conversation of six women. This play was later evaluated as "The greatest drama in the history of postwar theater" in 1994.[65][66] In 1968, he wrote a play called Waga Tomo Hittorā (わが友ヒットラー, "My Friend Hitler"), in which Mishima deployed the historical figures of Adolf Hitler, Gustav Krupp, Gregor Strasser, and Ernst Röhm as mouthpieces to express his own views on fascism and beauty,[62] and depicted the ruthlessness of real political wiles, and the honesty and pureness of a man who tried to believe in his friend until the end and died tragically.[67] Mishima said about "My Friend Hitler" as below, "You may read this tragedy by analogy with the relationship between Ōkubo Toshimichi (大久保利通) and Saigō Takamori (西郷隆盛).".[68] In same year, Inochi Urimasu (命売ります, "Life for Sale"), which was a hard-boiled entertainment that depicting the humorous riots between the hero who is not afraid to die and those who try to use him, was published.

Mishima was considered for the Nobel Prize for Literature three times (in 1963, 1964, 1965)[69] and was a favourite of many foreign publications.[70] 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.[71] In a work published in 1970, Mishima wrote that the writers he paid most attention to in modern western literature were Georges Bataille, Pierre Klossowski, and Witold Gombrowicz.[72]

Acting and modelling [ edit ]

Mishima was also an actor, and had a starring role in Yasuzo Masumura's 1960 film, Karakkaze Yarō (からっ風野郎, "Afraid to Die"). He also had roles in films including Yukoku (憂国, "Patriotism, the Rite of Love and Death") (directed by himself, 1966), Kurotokage (黒蜥蜴, "Black Lizard") (directed by Kinji Fukasaku, 1968) and Hitokiri (人斬り, "Hitokiri") (directed by Hideo Gosha, 1969). He also sang the theme song for Afraid to Die (lyrics by himself; music by Shichirō Fukazawa).

Mishima was featured as a photo model in Bara-kei (薔薇刑, "Ba-ra-kei: Ordeal by Roses") by Eikoh Hosoe, as well as in Taidō: Nihon no bodybuilder tachi (体道～日本のボディビルダーたち, "Young Samurai: Bodybuilders of Japan") and Otoko (男, "Otoko: Photo Studies of the Young Japanese Male") by Tamotsu Yatō. American author Donald Richie gave a short lively account of Mishima, dressed in a loincloth and armed with a sword, posing in the snow for one of Tamotsu Yato's photoshoots.[73]

In a men's magazine Heibon Punch (平凡パンチ) in which Mishima contributed various essays and criticisms, he shone first place of the "Mr. Dandy" with 19,590 votes in reader's popularity vote in 1967, and the second place Toshiro Mifune lost to Mishima by 720 votes.[74] In the next reader's popularity vote the "Mr. International", Mishima was ranked second, and France's President de Gaulle was first.[74] At that time, Mishima was the first celebrity to be described as "Superstar" in Japanese magazines. [75]

Private life [ edit ]



(An autumn day in 1955) Mishima at age 30 in his garden(An autumn day in 1955)

In 1955, Mishima took up weight training to overcome the inferiority complex about his weak constitution, and his workout regimen of three sessions per week was not disrupted for the final 15 years of his life. In his 1968 essay Taiyo to Tetsu (太陽と鉄, "Sun and Steel"),[76] Mishima deplored the emphasis given by intellectuals to the mind over the body. Mishima later also became very skilled at kendo, traditional Japanese swordsmanship. In 1956, he tried boxing too, although he later gave this up. In the same year, he became a member of Nihon soratobu enban kenkyukai (日本空飛ぶ円盤研究会, ”Japan Flying Saucer Research Association”) to observe UFO he had been interested in.[77] And from 1954, he had a lover named Sadako Toyoda (貞子) (she became the model of main characters in Shizumeru Taki (沈める滝, "The Sunken Waterfall"), Hashi zukushi (橋づくし, "The Seven Bridges")[78][79]), he wanted to marry her, but broke up in 1957.[46][80]

After briefly considering a marital alliance with Michiko Shōda (正田美智子) (who later married Crown Prince Akihito and became Empress Emerita Michiko),[81] Mishima married Yoko Sugiyama (瑤子)(daughter of Yasushi Sugiyama (杉山寧)) on June 1, 1958. The couple had two children: a daughter named Noriko (紀子) (born June 2, 1959) and a son named Iichiro (威一郎) (born May 2, 1962).

While working on Kinjiki (禁色, "Forbidden Colors"), Mishima visited gay bars in Japan.[82] Mishima's sexual orientation was an issue that bothered his widow, and she always denied his homosexuality after his death.[83] In 1998, the writer Jirō Fukushima (福島次郎) published an account of his relationship with Mishima in 1951, including fifteen letters (not love letters[84]) from the famed novelist.[84] Mishima's children successfully sued Fukushima and the publisher for copyright violation for the use of Mishima's letters.[85][84][86] The publisher Bungeishunjū on the defendant side insisted that "The content of these letters are practical correspondences, not copyrighted works", however, the plaintiff side won the judgment as follows: "In addition to clerical content, these letters describe the feelings of Mishima's own works, his aspirations and views of life, in different words from the literary works."[87][g]

In February 1961, Mishima became embroiled in the aftermath of Shimanaka Jiken (嶋中事件, ”Shimanaka Incident”). In 1960, the author Shichirō Fukazawa (深沢七郎) had published a satirical short story Fūryū mutan (風流夢譚, "The Tale of an Elegant Dream") in the mainstream magazine Chūō Kōron. The story contained a dream sequence in which the Emperor and Empress were beheaded by a guillotine, leading to a chorus of outrage from right-wing ultranationalist groups, and numerous death threats against Fukuzawa, writers believed to be associated with him, and Chūō Kōron magazine itself.[90] On February 1, 1961 Kazutaka Komori (小森一孝), a seventeen-year-old rightist, broke into the home of Shimanaka Hoji (嶋中鵬二), the president of Chūō Kōron, killing his maid with a sword and severely wounding his wife.[91] In the ensuing atmosphere of terror, Fukazawa went into hiding, and dozens of writers and literary critics, including Mishima, were provided with round-the-clock police protection for several months.[92] A rumor became widespread that Mishima had personally recommended Fūryū mutan be published, and even though he repeatedly denied this, he received hundreds of death threats, and he forced to live under police escort for two months.[93] Mishima criticized the culprit with severity, said that those who harm women and children are neither patriots nor traditional right-wingers, and also said that the assassination must be a one-on-one confrontation with risking assassinator's live, and it was the manners of traditional Japanese patriots to immediately commit suicide after assassination.[94]

In 1963, there was an incident called Yorokobi no koto Jiken (喜びの琴事件, "The Harp of Joy Incident") at the troupe Bungakuza (文学座) to which Mishima belonged. It was that Haruko Sugimura (杉村春子) and other actors who were the Communist Party members refused to stage a drama Yorokobi no koto (喜びの琴, "The Harp of Joy") Mishima wrote. The main character of the drama was anti-communist and included in his dialogues there was criticism about a conspiracy of world communism. The actress Haruko Sugimura, who was a follower of Mao Zedong, refused to take part in the play due to ideological reasons, so Mishima quit Bungakuza.[95][96][97]

During the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, Mishima interviewed various athletes every day and wrote the report articles as a correspondent for newspapers.[98][99] China, which does not allow Taiwan to participate in the Olympics, also boycotted the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and conducted their first nuclear weapons test during this Olympics.[100]

Mishima hated Ryokichi Minobe, who was a communist and was the governor of Tokyo beginning in 1967.[101] Influential persons in the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, including Takeo Fukuda and Kiichi Aichi, were bosses of Mishima during his time at the Ministry of the Treasury, and since Mrs. Hiroko Sato was a fan of Mishima, her husband Eisaku Satō, the then Prime Minister of Japan was also close to Mishima. For those reasons, LDP officials solicited Mishima as the next candidate for governor of Tokyo against Minobe, but Mishima did not intend to become a politician.[101]

Mishima was fond of Manga and Gekiga, especially drawing style of Hiroshi Hirata (平田弘史), and the characters of Mōretsu Atarō (もーれつア太郎), or the imagination of GeGeGe no Kitarō (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎) which were slapstick, nonsense, unrefined, desperate but also intellectual.[102][103] Also, he loved reading boxing manga Ashita no Joe (あしたのジョー) in "Weekly Shōnen Magazine" every week.[104][h] Urutoraman (ウルトラマン, "Ultraman") and Gojira (ゴジラ, "Godzilla") were his favorite kaiju fantasies, and he once compared himself to "Godzilla's egg" in 1955.[105][106] On the other hand, he disliked the story manga with Humanism or Cosmopolitanism themes: for example Hi no Tori (火の鳥, "Phoenix").[102][103]

Mishima liked science fiction and said, "I even think that science fiction will be the first literature to completely overcome modern humanism."[107] He praised Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End" in particular, and while talking about "the inexpressible unpleasant and uncomfortable feelings after reading it", he said, "I'm not afraid to call it the best masterpiece."[108]

Since Mishima traveled to Shimoda in Izu Peninsula with his wife and children in the summer of 1964; it had been customary for the family to spend the summer there every year.[109][110] Mishima often enjoyed eating local seafood with his friend Henry Scott-Stokes there.[110] But when Mishima heard the name of an inn where Stokes was staying was "Kurofune" ("black ship"), his voice suddenly became low and he said in a sullen manner, "Why? Why do you stay at such a name?" Until then Mishima never showed any hostility towards America in front of foreign friends like Stokes. Mishima had gone to Disneyland with his wife when newly married and he liked Disneyland and ordinary American people after the war. However, he clearly had a strong hostility towards the "black ships" of Commodore Matthew C. Perry, which had confused peace of Edo city and had forcibly opened Japan up to unequal international relations at the end of the Edo Period.[110]

Harmony of Pen and Sword [ edit ]

In 1967, Mishima enlisted in the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) and underwent basic training. A year later, he formed the Tatenokai (楯の会, "Shield Society"), a private militia composed primarily of young students who studied martial principles and physical discipline, and swore to protect the Emperor of Japan. Mishima trained them himself. However, under Mishima's ideology, the emperor was not necessarily the reigning Emperor, but rather the abstract essence of Japanese traditional culture. In Eirei no koe (英霊の聲, "The Voices of the Heroic Dead") depicted the spirits of departed soldiers of ni-ni-roku jiken (二・二六事件, "February 26 Incident") and Tokko-tai (特攻隊, "Japanese Special Attack Units"), Mishima grieved and denounced Emperor Hirohito for renouncing his claim of divinity after World War II, arguing the soldiers had died by the February 26 Incident and Japanese Special Attack Units for their "living god" Emperor, and that the Showa Emperor's renouncing his divinity meant that all those deaths were in vain. [111][112] Mishima said that “As the duty of a human, our Majesty should be a God” in "The Voices of the Heroic Dead".[113]

Also, in 1967, Mishima issued a protest statement against "Cultural Revolution" by Chinese Communist Party. For this protest statement, Yasunari Kawabata, Kōbō Abe and Jun Ishikawa also participated. [114][i] In the same year Mishima visited India for collect data of his next work Akatsuki no Tera (暁の寺, "The Temple of Dawn"), and met with the Prime Minister or the President of India, and the colonel of the Army, then Mishima felt a sense of danger about lacking Japanese national defense awareness against the threat of Chinese Communist Party.[117][118][j]

In the final ten years of his life, Mishima wrote several full-length plays, acted in several films, and co-directed an adaptation of one of his stories, “Patriotism, the Rite of Love and Death”. He also continued work on his final tetralogy, Hōjō no Umi (豊饒の海, "The Sea of Fertility"), which appeared in monthly serialized format from September 1965.[120]

Mishima accelerated nationalism towards the end of his life. He was hated by leftists who said Hirohito should have abdicated and taken responsibility for the loss of life in the war. Mishima also was hated by leftists, in particular for his outspoken commitment to bushido, the code of the samurai in Hagakure Nyūmon (葉隠入門, "Hagakure: Samurai Ethic and Modern Japan"), his support for the abolition of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, and for his contention in Bunka Bōeiron (文化防衛論, "Defense of the Culture") that preached the importance of the Emperor in Japanese cultures. In other critical essays,[k] Mishima argued that the national spirit which cultivated in Japanese long history is the key to national defense, and he had apprehensions about the insidious “indirect aggression” of Chinese Communist Party and North Korea or Soviet Union.[11][12]

In critical essays in 1969, Mishima explained Japan's difficult and delicate position and peculiarities between China, the Soviet Union and the United States as below;"To put it simply, to support for Security Treaty means agreeing with the United States, and to oppose it means agreeing with the Soviet Union or the Chinese Communist Party, so after all, it's only just a matter of which foreign country to rely on, and in there the question of "what is Japan" completely lacks. If you ask the Japanese, "Hey you, do you choose America, Soviet Union, or Chinese Communist Party?", if he is a true Japanese, he will withhold his attitude.".[121][122] Also he said about those who strongly oppose the US military base in Okinawa and the Security Treaty as below; "They may appear to be nationalists and right-wingers in foreign common sense, but in Japan, most of them are left-wingers and communists in fact.".[123][122]

Coup attempt and ritual suicide [ edit ]

Mishima delivering his speech in the failed coup attempt just prior to performing seppuku (November 25, 1970)

On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of the Tatenokai (楯の会, "Shield Society"), under pretext, visited the commandant Kanetoshi Mashita (益田兼利) of the Ichigaya chutonchi (市ヶ谷駐屯地, "Ichigaya Camp"), the Tokyo headquarters of the Eastern Command of the Japan Self-Defense Forces.[83] Inside, they barricaded the office and tied the commandant to his chair. With a prepared manifesto and a banner listing their demands, Mishima stepped onto the balcony to address the soldiers gathered below. His speech was intended to inspire a coup d'état to restore the power of the emperor. He succeeded only in irritating the soldiers, and was mocked and jeered. In the last message of Mishima's Geki (檄, "An appeal"), there were words that perceived the real nature of JSDF as below, "It is self-evident that the United States is not pleased with Japanese true voluntary army protecting the land of Japan.".[124][125]

He finished his planned speech after a few minutes, and after cried out three times, Tenno-heika Banzai! (天皇陛下万歳, "Long live the Emperor!"), returned to the commandant's office and apologized to the commandant and said "We did it to return the JSDF to the Emperor. I had no choice but to do this", and performed seppuku.[128] Just before his seppuku, Mishima tried to stop Morita's death and said to him, "Morita, you must live not die.".[129][130] The assisting kaishakunin duty at the end of this ritual (decapitation to finish Mishima's pains immediately) had been assigned to Tatenokai member Masakatsu Morita (森田必勝), who was unable to properly perform the task. After three failed attempts at severing Mishima's head, he allowed another Tatenokai member, Hiroyasu Koga (古賀浩靖), to behead Mishima. Morita then knelt and stabbed himself in the abdomen and Koga again performed the kaishakunin duty.[131] This coup is called Mishima jiken (三島事件, "Mishima Incident") in Japan.

Mishima delivering his speech on the balcony

Another traditional element of the suicide ritual was the composition of so-called death poems before their entry into the headquarters.[132] Several years enlisted in the Ground Self-Defense Force, Mishima and Tatenokai members with several officials was in secret researching coup plans for constitutional amendment, they thought there were chances when under the opportunity of Chian Shutsudo (治安出動, "security depatch) for subjugation of New left Zenkyoto's revolt. However, Zenkyoto was suppressed easily by Riot Police Unit in 1969. These officials gave up the coup of constitutional amendment, and Mishima disappointed them and the actual circumstances in Japan after Would War II.[133] Officer Officer Kiyokatsu Yamamoto (山本舜勝) who Mishima's training teacher explained about this difficult situation, as below. The officers had a trusty connection with the U.S.A.F.(includes U.S.F.J), and with the approval of the U.S. army side, they were supposed to carry out a security dispatch toward the Armed Forces of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. However, due to the policy change(reversal) of U.S. by Henry Kissinger who prepared for visiting China in secret (changing relations between U.S. and Chinese Communist Party), it became a situation where the Japanese military was not allowed legally.[133]

Mishima planned his suicide to remonstration meticulously for at least a year and no one outside the group of hand-picked Tatenokai members had any indication of what he was planning. [134][135] His biographer, translator John Nathan, suggests that the coup attempt was only a pretext for the ritual suicide of which Mishima had long dreamed.[136] His another biographer, Henry Scott-Stokes says that “Mishima is the most important person in the postwar Japanese", and mentioned shackles of the constitution of Japan, as below, "Mishima cautioned against the lack of reality in the basic political controversy in Japan and the particularity of Japan's democratic principles.".[137] Also, Henry kept in his diary when he met Mishima who had a dark expression on his face on 3 September 1970. At that time, he heard from Mishima as below, "Japan lost its spiritual tradition, and materialism infested instead. Japan is under the curse of a Green Snake now. The Green Snake bites on Japanese chest. There is no way to escape this curse."[138] Henry continued thinking of this, and he understood the meaning in 1990 later. He said to Takao Tokuoka that, this Green Snake means "U.S. dollar".[139] In 1968 to 1970, Mishima also said words about Japan's future. Mishima's senior friend and father heard from Mishima as below, "Japan will be hard. One day, the United States suddenly contacts China over Japan's head, Japan will only be able to look up from the bottom of the valley and eavesdrop on the conversation slightly. Our friend Taiwan will say that "it will no longer be able to count on Japan", and Taiwan will go somewhere. Japan may become an orphan in the Orient, and may eventually fall into the product of slave dealers.”[140]

Mishima made sure his affairs were in order and left money for the legal defence of the three surviving Tatenokai members, Masahiro Ogawa (小川正洋), Masayoshi Koga (小賀正義), and Hiroyasu Koga.[135][l] After the incident, there were exaggerated media commentaries like as that “it was a fear of the revival of militarism.”[142] The commandant who was made a hostage said in the trial, "I didn't feel hate the defendants now and at that time too. Thinking about the country of Japan, thinking about the JSDF, the pure hearts of thinking about our country that did that kind of thing, I want to buy it as an individual.”.

Regarding Mishima’s decisive day of November 25, it was the date when Hirohito(Emperor Shōwa) became Regent and the Emperor Shōwa made the "Humanity Declaration" at the age of 45, so some researchers study that; the day had a meaning to revive the "God" by dying as a scapegoat of the Emperor became a human at the same age 45.[144][145] And there are the views that; the day corresponds to the date of execution (replace with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar) of Yoshida Shōin (吉田松陰) whom Mishima respected,[146] or there is the suggestion that; Mishima had set his period of Chuu (中有, "Bardo") for Tensei (転生, "reincarnation") because the 49th day after his death was his birthday, January 14.[147] And on this birthday, Mishima's remains were buried in the grave of Hiraoka Family at Tama Cemetery.[146]

In addition, November 25 is the day of beginning to write Kamen no Kokuhaku (仮面の告白, "Confessions of a Mask"), and this work was announced that, "Techniques of Life Recovery", "Suicide inside out", also, Mishima wrote down in notes of this work as below, "This book is a will for leave in the Realm of Death where I used to live. If you take a movie of a suicide jumped, and rotate the film in reverse, the suicide person jumps up from the valley bottom to the top of the cliff at a furious speed and he revives.".[148][149] In other words, he wrote this "Confessions of a Mask" to live the postwar, and to get away from his “Realm of Death”. [149] So there is the literary view as below; By dying on 25 November which was same date of set out to write the "Confessions of a Mask", Mishima had the purpose of dismantling his all postwar creative activities, and returning to the "Realm of Death" where he used to live.[149]

Legacy [ edit ]

Much speculation has surrounded Mishima's suicide. At the time of his death he had just completed the final book in his Sea of Fertility tetralogy.[83] He was recognized as one of the most important post-war stylists of the Japanese language. Mishima wrote 34 novels, about 50 plays, about 25 books of short stories, and at least 35 books of essays, one libretto, as well as one film.

Grave of Yukio Mishima in Tama Cemetery. The inscription reads, "Grave of Hiraoka family"

Mishima's grave is located at the Tama Cemetery in Fuchū, Tokyo. The Mishima Prize was established in 1988 to honor his life and works. On July 3, 1999, Mishima Yukio Bungaku-kan (三島由紀夫文学館, "Mishima Yukio Literary Museum") was opened in Yamanakako, Yamanashi Prefecture.

After the Mishima incident, Shin Uyoku (新右翼, "New Right") was born. The ethnic nationalism has strong tendency of anti-Sengo minshushugi (戦後民主主義, "Post-war Japan's Democracy") and anti-Americanism, for example Issui kai (一水会, " Session on the first Wednesday")[150]

A Memorial service Deathday for Mishima, called Yukoku-ki (憂国忌, "Mourning of patriotism"), is held every year in Japan on 25 November. Apart from this, a memorial service is held every year by former Tatenokai members, which began in 1975, the year after Masahiro Ogawa, Masayoshi Koga, and Hiroyasu Koga were released on parole.[151]

"Cenotaph of Yukio Mishima" or "Memorial stone of Yukio Mishima" were built in various places. For example, at Hachiman Shrine in Kakogawa City, Hyogo Prefecture where his grandfather's permanent domicile is,[152] at the place in front of the 2nd company corps in JGSDF Camp Takigahara,[153] in a home garden of an acquaintance of Mishima.[154] Also, there is "Monument of Honor Yukio Mishima & Masakatsu Morita" at the place in front of the Rissho University Shonan High school in Shimane Prefecture.[155]

"Mishima Yukio Shrine" was built in the suburb of Fujinomiya city, Shizuoka Prefecture on 9 January 1983.[156][157]

A 1985 biographical film by Paul Schrader titled Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters depicts his life and work; however, it has never been given a theatrical presentation in Japan. A 2012 Japanese film titled 11:25 The Day He Chose His Own Fate also looks at Mishima's last day.

In 2014, Mishima was one of the inaugural honourees in the Rainbow Honor Walk, a walk of fame in San Francisco's Castro neighbourhood noting LGBTQ people who have "made significant contributions in their fields."[158][159][160]

David Bowie painted a large expressionist portrait of Mishima, which he hung at his Berlin residence.[161]

Awards [ edit ]

Major works [ edit ]

Literature [ edit ]

Critical essay [ edit ]

Plays for classical Japanese theatre [ edit ]

In addition to contemporary-style plays such as Madame de Sade, Mishima wrote for two of the three genres of classical Japanese theatre: Noh and Kabuki (as a proud Tokyoite, he would not even attend the Bunraku puppet theatre, always associated with Osaka and the provinces).[166]

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 translated Kindai Nogaku-shū (近代能楽集, Five Modern Noh Plays) (Tuttle, 1981; ISBN 0-8048-1380-9). Most others remain untranslated and so lack an "official" English title; in such cases it is therefore preferable to use the rōmaji title.

Films [ edit ]

Works about Mishima [ edit ]

Book [ edit ]

Film, TV [ edit ]

Music [ edit ]

String Quartet No.3, "Mishima" , by Philip Glass. A reworking of parts of his soundtrack for the film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters it has a duration of 18 minutes.

, by Philip Glass. A reworking of parts of his soundtrack for the film it has a duration of 18 minutes. Death and Night and Blood (Yukio) , a song by the Stranglers from the Black and White album (1978) ( Death and Night and Blood is the phrase from Mishima's novel Confessions of a Mask ) [168]

, a song by the Stranglers from the album (1978) ( is the phrase from Mishima's novel ) Forbidden Colours, a song on Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto with lyrics by David Sylvian (1983). (Inspired by Mishima's novel Forbidden Colors)[169]

Play [ edit ]

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.

, 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 by Maurice Béjart in 1993

See also [ edit ]

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]