Yukio Mishima was a Japanese author who wrote about the conflict between Western influences and the samurai code, as well as the intellect and body. He began writing at 12, published his first novel in 1948, and wrote many works in various styles. He committed ritual suicide in 1970 after a failed coup attempt.
Yukio Mishima (1925 – 1970) was a Japanese post-World War II author. Much of his work deals with the conflict between Western influences on Japan and the samurai code, as well as the conflict between the intellect and the body. In addition to his novels, short stories and plays, Mishima is famous for his dramatic ritual suicide at the age of 45.
The author was born Kimitaka Hiraoka in Tokyo, Japan on January 14, 1925. He later changed his name to hide the fact that he was writing from his anti-literary father. Up until the age of 12, Mishima lived with his paternal grandmother, who was quite overprotective. She introduced him to literature, including Western classics, but didn’t let him spend time in the sun or play with other boys. Mishima’s common playmates as a child were consequently his cousins.
Mishima began writing at age 12; around the same time she moved in with her parents and began attending the prestigious Peers School. Her father, a government official, was abusive, often violent, and very much against his son’s interest in literature. He often destroyed his son’s manuscripts, and although he had his mother’s support, Mishima was forced to write in secret. His first story, “The Forest in Full Bloom,” was published in book form in 1944.
He was drafted into the Japanese Army during World War II, but falsely claimed to have symptoms of tuberculosis during his physical examination and was declared unfit. He has carried the guilt for this action his whole life. After finishing Peers School, Mishima studied German law at the University of Tokyo at his father’s behest. He graduated in 1947 and became a government official in the Ministry of Finance, but resigned during his first year in office.
In 1948, Mishima began to devote himself full time to writing and publishing his first novel, Thieves. His Confessions of a Mask, published the same year, was a semi-autobiographical story of a young man dealing with his homosexuality. It was a huge success and earned him a worldwide following.
Up until the day of his death, Mishima was a prolific author, writing short stories, novels, literary essays, and plays in both Kabuki and Noh styles. He was considered the only writer of his generation with the skills to handle traditional Noh drama. One of his best known and most important works by him was a tetralogy of novels known collectively as The Sea of Fertility. He sent the last volume to his publisher the day he committed suicide.
Always torn between the life of the mind and the reality of the physical body, Mishima began weight training and practicing the martial art of Kendo in 1955. He posed for many photos displaying his physique, many with homoerotic themes, and is also appeared in films . Though homosexual, Mishima would only have relationships with men while he was abroad. He married his wife, Yoko Sugiyama, in 1958 and the couple had two children.
Mishima became increasingly involved in politics towards the end of his life, enlisting in the Ground Self Defense Force in 1967 and founding a private army known as the Shield Society a year later. He and the Shield Society meticulously and covertly planned a government coup over the course of a year. On November 25, 1970, he and four followers captured Ichigaya Field in Tokyo, the headquarters of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Mishima climbed onto the balcony and addressed a crowd of soldiers, urging them to stage a coup against the democratic government.
When Mishima’s speech was unsuccessful, he returned inside the headquarters and ritually committed suicide, or seppuku, according to the samurai code. One of his followers also committed suicide after he was unable to decapitate Mishima according to the ritual. Before his death, the author ensured that his affairs were in order and left a sum of money to pay for the defense of the surviving members of the Shield Society. His infamous death often overshadows his writings, but he was a brilliant author who captured the spirit of postwar Japan in his writings.
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