Yukio Mishima Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Yukio Mishima (三島由紀夫 Mishima Yukio),Born Kimitake Hiraoka (Hiraoka Kimitake), (January 14, 1925 - November 25, 1970), was a Japanese author and rightist political activist, notable for both his nihilistic post-war writing and the circumstances of his suicide.
Early life
Mishima's early childhood was greatly influenced by his grandmother, Natsu. She separated Mishima from his family and raised him virtually as her own until he was 12. She was sick with sciatica yet controlled much of his upbringing and limited his interactions with his siblings and parents. She encouraged his interest in Kabuki theatre and entertained him with fairy tales and other fantastic stories. She also fostered in Mishima a yearning for a familial grandeur that had ostensibly been lost. Mishima spent much of his childhood shut indoors, playing with dolls or making origami creatures with his three female cousins. He cared for his Grandmother more frequently as her health worsened, and developed a precocious interest in books.
Schooling & Early Works
At 12, Mishima began to write his first stories. He read voraciously the works of Wilde, Rilke, and numerous Japanese classics. Mishima did well at the elite Peers School, becoming a member of the editorial board in a literary society at the school. He was invited to write a short story for the prestigious literary magazine, Bungei-Bunka (Art and Culture) and submitted, Hanazakari no mori (A Forest in Full Flower). The story was published in book form in 1944 to commercial success and critical oblivion in war-torn Japan. He attempted to enlist in the Japanese Army during World War II but was turned down after doctors misdiagnosed him with tuberculosis. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1947 with a degree in jurisprudence, and worked as an official in the government's Finance Ministry. He resigned his position within a year in order to devote his time to writing.
Postwar Literature
Mishima began his first novel, Tōzoku (Thieves), in 1946 and published it in 1948. It was followed up by Kamen no kokuhaku (Confessions of a Mask), an autobiographical work about a young latent homosexual who must hide behind a mask in order to fit into society. The novel was extremely successful and made a celebrity out of Mishima, at the age of 24.
Later works and activities
During the 1960s, Mishima wrote some of his most successful and critically acclaimed novels, acted in films, and was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize. He continued to build his physique, studied martial arts, and swordsmanship. At the end of the decade, he formed the Tatenokai (Shield Society), composed primarily of young rightist students who studied martial principles and physical discipline under Mishima's tutelage. Mishima's demeanor and attire reflected his new devotion to hyper masculinity. His workout regimen of three sessions per week was not disrupted for the final 15 years of his life. His devotion to his physicality perhaps led to his increased productivity as a writer.
His writing gained him international celebrity and a sizable following in Europe and America, as many of his most famous works had been translated into English. It was speculated in an article that ran in New York Times Magazine that he was to win the Nobel Prize at last.
Ritual Suicide
On November 25, 1970, Mishima and members of the Tatenokai took over Ichigaya Camp, the Tokyo headquarters of the Eastern Command of the Japan’s Self-Defense Forces;. Mishima had written a manifesto and designed plans to articulate its contents. His followers bound the Commandant and barricaded his office. Mishima had written out a list of demands and had them painted on a banner, which he later hung from the balcony leading out of the Commandant’s office. Mishima stepped onto the balcony to address the gathered soldiers below. He intended to inspire them to help his troops stage a coup d'etat and restore the Emperor to his rightful place. He succeeded only in irritating them and was mocked and jeered for his efforts. They were unable to hear him and he aborted his planned speech after only a few minutes. He stepped in from the balcony and ritually committed seppuku, finalized by his ritual decapitation by Tatenokai Masayoshi Koga.
Afterword
Much speculation has surfaced regarding Mishima's seppuku. At the age of 45, he was considered to be at the peak of his literary powers. He had just completed the final book in his Sea of Fertility tetralogy and was recognized as perhaps the most important living Japanese novelist. He wrote 40 novels, 18 plays, 20 books of short stories, and at least 20 books of essays as well as one libretto. He had also starred in several films, directing himself in his Yukoku (Patriotism). His later political agitation was expressed through his fervent identification with traditional Japanese values as represented by Emperor Hirohito and the symbolism of Feudal Japan. One of Mishima's most influential essays, Bunka boeiron (A Defense of Culture), argues that the Emperor was the source of Japanese Culture, and to defend the Emperor was to defend the Japanese Culture.
Awards
- Shincho Prize from Shinchosha Publishing, 1954, for The Sound of Waves.
- Kishida Prize for Drama from Shinchosha Publishing, 1955.
- Yomiuri Prize from Yomiuri Newspaper Co., for best novel, 1957, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion.
- Yomiuri Prize from Yomiuri Newspaper Co., for best drama, 1961, Toka no Kiku.
| Japanese Title | English Title | Year | English translation, year | ISBN |
| Kamen no kokuhaku | Confessions of a Mask | 1948 | Meredith Weatherby, 1958 | ISBN 081120118X |
| Ai no Kawaki | Thirst for Love | 1950 | Alfred H. Marks, 1969 | ISBN 4101050031 |
| Kinjiki | Forbidden Colors | 1954 | Alfred H. Marks, 1968, 1974 | ISBN 0375705163 |
| Shiosai | The Sound of Waves | 1954 | Meredith Weatherby, 1956 | ISBN 0679752684 |
| Kinkaku-ji | The Temple of the Golden Pavilion | 1956 | Ivan Morris, 1959 | ISBN 0679752706 |
| Utage no ato | After the Banquet | 1960 | Donald Keene, 1963 | ISBN 0399504869 |
| Gogo no eiko | The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea | 1963 | John Nathan, 1965 | ISBN 0679750150 |
| Sado kōshaku fujin(play) | Madame de Sade | 1965 | ISBN 0781456003 | |
| Death in Midsummer and other stories | 1966 | ISBN 0811201171 | ||
| Waga Tomo Hittora (play) | My Friend Hitler and other plays | 1968 | ISBN 0231126336 | |
| Sun and Steel | 1970 | John Bester | ISBN 4770029039 | |
| Hojo no umi | ''The Sea of Fertility tetralogy: | 1964-70 | ISBN 0677149603 | |
| Part one:Haru no yuki | Michael Gallagher, 1972 | ISBN 0394442393 | ||
| Part two:Honda | Michael Gallagher, 1973 | ISBN 0394466187 | ||
| Part three:Akatsuki no tera | E. Dale Saunders and Cecilia S. Seigle, 1973 | ISBN 0394466144 | ||
| Part four:Tennin gosui | Edward Seidensticker, 1974 | ISBN 0394466136 | ||
| Hagakure ny¯umon | Kathryn Sparling, 1977 | ISBN 0465090893 |
Films
| Year | Title | USA Release Title | Character | Director |
| 1960 | Karakkaze yarô | Afraid to Die | Takeo Asahina | Yasuzo Masumura |
| 1966 | Yukoku | \Patriotism, The Rite of Love and Death | Shinji Takeyama | Domoto Masaki, Yukio Mishima |
| 1968 | Kurotokage | Black Lizard | Human Statue | Kinji Fukasaku |
| 1969 | Hitokiri | Tenchu! | Shimbei Tanaka | Hideo Gosha |
| 1985 | (bio-pic) | Mishima | Paul Schrader, Music by Philip Glass | |
| 1985 | (BBC documentary) | same | Michael Macintyre |
Works about Mishima
- Ba-ra-kei: Ordeal by Roses by Eikoh Hosoe and Mishima. (photoerotic collection of images of Mishima, with his own commentary) (Aperture 2002 ISBN 0893811696)
- Deadly Dialectics: Sex, Violence, and Nihilism in the World of Yukio Mishima by Roy Starrs (University of Hawaii Press, 1994, ISBN 0824816307 and ISBN 0824816307)
- 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, 1995 ISBN 067426181X)
- Mishima: A Biography by John Nathan (Boston, Little, Brown 1974, ISBN 0316598445)
- Mishima ou la vison du vide (Mishima : A Vision of the Void), essay by Marguerite Yourcenar trans. by Alberto Manguel 2001 ISBN 0226965325)
- Rogue Messiahs: Tales of Self-Proclaimed Saviors by Colin Wilson (Mishima profiled in context of phenomenon of various "outsider" Messiah types), (Hampton Roads Publishing Company 2000 ISBN 1571741755)
- The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima, by Henry Scott Stokes London : Owen, 1975 ISBN 0720601231)
- The Madness and Perversion of Yukio Mishima by Jerry S. Piven. (Westport, Connecticut, Praeger Publishers, 2004 ISBN 0275979857)
- Yukio Mishima by Peter Wolfe ("reviews Mishima's life and times, discusses, his major works, and looks at important themes in his novels," 1989, ISBN 082640443X)
- Yukio Mishima, Terror and Postmodern Japan by Richard Appignanesi (2002, ISBN 1840463716)
External links
- The Mishima Yukio Cyber Museum
- Web page devoted to Yukio Mishima
- Yukio Mishima: A 20th Century Samurai
- Books and Writers bio
- Short bio with photo
- Entry from "CLASSIC GAY LITERATI" page
- Sacred Visions of Splendor, essay on the meaning of Yukio Mishima's suicide.
- Mishima's final day
- John Nathan New Yorker "Talk of the Town" commentary on Mishima's death
- Mishima chronology, with links
- YUKIO MISHIMA: The Harmony of Pen and Sword Ceremony commemorating his 70th Birthday Anniversary
- Chronology of Mishima's Life
Related Articles
- Article about ritual suicide (Seppuku)
- Brief Seppuku Piece
- "I Cut Off the Head of Yukio Mishima"
- Article focusing on Mishima's homosexuality
- Film review of Yukoku (Patriotism)
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