Yukio Mishima

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Yukio Mishima (Tokyo, Miyoko) was born on January 14th, 1925 (, Mishima Yukio), a Japanese author, writer, playwright, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and a founder of the Tatenokai (, "Shield Army"), an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is regarded as one of the twentieth century's most influential Japanese writers. In 1968, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but the award went to his countryman and benefactor Yasunari Kawabata. His books include Confessions of a Mask (Ja), The Golden Pavilion (, Kinkaku-ji), and Sun and Steel's autobiographical essay (, Taiy to tetsu). According to author Andrew Rankin, Mishima's work is characterized by "its rich vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its combination of classical Japanese and Western literary styles, and its obsessive assertions of beauty, eroticism, and death."

Mishima's political activities made him a controversial figure in modern Japan. Mishima's right-wing ideology emerged gradually in his mid-30s. He was proud of Japan's traditional culture and spirit, as well as Japan's postwar democracy, globalism, and communism, fearing that by accepting these ideas, Japanese people will lose their "national essence" (Shinto and Yamato-damashii) and their distinctive cultural heritage (Shinto and Yamato-damashii) and become a "rootless" people. The Tatenokai was established by Mishima for the sole purpose of restoring sacredness and respect to the Emperor of Japan. Mishima and four members of his militia detonated a military base in central Tokyo on November 25, 1970, and failed to convince the Japan Self-Defense Forces to mobilize and overthrowrown Japan's 1947 Constitution (which he described as "a constitution of destruction." "Long live the emperor" - the king's remark and yelling of "Long live the emperor!" "He committed seppuku."

Life and work

Kimitake Hiraoka (, Hiraoka Kimitake), later known as Yukio Mishima (Japan) was born in Nagazumi-cho, Yotsu-ku, Tokyo (now part of Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo) and later became part of Yotsuya (Jotsuya-ku, Tokyo). When he was 16, he chose his pen name. Azusa Hiraoka (), a government official in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, and his mother, Shizue (), were the daughter of the 5th principal of the Kaisei Academy. Kenz Hashi (), Shizue's father, was a scholar of the Chinese classics, and the Hashi family had been serving the Maeda clan for generations in the Kaga Domain. Sadatar (), the third Governor-general of Karafuto Prefecture, and Natsuko (family register name: Natsu) were among Mishima's paternal grandparents (). Mishima's name was Kimitake (), later read Ki in on-yomi) in honor of Furuichi Ki (), a benefactor of Sadatar, according to him. Mitsuko (), his younger sister, died of typhus at the age of 17, and Chiyuki ().

Mishima's childhood home was rented, but it was a large two-story house that was the most prominent in the neighborhood. He lived with his parents, siblings, and paternal grandparents, as well as six maids, a houseboy, and a manservant. The grandfather was in debt, so there were no remarkable household items on the first floor.

The absence of his grandfather, Natsuko, who took the boy and separated him from his immediate family for many years, was mishima's early childhood. Mishima was the granddaughter of Matsudaira Yoritaka (), the daimy of Shishido Province, and therefore a direct descendant of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu (), through his grandmother. Nagai Iwanoj () was Natsuko's father, and Iwanoj's adoptive father, Nagai Naoyuki (), was a bannerman of the Tokugawa House during the Bakumatsu. Natsuko had been raised in Prince Arisugawa Taruhito's family, and she continued to be aristocratic pretensions long after marrying Sadatar, a bureaucrat who had made his fortune in the newly opened colonial frontier in the north and who later became Governor General of Sakhalin Island. Tazaemon Hiraoka (), the father of Sadatar's father, and his grandfather, Tazaemon Hiraoka (), were farmers. Natsuko was prone to violent outbursts, which are often referred to in Mishima's books, and to whom some biographers have traced Mishima's obsession with death. Mishima was forbidden to walk into the sun, participate in any sort of sport, or compete with other boys. He spent the majority of his time alone or with female cousins and their dolls.

When he was 12 years old, Mishima returned to his immediate family. Azusa's father had a keen interest in military discipline, and Natsuko's parenting style was too soft. Azusa began teaching Mishima, dragging Mishima up to the side of a speeding train. He also searched his son's room for signs of a "effeminate" interest in literature, as well as to tear his son's manuscripts apart. Although Azusa's refusal to write any more stories, Mishima continued to write in secrecy, aided 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 performance: Kanadehon Chesthura, an allegory of the 47 Rnin's story. He was later taken to his first Noh play (Miwa, a tale starring Amano-Iwato) by his maternal grandmother Tomi Hashi (). Mishima became addicted to Kabuki and Noh from those early experiences. He began attending performances every month and became incredibly interested in these traditional Japanese dramatic art styles.

Mishima was enrolled in the Peers' School in Tokyo, which had been established in the Meiji period to educate the Imperial family and the descendants of the old feudal nobility. Mishima's first stories appeared at 12 years old. (Kojiki, Greek mythology, etc.) He read myths (Kojiki, Greek mythology, etc.) Translation of numerous classic Japanese writers, as well as Raymond Radiguet, Jean Cocteau, Oscar Wilde, Rainer Maria Rilke, Rainer Rilke, Thomas Mann, Friedrich Nietzsche, l'Isle-Adam, and other European authors' translations. He also studied German. He was the youngest member of the editorial board of the university's literary society after six years of study. Mishima was attracted by the works of Japanese poet Shizuo It (, It Shizuo), poet and novelist Haruo Sato (), and poet Michiz Tachihara (), who inspired Mishima's appreciation of classical Japanese waka poetry. Before he turned his attention to prose, Mishima's early contributions to the Gakush literary magazine Hojinkai-zasshi () included haiku and waka poetry.

Mishima was invited to write a short story for the Hojinkai-zasshi in 1941, and he published Forest in Full Bloom (, Hanazakari no Mori), a tale in which the narrator's report shows the sensation that his ancestors somehow live within him. The tale revolves around metaphors and aphorisms that became Mishima's trademarks. He gave his Japanese instructor Fumio Shimizu () a copy of the manuscript for constructive criticism. Shimizu was so impressed that he took the manuscript to a meeting of the editorial board of Bungei Bunka (), of which he was a member. The other board members listened to the tale and were delighted; they congratulated themselves for recognizing a genius and published it in the journal. Due to a wartime paper shortage, the story was later published in a limited book edition (4,000 copies) in 1944. Mishima's book was published as a keepsake to remember him by, as he hoped that he would die in the war.

Yukio Mishima, a pen-named "foreigning him from potential backlash from Azusa, Shimizu, and the other editorial board members, was coined by Yukio Mishima. They took "Mishima" from Mishima Station, which Shimizu and fellow Bungei Bunka board member Hasuda Zenmei passed through on their way to the editorial meeting, which was held in Izu, Shizuoka. Because of the snow on Mount Fuji as the train passed, the name "Yukio" came from yuki (Japan's word for "snow." Hasuda lauded Mishima's ingenuity as follows: "In the issue, Hasuda praised Mishima's genius."

Hasuda, who became a mentor to Mishima, was an ardent nationalist and a fan of Motoori Norinaga (1730-1851), a scholar of kokugaku who preached Japanese traditional values and devotion to the Emperor. Hasuda had served in China for three years, and he was sent back to active service in 1943 as a first lieutenant in the Southeast Asian theater. Hasuda sang of Hasuda's Bungei Bunka group at a farewell party: Mishima said the following parting terms.

These words, according to Mishima, were profoundly significant to him and had a major effect on his future.

Mishima wrote an essay about his deep commitment to Shint in his notebook titled The Way of the Gods (, Kannagara no michi). Mishima's story The Cigarette (total tabako, 1946), a literary journal published in Japan, explores a homosexual desire he felt at school and being teased from members of the school's rugby union club because he belonged to the literary club. The Boy Who Wrote Poetry (, Shi o kaku shnen) was another tale from 1954, based on Mishima's memories of his time at Gakushin Junior High School.

Mishima graduated Gakushin High School at the top of the class on September 9th and became a graduate representative. Emperor Hirohito attended the graduation ceremony, and Mishima later received a silver watch from the Emperor at the Imperial Household Ministry.

Mishima received a draft notice for the Imperial Japanese Army and barely passed his conscription examination on May 16, 1944, earning him a less coveted rating of "second class" conscript. During his medical exam on convocation day (10 February 1945), he had a cold, and the young army doctor misdiagnosed Mishima with tuberculosis, making him unfit for service and sent him home. Scholars have argued that Mishima's inability to gain a "first-class" rating on his conscription exam (reserved only for the most physically fit recruits), along with his general inability, contributed to his inferiority complex that later led to his obsession with physical fitness and bodybuilding.

Mishima wrote a farewell letter to his family the day before his failed medical examination, ending with the phrase "Long live the Emperor!" (Tenn, heika banzai) and prepared hair and nails of his hair and nails will be kept as mementos by his parents. The troops of Mishima's unit were sent to the Philippines, where the bulk of them were killed. Mishima's parents were ecstatic that he did not have to fight, but Mishima's mother was astonish; Mishima's mother said he wished he had joined a "Special Attack" unit (, tokk). In letters to friends and private notes, Mishima admired kamikaze pilots and other "unique attack" units around the time.

He wrote in his diary:

Mishima's mentor Zenmei Hasuda, who had been drafted and sent to the Malay peninsula, shot and killed a senior officer for insulting the Emperor before turning his pistol on himself on August 19th. Mishima learned of the incident a year later and performed poetry in Hasuda's honour at a memorial service in November 1946. Mitsuko, Mishima's beloved younger sister, died suddenly of typhoid fever after drinking untreated water on October 23, 1945 (Showa 20). Kuniko Mitani (), a classmate's sister who had hoped to marry, was engaged to another man at the same time. Mishima's future literary work was fueled by these tragic events in 1945.

His father, Azusa "half-allowed" Mishima to become a novelist at the end of the war. He was worried that his son would be a writer at all, but that his son would instead be a bureaucrat like himself and Mishima's grandfather Sadatar. He advised his son to enroll in the Faculty of Law rather than the literature department. Mishima graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1947, attending lectures during the day and writing at night. He joined the Ministry of Finance and seemed to be on the verge of a fruitful career as a government bureaucrat. However, Mishima had overworked himself so much that his father decided to resign from his position and devote himself to writing full time.

Mishima began writing A Story at the Cape in 1945 (Misaki nite no Monogatari) and continued to work on it until the end of World War II. It was praised by Shizuo Ito, who Mishima revered.

The country was occupied by the United States-led Allied Powers following Japan's defeat in World War II. Many people with senior positions in various fields were barred from public office at the request of the occupation authorities. The media and publishing industries were also restricted, and no one was allowed to engage in words that were reminiscent of wartime Japanese nationalism. In addition, literary figures, many of whom had been close to Mishima at the time of the war, were also branded "war criminal literary figures." In his letters to friends, some people denounced them and converted to left-wing politics, which Mishima condemned as "opportunists." As a reaction to wartime militancy and writing socialist realist literature that might support the cause of the socialist revolution, several well-known literary figures migrated leftists and joined the Communist Party. Following the war's end, Mishima's fame had increased in the Japanese literary world, which Mishima found difficult to accept. Despite the fact that Mishima was just 20 years old at the time, he was worried that his kind of literature, based on the 1930s Japanese Romantic School (, "Nihon Rman Ha"), had already become out of date.

Mishima had learned that Yasunari Kawabata, the renowned writer, had lauded his work before the war was over. Mishima, who was uncertain of whom to go to, and The Cigarette (Makako), with his father, visited Kawabata in Kamakura, asking for his information and assistance in January 1946. Kawabata was impressed, and "The Cigarette," the new literary journal "Humanity"), was published in June 1946, followed by "The Middle Ages" in December 1946. "The Middle Ages" is set in Japan's historical Muromachi Period and explores the motifs of shud (, man-boy love) against a backdrop of Ashikaga Yoshihisa's () death in combat at the age of 25, as well as his father Ashikaga Yoshimasa ()'s tragic sadness. Kikuwaka, a fabled teenage boy who was beloved by both Yoshihisa and Yoshimasa, but who fell short of following Yoshihisa in death by suicide. Kikuwaka dedicates himself to spiritualism in the wake of Yoshimasa's depressed death, and the woman, a miko (rouns) falls in love with him in a double-suicide. Mishima told the tale in an elegant style, drawing on medieval Japanese literature and the Ryjin Hish, a series of medieval imay's songs. The mischief of Mishima's later aesthetics is represented by this boosted writing style and the homosexual motif. A few years ago, Kawabata, who praised this work, wrote an essay describing his first falling in love with a child two years his junior.

Mishima's debut, Thieves (Tzoku), was his first book, a tale about two young members of the aristocracy that was heading for suicide in 1946. It was published in 1948 and placed Mishima in the Second Generation of Postwar Writers. He published Confessions of a Mask (Kokuhaku), a semi-autobiographical account of a young homosexual man who hides behind a mask to fit into society for the following year. The book was a huge success, and Mishima became a celebrity at the age of 24. In Kindai Bungaku, circa 1949, Mishima published a literary essay about Kawabata, for whom he had always expressed an admiration.

Mishima loved international travel. In 1952, he went on a world tour and published his travelogue as The Cup of Apollo (, Aporo no Sakazuki). During his travels, he visited Greece, a destination that had captivated him since childhood. His visit to Greece inspired his 1954 book The Sound of Waves (Chloe), which took inspiration from the Greek legend of Daphnis and Chloe. The Sound of Waves, located on the tiny island of "Kami-Shima" where a traditional Japanese lifestyle was revived, depicts a clear, simple love between a fisherman and a female pearl and abalone diver (, ama). Despite the fact that the book became a best-seller, leftists chastised it for "glorifying old-fashioned Japanese values" and some people started referring to Mishima as a "fascist." "The ancient community ethics portrayed in this book were attacked by progressives at the time," Mishima wrote, but no matter how much the Japanese people changed, these ancient values remained in their hearts." This has gradually been the case."

In several of his paintings, Mishima made use of current events. The Golden Pavilion (, Kinkaku-ji), which was published in 1956, is a fictionalization of the burning down of the Kinkaku-ji Buddhist temple in Kyoto in 1950 by a physically troubled monk.

In 1959, Mishima published the literary debut Kyko no Ie (Kyko's house) (, Kyko no Ie). The novel tells the interwoven lives of four young men who portrayed four different aspects of Mishima's life. His sporting career as a boxer, his artistic side as a painter, his narcissistic, performative career as an actor, and his nihilistic side as a businessman who goes through the motions of living a normal life while still having "complete contempt for reality." He was attempting to capture the time period in the novel around 1955, when Japan was experiencing high economic growth and the phrase "the postwar is over" was used. "Ko no Ie is, so to speak, my inquiry into the nihilism in me," Mishima said. Despite the fact that the book was largely praised by a select group of writers from the same period as Mishima and sold 150,000 copies in a month, it was quickly dismissed in wider literary circles, and Mishima's first "failed work" was quickly branded as Mishima's first "failed work" by some. It was Mishima's first big setback as an author, and the book's scathing reception followed as a strong psychological blow.

Many of Mishima's most popular and highly regarded works were written before 1960. However, he had not written any articles that were regarded as particularly political until that year. Mishima became involved in the massive Anpo demonstrations against US-backed Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi's proposal to revise the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan (also known as "Anpo" in Japanese) in order to firmly entre the US-Japan military alliance into place. Despite being unable to attend the marches directly, he did often go out into the streets to see the demonstrators in action and kept extensive newspaper clipping chronicling the protests. Mishima wrote "A Political Opinion" in June 1960, the climax of the resistance movement. He argued in the critical essay that leftist organisations, such as the Zengakuren student union, the Socialist Party, and the Communist Party, were falsely defending democracy and exploiting the demonstration movement to further their own ends. Following ideologues who told lies with honeyed words, Mishima warned of the risks of the Japanese people. Despite Mishima's dismissal of Kishi as a "nihilist" who had subordinated himself to the United States, Mishima decided that rather than a sarcastic but eloquent ideologue, he'd rather vote for a hard-willed realist who had neither hopes nor despair."

Mishima began writing Patriotism (Ykoku), a young right-wing ultranationalist Japanese army officer who committed suicide after a failed rebellion against the government following the February 26 Incident. He published the first two parts of his three-part play Tenth-Day Chrysanthemum (, Tka no kiku), which commemorates the lives of the 26 February revolutionaries.

Mishima's latest interest in contemporary politics inspired his book After the Banquet (Utage no ato), which also appeared in 1960, which so closely followed events surrounding politician Hachira's aspirations to become Tokyo's governor that Mishima was sued for invasion of privacy. Mishima released The Frolic of the Beasts (, Kemono no tawamure), a parody of the classical Noh play Motomezuka, written in Kiyotsu Kan'ami in the 14th century. Mishima's 1962 masterpiece Beautiful Star (Utsukushi hoshi), which at times comes close to science fiction, came close to science fiction. Despite mixed literary praises, prominent literary commentator Takeo Okuno singled it out for praise as part of a new breed of novels that was overthrowrowning long-standing literary traditions in the post-Anpo Prosecutive aftermath of the Anpo Prosecutors' turbulent aftermath. Similarly to K.B. Abe's Woman of the Dunes (, Suna no onna), published the same year, Okuno characterized A Beautiful Star as a "epoch-making work" that broke free of literary tabogyny and preconceived notions of what literature should be in order to investigate the author's personal creativity.

Mishima produced Madame de Sade (Shaku fujin), a complex figure of vice that has traditionally been portrayed as an exemplar of vice, as a result of a series of debates among six female characters, including the Marquis' wife, the Madame de Sade. Mishima's own interpretation of what he felt to be one of the de Sade's key points is his continued love for her husband when he was in jail and her unexpected call to renounce him upon his release. Mishima's performance was inspired in part by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa's 1960 Japanese translation of the Marquis de Sade's Juliette and a 1964 biography of de Sade. Shibusawa's sexually explicit translation became the subject of a sensational obscenity trial in Japan named "Sade Case" (, Sado saiban), which was still ongoing when Mishima wrote the story. Madame de Sade was rated as the "most drama in the history of postwar theater" by Japanese theater criticism magazine Theater Arts in 1994.

Mishima was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1963, 1964, and 1965, and was a favorite of many foreign journals. However, in 1968, his late mentor Kawabata received the Nobel Prize, and Mishima realized that the chances of it being given to another Japanese author in the near future were slim. Mishima wrote in 1970 that the authors he paid the most attention to in modern western literature were Georges Bataille, Pierre Klossowski, and Witold Gombrowicz.

Mishima played himself and appeared in Yasuzo Masumura's 1960 film, Afraid to Die (, Karakkaze yar), for which he also performed the theme song (lyrics by himself; music by Shichiru Fukazawa). He appeared in films such as Patriotism or the Rite of Love and Death (YKoku, directed by himself, 1966), Black Lizard (, Kurotokokawa, 1969), and Hitokiri (, directed by Hideo Gosha, 1969).

Mishima was featured as the photo model in photographer Eikoh Hosoe's book Bara-kei (Ba-ra-rai: Ordeal by Roses), as well as in Tamotsu Yatoko's book Young Japanese Male (, Taid) and Otoko: Photo Investigations of the Young Japanese Male (, Otoko). In the snow for one of Tamotsu Yat's photoshoots, American author Donald Richie gave an eyewitness account of Mishima, dressed in a loincloth and armed with a sword.

Heibon Punch, Mishima's book in which Mishima had contributed numerous articles and critiques, won first place in the "Mr. Dandy" reader popularity poll in 1967, defeating second place Toshiro Mifune by 720 votes. In the forthcoming reader satisfaction survey, Mishima came in second, behind French President Charles de Gaulle. Mishima was the first celebrity to be regarded as a "hero" by the Japanese media at that time in the late 1960s (spsut'sut).

Mishima, a 1955-born boy, began weighing more closely to face an inferiority complex in his inborn constitution, but his strictly followed workout program of three sessions per week was not interrupted for the final 15 years of his life. Mishima's 1968 essay Sun and Steel (Tetsu, Taiy) deploded intellectuals' emphasis on the body's shape. He later became a top Dan in battujutsu and the 1st Dan in karate, and the 5th Dan (traditional Japanese swordsmanship) at kendo (traditional Japanese swordsmanship). He tried boxing for a brief period of time in 1956. He discovered an interest in UFOs and became a member of the Japan Flying Saucer Research Association in the same year (, Nihon soratobu enban kenkyukai). In 1954, he fell in love with Sadako Toyoda (), who became the model for main characters in The Sunken Waterfall (, Shizumeru taki) and The Seven Bridges (, Hashi zukushi). Mishima had aspired to marry her but they did not marry her in 1957.

Mishima, née Sugiyama, the daughter of Japanese-style painter Yasushi Sugiyama (), was briefly considering marriage with Michiko Shoji (), who later married Crown Prince Akihito and became Empress Michiko on June 1, 1958. The couple had two children: Noriko (born 2 June 1959) and Ichiro (born 2 May 1962). Noriko married diplomat Koji Tomita ().

Mishima visited gay bars in Japan while writing his book Forbidden Colors (Kenjiki). Mishima's sexual orientation offended his wife, and she has never expressed her disapproving his homosexuality after his death. Jiru Fukushima () published an account of his friendship with Mishima in 1951, which included fifteen letters (not love letters) from the legendary novelist. Mishima's children successfully sued Fukushima and the publisher for copyright violation over Mishima's letters. Rather than copyrighted works, publisher Bungeishunj argued that the letters were "practical correspondence" rather than copyrighted ones. "These letters, in lieu of clerical content, reveal the Mishima's personal feelings, aspirations, and his views on life in a different way from those in his literary fiction," the judge noted.

Mishima became embroiled in the aftermath of the Shimanaka earthquake in February 1961 (Shmanaka Jiken). In 1960, author Shichirchiru () had published The Tale of an Elegant Dream (Fris Mutan), a satirical short story, in the mainstream magazine Ch Kron. It contained a dream sequence (in which the Emperor and Empress are beheaded by a guillotine) that resulted in outrage from right-wing ultra-nationalist groups, as well as numerous suicide attempts against Fukazawa, including any writers who were suspected of being associated with him or Cháron magazine itself. Kazutaka Komori (), a seventeen-year-old rightist, burst into the home of H. Shimanaka (), the president of Ch Kron, on February 1, 1961, killing his maid with a sword and injuring his wife. Fukazawa went into hiding in the aftermath, and hundreds of writers and literary commentators, including Mishima, were granted round-the-clock police cover for several months; Mishima was included because rumors that Mishima had personally suggested "The Tale of an Elegant Dream" for publication became widespread, and despite repeatedly rejecting the assertion, hundreds of suicide threats. Mishima chastised Komori in later years, 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 perpetrator of the assassination attempt. After commiting an assassination, Mishima claimed that it was the custom among traditional Japanese patriots to commit suicide right away.

The Harp of Joy Incident occurred in 1963, to which Mishima belonged to. Haruko Sugimura (, Yorokobi no koto) wrote a play titled The Harp of Joy (, Yorokobi no koto), but the protagonist and other Communist Party-affiliated actors refused to perform because the protagonist held anti-communist views and said something about a plot of world communism in his lines. Mishima left Bungakuza and later formed the troupe Neo Littérature Théâtre (NLT, Gekidan NLT), which also included Seiichi Yashio (), Takeo Matsuura (), and Nobuo Nakamura (). Mishima formed the Roman Theatre (Rman Gekij), the Neo Littérature Théâtre) when Neo Littérature Théâtre experienced a schism in 1968 and spent time in Matsumura and Nakamura.

Mishima interviewed many celebrities every day and wrote journals as a newspaper reporter during the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. Since the 1940 Tokyo Olympics were postponed due to Japan's war in China, he eagerly awaited the long-awaited return of the Olympics to Japan. In his book on the opening ceremonies, Mishima expressed his joy: "It can be said that ever since Lafcadio Hearn called the Japanese "the Greeks of the Orient," the Olympics were supposed to be hosted by Japan someday."

Mishima feared Ryokichi Minobe, who was both a communist and Tokyo governor who took responsibility for the city's governor in 1967. During his time in the Ministry of Finance (LDP), influential people in the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), including Takeo Fukuda and Kiichi Aichi, knew Mishima, and Prime Minister Eisaku Sato learned about him because his wife, Hiroko, was a fan of Mishima's work. Mishima was invited to run for the LDP as governor of Tokyo against Minobe, but Mishima had no intention of becoming a politician based on those links, but Mishima had no intention of becoming a politician.

Mishima was a fan of manga and gekiga, particularly Hiroshi Hirata (), a mangaka best known for his samurai gekiga, the slapstick, absurdist comedy in Fujio Akatsuka's Mretsu Atar (), and Shigeru Mizuki's GeGe no Kitar (). In Weekly Shnen Magazine every week, Mishima loved reading the boxing manga Ashita no Joe (tomorrow's Joe). Ultraman and Godzilla were his two favorite kaiju fantasies, and he once compared himself to "Godzilla's egg" in 1955. On the other hand, he disliked story manga with humanist or cosmopolitan themes, such as Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix (, Hi no tori).

Mishima was a lover of science fiction, and she argued that "science fiction will be the first literature to completely tackle modern humanism." Arthur C. Clarke's End in particular was lauded by him. "I'm not afraid to call it a masterpiece" after reading it, acknowledging "inexpressible pain and ill feelings after reading it."

Every summer, Mishima and his wife and children, travelled to Shimoda on the Izu Peninsula, from 1964 to 2015. Mishima's friend Henry Scott-Stokes loved eating local seafood in Shimoda. Mishima never showed any hostility against the United States in front of international colleagues such as Scott-Stokes until Mishima learned that Kurofune (lit. ('Black ship') at which time his voice became stifled and he said in a sarcastic tone, "Why?" he screamed out in a sarcastic tone. Why do you stay at a place with such a name?" After the war, Mishima loved ordinary Americans, and he and his wife had even visited Disneyland as newlyweds. However, he displayed a strong sense of hostility against the "black ships" of Commodore Matthew C. Perry, who forcibly opened Japan up to unequal international relations at the end of the Edo period and destroyed Edo's peace, where vibrant chrin culture flourished.

Mishima's nationalism grew towards the end of his life. He published his short story The Voices of the Heroic Dead (electi no koe), in which he chastised Emperor Hirohito for renouncing his own divinity after World War II. He argued that the soldiers who died in the February 26 Incident (Ni-Roku Jiken) and the Japanese Special Attack Units (Tokktai) died for their "living god" Emperor, and that Hirohito's renunciation of his own divinity meant that all those deaths were in vain. His Majesty had become a human when he should be a God, according to Mishima.

Mishima, a writer who teaches English and literature, was among writers Yasunari Kawabata, Kb. Abe, and Jun Ishikawa in releasing a statement condemning China's Cultural Revolution for suppressing academic and artistic liberation in February 1967. However, only one Japanese newspaper carried the complete text of their admonition.

Mishima and his wife went to India in September 1967 at the Indian government's behest. He travelled extensively and spoke with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Zakir Hussain. He was left raving about Indian history and how indigenous people's refusal to embrace Westernization and protect traditional ways. Mishima was afraid that his fellow Japanese were too obsessed with modernization and western-style materialism to safeguard traditional Japanese culture. He spoke with an unidentified colonel of the Indian Army who had suffered skirmishes with Chinese troops along the Sino-Indian border while in New Delhi. The colonel warned Mishima of the Chinese troops's vigor and fighting spirit. Mishima expressed fear about what seemed to be a lack of worry in Japan over the need to strengthen Japan's national defense against the threat from Communist China earlier this year. Mishima's return from India stopped in Thailand and Laos, and his experiences in the three countries formed the basis for portions of his book The Sea of Fertility (, H.j. no Umi).

Mishima wrote My Friend Hitler (Waga tomo Hittor), in which he portrayed Adolf Hitler, Gustav Krupp, Gregor Strasser, and Ernst Röhm as mouthpieces to express his own views about fascism and beauty in 1968. Mishima said that after writing Madame de Sade, an all-female role, he wanted to write a mirror play with an all-male cast. "You may read this tragedy as an allegory of the friendship between kubo Toshimichi and Saig Takamori (two protagonists of Japan's Meiji Restoration who started together but later had to cancel due to a man's death).

He wrote Life for Sale (Inochi Urimasu), a comedic tale about a man who, after struggling to commit suicide, advertises his life for auction. "pulp noir" and a "sexy, camp pleasure," novelist Ian Thomson said in an article about the English translation, but also stated that "beneath the hard-boiled conversation and the gangster high jinks is a familiar indictment of consumerist Japan and a romantic yearning for the past."

Leftists who said Hirohito should have ceased to bear responsibility for the death of life in the war have feared Mishima. They also hated him for his outspoken support for Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution and for his argument in his book The Way of the Warriors (Benki B) that stressed the importance of the Emperor in Japanese cultures. Mishima characterized Japan's postwar period, where no poetic culture or supreme artist was born, as a period of fake prosperity, as a period of fake prosperity, as well as The Defense of Culture:

Mishima wrote in other critical essays that the national spirit that had grown in Japan's long history is the key to national defense, and he was worried about the Chinese Communist Party's insidious "indirect violence" of North Korea and the Soviet Union. Mishima's article in 1969 introduced Japan's volatile and delicate situation as well as its particulars between China, the Soviet Union, and the US.

Those who sluggishly oppose the US military base in Okinawa and the Security Treaty:

Mishima continued to work on his magnum opus, The Sea of Fertility tetralogy of novels, which first appeared in a monthly serialized format in September 1965. The four completed books were entitled 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 long novel with a totally different raison d'être from Western chronicle novels of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; rather than focusing on a single individual or family, Mishima set his aim as interpreting the entire human race. Four stories in The Decay of the Angel depict the migration of the human soul as the main character goes through a series of reincarnations. Mishima hoped to write something akin to pantheism. "The first edition of The Sea of Fertility as "the most complete picture we have of Japan in the twentieth century," novelist Paul Theroux wrote in 1990, and a summary of the author's life and work.

Mishima went to Mijiwa Shrine in Nara Prefecture in 1966, one of Japan's oldest Shint shrines, as well as Zenmei Hasuda's hometown and the Shinp Ren Rebellion's villages (Ghost City, no ran), an anti-government movement against the Meiji government in 1876. This trip will inspire portions of Runaway Horses (, Honba), the second book in the Sea of Fertility tetralogy series. Mishima bought a Japanese sword worth 100,000 yen while in Kumamoto. Mishima envisioned Kiyoaki, the protagonist of the first book Spring Snow, as a man named Isao who put his life on the line to bring about the Emperor's restored direct rule against the backdrop of the League of Blood Incident (, Ketsumeidan jiken) in 1932.

Mishima underwent basic training with the Ground Self-Defense Force from 12 April to May 1967 (GSDF). Mishima had initially planned to train with the GSDF for six months, but the Defense Department had to turn down his offer. Mishima's apprenticeship term was extended to 46 days, which required him to use some of his links. His participation in GSDF was kept private both because the Defense Ministry did not want to give the appearance that someone was receiving special care and Mishima wanted to experience "tru" military life. Mishima served under his birth name, Kimitake Hiraoka, for the most part, and the majority of his troops did not recognize him.

Mishima became a leading figure in a campaign to create a 10,000-man "Japan National Guard" (Sokoku B) as a civilian replacement to Japan's Self Defense Forces, beginning in June 1967. In the hopes of preparing 100 officers to lead the National Guard, he began leading groups of right-wing college students to basic training with the GDSF.

Mishima, like many other right-wingers, was particularly alarmed by the protests and revolutionary actions of radical "New Left" university students, who took over hundreds of college campuses in Japan in 1968 and 1969. On the 32nd anniversary of the February 26 Incident, he and several other right-wing journalists gathered in the editorial offices of the recently launched right-wing journal Controversy Journal (, Rons' Jaanaru), where they pricked their little fingers and signed a blood oath promising to die if necessary to prevent a left-wing revolt from taking place in Japan. By signing his birth name, Kimitake Hiraoka, in his own blood, Mishima displayed his sincerity.

When Mishima's attempt to develop a large-scale Japan National Guard with widespread public and private funding fell short, he formed the Tatenokai (, "Shield Society") on October 5, 1968, a private militia made up mainly of right-wing college students who pledged to protect the Emperor of Japan. The Tatenokai's primary focus was on martial preparation and physical fitness, as well as traditional kendo sword-fighting and long distance running. Mishima personally oversaw this learning process. Initial enrollment was around 50 people, mainly from Waseda University undergraduates and individuals associated with Controversy Journal. Tatenokai members' number later increased to 100. Some of the officers had graduated from university and were employed, while others were still working adults when they were enlisted.

Mishima and four members of the Tatenokai—Masakatsu Morita (), Masahiro Koga (), Hiroyasu Koga (), and Hiroyasu Koga ()—used a pretext to explore Camp Ichigaya, a military base in central Tokyo and the Eastern Command of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces' Eastern Command (). They cordoned the office and tether the commandant to his chair inside. Mishima's white hachimaki headband with a red hinomaru circle in the center displaying the kanji for "To be reborn seven times to serve the country," the younger brother of the 14th century imperial loyalist samurai Kusunoki Masashige (), as the two brothers died fighting for the Emperor. Mishima stepped out onto the balcony to greet the soldiers assembled below with a well-prepared manifesto and a banner announcing their demands. His address was intended to spark a coup d'état in order to reclaim the emperor's power. He succeeded only in enraging the troops, and was booed in the midst of jeers and the constant commotion of helicopters drowning out certain portions of his speech. "Where has the samurai spirit gone?" Mishima rebuked the JSDF for passive acceptance of a constitution that "denies (their) own existence" and screamed to rouse them. Mishima expressed dissatisfaction with the JSDF's half-baked form in his final written appeal that Morita and Ogawa scattered copies of from the balcony.

Mishima yelled out "Long live the Emperor" after he finished reading his prepared text in a few minutes. Three times, Tenno-heika banzai) was invoked. He then retreated into the commandant's office and apologized to the commandant, saying, "I regretfully".

Mishima then committed seppuku, a form of ritual suicide involving disembowelment associated with the samurai. Morita had been chosen to be Mishima's second (kaishakunin), chopping off his head with a sword at the end of the ceremony to save him from unnecessary pain. However, Morita was unable to finish his sentence, and after three failed attempts to sever Mishima's head, Koga had to step in and finish the job.

Originally, all four Tatenokai members and Mishima had intended to commit seppuku, according to the surviving coup survivors. However, Mishima tried to dissuade them, but three of the group members complied with his wishes. "I can't let Mr. Mishima die alone," Morita continued. But Mishima knew that Morita had a woman and was hoping he would live. "Morita, you must live, not die" Mishima said just before his seppuku. Nevertheless, after Mishima's seppuku, Morita knelt and stabbed himself in the abdomen, and Koga acted as a kaishakunin.

In Japan, this coup attempt is dubbed The Mishima Incident (, Mishima jiken).

Another traditional feature of the suicide ritual was the writing of so-called death poems by Tatenokai members prior to their entry into the headquarters. Mishima and other Tatenokai members, as well as several government officials, were secretly researching coup proposals for a constitutional amendment after being enlisted in the Ground Self-Defense Force for almost four years. They thought there was a chance when security (Chittsudo) was sent to subpoen the Zenkyo resistance. However, Zenkyoto was surprisingly easy to be dismantled by the Riot Police Unit in October 1969. These officials resigned from the coup of constitutional amendment, and Mishima was dissatisfied with them and Japan's current situation after World War II. Officer Kiyokatsu Yamamoto (), Mishima's education instructor, delves into the subject.

Mishima planned his suicide for at least a year, but no one outside of the Tatenokai family knew what he was planning. The coup attempt, according to his biographer, translator John Nathan, was simply a pretext for the ritual suicide of which Mishima had long aspired. "Mishima is the most influential individual in postwar Japan," his friend Scott-Stokes, another biographer, has said, "Mishima is the most influential person in postwar Japan" and has compared the constitution of Japan's shackles.

Scott-Stokes related to a meeting with Mishima in his diary entry for September 3, 1970, when Mishima had a sad look on his face, said:

In 1990, Scott-Stokes told Takao Tokuoka that the Green Snake meant the US dollar. Mishima also spoke out against Japan's future between 1968 and 1970. Mishima's senior friend and father heard from Mishima:

The body of Mishima was returned home the day after his death. Azusa's father was afraid to see his son whose appearance had completely changed. However, Mishima's head and body had been sutured as he entered the casket, and his dead face had been flawlessly applied, to which makeup had been exquisitely applied, seemed to be alive thanks to the police officers. "We applied funeral makeup with acute emotions because it is the body of Dr. Mishima, whom we had always revered secretly." According to the will that Mishima entrusted to his friend Kinemaro Izawa, Mishima's body was dressed in the Tatenokai uniform, with the gun tightly held at the chest. Azusa's son adored in the casket together, with manuscript papers and fountain pen. Mishima had consulted to ensure his affairs were in order and that left enough funds for the three remaining Tatenokai members' legal defense: Masahiro Ogawa (), Masayoshi Koga (), and Hiroyasu Koga. "It was a fear of the revival of militarism," media commentators said after the incident. In the trial, the commandant who had been made a hostage said that he had been executed.

The Mishima Incident (25 November) was the date when Hirohito (Emperor Shwa) became rector, and Emperor Shwa made the Humanity Declaration at the age of 45. According to researchers, Mishima revived the "God" by dying as a scapegoat when the Emperor became a human. According to others, the day corresponds to Yoshida Shrineman's (), whom Mishima revered, or that Mishima planned his period of bardo (, Chuu) for reincarnation because the 49th day after his death was his birthday, January 14th. Mishima's remains were buried in the grave of the Hiraoka family at Tama Cemetery on his birthday. In addition,, November 25th is the day he began writing Confessions of a Mask (, Kamen no kokuhaku), and this work was announced as "Live Technology of Life Regeneration," "Suicide inside out." In notes for this assignment, Mishima also wrote down notes.

Takashi Inoue, a writer, believes he wrote Confessions of a Mask to live in postwar Japan and get away from his "Reality of Death"; by the time he started to write Confessions of a Mask, Mishima intended to dismantle all of his postwar creative endeavors and return to the "Reality of Death," where he used to live.

Source

Awards

• Shincho Prize from Shinchosha Publishing, 1954, for The Sound of Waves
• Kishida Prize for Drama from Shinchosha Publishing, 1955 for Termites' Nest (白蟻の巣, Shiroari no Su)
• Yomiuri Prize from Yomiuri Newspaper Co., for best novel, 1956, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
• Shuukan Yomiuri Prize for Shingeki from Yomiuri Newspaper Co., 1958, for Rose and Pirate (薔薇と海賊, Bara to Kaizoku)
• Yomiuri Prize from Yomiuri Newspaper Co., for best drama, 1961, The Chrysanthemum on the Tenth (The Day After the Fair) (十日の菊, Tōka no kiku)
• One of six finalists for the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1963.
• Mainichi Art Prize from Mainichi Shimbun, 1964, for Silk and Insight
• Art Festival Prize from the Ministry of Education, 1965, for Madame de Sade