Yukio Mishima

The native form of this personal name is Mishima Yukio. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Yukio Mishima
三島由紀夫
Mishima in 1955
Born
Kimitake Hiraoka

(1925-01-14)14 January 1925
Nagazumi-cho 2-chome, Yotsuya-ku, Tokyo City, Tokyo Prefecture, Empire of Japan[1]
Died25 November 1970(1970-11-25) (aged 45)
Cause of deathSuicide by seppuku
Resting placeTama Cemetery, Tokyo
EducationUniversity of Tokyo
Occupations
  • Writer
  • playwright
  • actor
  • model
  • theatre and film director
  • civil servant
  • political activist
Employers
OrganizationTatenokai ("Shield Society")
Writing career
LanguageJapanese
PeriodContemporary (20th century)
Genres
Literary movement
Years active1938–1970
Notable works
Japanese name
Kanji三島 由紀夫
Transcriptions
RomanizationMishima Yukio
Japanese name
Kanji平岡 公威
Transcriptions
RomanizationHiraoka Kimitake
Signature

Yukio Mishima[a] (三島 由紀夫, Mishima Yukio), born Kimitake Hiraoka (平岡 公威, Hiraoka Kimitake, 14 January 1925 – 25 November 1970), was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, ultra-nationalist,[6][7][8][9] and leader of an attempted coup d'état which culminated in his suicide. Mishima is considered one of the most important postwar stylists of the Japanese language. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times in the 1960s—including in 1968, but that year the award went to his countryman and benefactor Yasunari Kawabata.[10] His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, and the autobiographical essay Sun and Steel. Mishima's work is characterized by "its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles, and its obsessive assertions of the unity of beauty, eroticism and death",[11] according to author Andrew Rankin.

Mishima's political activities made him a controversial figure to the present day.[12][13][14][15] From his mid-30 onwards, Mishima's far-right ideology and reactionary beliefs became increasingly evident.[15][16][17] He extolled the traditional culture and spirit of Japan, and opposed what he saw as western-style materialism, along with Japan's postwar democracy (戦後民主主義, sengo minshushugi), globalism, and communism, worrying that by embracing these ideas the Japanese people would lose their "national essence" (kokutai) and distinctive cultural heritage to become a "rootless" people.[18][19][20][21][22][23][24] In 1968, Mishima formed the Tatenokai ("Shield Society"), a private militia, for the purpose of protecting the dignity of the Emperor as a symbol of Japan's national identity.[25][19][26][27][28][29] On 25 November 1970, Mishima and four members of his militia entered a military base in central Tokyo, took its commandant hostage, and unsuccessfully tried to inspire the Japan Self-Defense Forces to rise up and overthrow Japan's Article 9 of 1947 Constitution to restore autonomous national defense,[30][31][32][23] and the divinity of the Emperor,[32][23] after which he died by seppuku.[31][32]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference bio-m1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Mishima". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Archived from the original on 1 June 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  3. ^ "Mishima, Yukio". Lexico Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2020. (US) and "Mishima, Yukio". Oxford Dictionaries UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 1 June 2019.
  4. ^ "Mishima". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  5. ^ "Mishima". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  6. ^ Fairbrother, Zac. "Violence, Masculinity, and Fascism in 1960s Japan". University of Sheffield. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
  7. ^ "A New Japanese Nationalism". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  8. ^ "ND on Film: Patriotism". 6 February 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  9. ^ Nathan, John (23 May 2019). "'Night and Blood and Death'". The New York Review of Books. 66 (9). Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  10. ^ Mccarthy, Paul (5 May 2013). "Revealing the many masks of Mishima". The Japan Times. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  11. ^ Rankin, Andrew (2018). Mishima, Aesthetic Terrorist: An Intellectual Portrait. University of Hawaii Press. p. 119.
  12. ^ Belsky, Beryl (18 October 2012). "Yukio Mishima: The Turbulent Life Of A Conflicted Martyr". Culture Trip.
  13. ^ "Yukio Mishima – 'The Lost Samurai'". Japan Today. 12 January 2014.
  14. ^ Flanagan, Damian (21 November 2015). "Yukio Mishima's enduring, unexpected influence". The Japan Times.
  15. ^ a b Shabecoff, Philip (2 August 1970). "Everyone in Japan Has Heard of Him". The New York Times.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference Jacobin was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Commentary on Mishima's ideology:
  18. ^ Mishima, Yukio (1970). 問題提起 (一)(二) [Problem presentation 1,2]. Constitutional Amendment Draft Study Group (in Japanese). collected in complete36 2003, pp. 118–132
  19. ^ a b Mishima, Yukio (1969). 自衛隊二分論 [Bisection of JSDF]. 20 Seiki (in Japanese). collected in complete35 2003, pp. 434–446
  20. ^ Mishima, Yukio (1968). 栄誉の絆でつなげ菊と刀 [Connect them with bonds of honor, Chrysanthemum and Sword]. Nihon Oyobi Nihonjin (Seikyosha) (in Japanese). collected in complete35 2003, pp. 188–199
  21. ^ Mishima, Yukio (1970). 我が国の自主防衛について [About self-defense of our country]. Lecture at the 3rd Shinsei Doshikai Youth Politics Workshop (in Japanese). collected in complete36 2003, pp. 319–347, complete41 2004
  22. ^ Ando 1998, pp. 338–339
  23. ^ a b c Muramatsu 1990, pp. 474–480, 503, 508
  24. ^ Toda 1978, pp. 91–105, 169–172
  25. ^ Mishima, Yukio (1968). 「楯の会」のこと [About the "Tatenokai"]. Pamphlet "Celebrating the First Anniversary of the Founding of the Tatenokai" (in Japanese). collected in complete35 2003, pp. 720–727
  26. ^ O-Encyclo 1976, pp. 246–247
  27. ^ Suzuki 2005, pp. 72–80
  28. ^ Ando 1998, pp. 259–261
  29. ^ Encyclo 2000, pp. 210–211, 519–520, 523–524
  30. ^ Cite error: The named reference geki was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  31. ^ a b Encyclo 2000, pp. 604–606
  32. ^ a b c Yamamoto 2001, pp. 32–43


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