Global InformationYukio Mishima information
Yukio Mishima | |||||
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三島由紀夫 | |||||
 Mishima in 1955 | |||||
| Born | Kimitake Hiraoka 14 January 1925 Nagazumi-cho 2-chome, Yotsuya-ku, Tokyo City, Tokyo Prefecture, Empire of Japan[1] | ||||
| Died | 25 November 1970 (aged 45)
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| Cause of death | Suicide by seppuku | ||||
| Resting place | Tama Cemetery, Tokyo | ||||
| Education | University of Tokyo | ||||
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| Organization | Tatenokai ("Shield Society") | ||||
| Writing career | |||||
| Language | Japanese | ||||
| Period | Contemporary (20th century) | ||||
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| Years active | 1938–1970 | ||||
| Notable works |
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| Japanese name | |||||
| Kanji | 三島 由紀夫 | ||||
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| Japanese name | |||||
| Kanji | 平岡 公威 | ||||
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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, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai (楯の会, "Shield Society"). Mishima is considered one of the most important post-war stylists of the Japanese language. He was considered 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.[6] 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",[7] according to author Andrew Rankin.
Mishima's political activities made him a controversial figure, which he remains in modern Japan.[8][9][10][11] From his mid-30s, Mishima's right-wing ideology and reactionary beliefs were increasingly evident.[11][12][13] He was proud of the traditional culture and spirit of Japan, and opposed what he saw as western-style materialism, along with Japan's postwar democracy, globalism, and communism, worrying that by embracing these ideas the Japanese people would lose their "national essence" (kokutai) and their distinctive cultural heritage (Shinto and Yamato-damashii) to become a "rootless" people.[14][15][16][17] Mishima formed the Tatenokai for the avowed purpose of restoring sacredness and dignity to the Emperor of Japan.[15][16][17] 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 1947 Constitution (which he called "a constitution of defeat").[17][14] After his speech and screaming of "Long live the Emperor!", he committed seppuku.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
bio-m1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Mishima". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Mishima". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
- ^ "Mishima". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
- ^ Mccarthy, Paul (5 May 2013). "Revealing the many masks of Mishima". The Japan Times. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
- ^ Rankin, Andrew (2018). Mishima, Aesthetic Terrorist: An Intellectual Portrait. University of Hawaii Press. p. 119.
- ^ Belsky, Beryl (18 October 2012). "Yukio Mishima: The Turbulent Life Of A Conflicted Martyr". Culture Trip.
- ^ "Yukio Mishima – 'The Lost Samurai'". Japan Today. 12 January 2014.
- ^ Flanagan, Damian (21 November 2015). "Yukio Mishima's enduring, unexpected influence". The Japan Times.
- ^ a b Shabecoff, Philip (2 August 1970). "Everyone in Japan Has Heard of Him". The New York Times.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Jacobinwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Commentary on Mishima's ideology:
- Attanasio, Paul (15 October 1985). "'Mishima' Impossible". Washington Post. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
- Dickey, Colin (June 2004). "Metaphysics, Protest, and the Politics of Spectacular Failure". Journal of Aesthetics and Protest. No. 3. Direct article link
- Jones, Nigel (25 November 2020). "A fanatic heart". The Critic Magazine.
- Mishan, Ligaya (9 September 2009). "I Don't Think They Heard Me". The New Yorker. Condé Nast.
- Schambelan, Elizabeth (2018). "In the Fascist Weight Room". Book Forum. No. Summer 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
- Shiota, Julia (9 March 2020). "When the Emperor Is a Void: Yukio Mishima and Fascism Today". Asian American Writers' Workshop.
- S. R. (23 January 2019). "Yukio Mishima". Japan Experience.
- Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Irmela (2009). "4. 'The Terrible Weapon of the Gravely Injured' – Mishima Yukio's Literature and the War". In Guy Podoler (ed.). War and Militarism in Modern Japan. Folkstone: BRILL; Global Oriental. pp. 53–62. doi:10.1163/ej.9781905246854.i-242.40. ISBN 978-90-04-21300-5.
In the context of post-war literary and intellectual history, Mishima Yukio tends to be seen as a romantic nihilist and ultra reactionary, a prolific but ultimately predictable writer whose spectacular seppuku accentuated his artistic career. On the other hand, even though his philosophical agenda, as he developed it in a series of essays, seems readily accessible for critical evaluation, his fictional creations do not necessarily conform to this image.
- ^ a b 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
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
nibunwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
eiyowas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b c 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
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