The Styrous® Viewfinder: Yukio Mishima

February 15, 2019

Yukio Mishima - A Man of Honor

Yukio Mishima (三島由紀夫 Mishima Yukio) is the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka (平岡公威 Hiraoka Kimitake, who was born on January 14, 1925, in Tokyo, Japan. He was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model and film director. He is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, instead the award went to Yasunari Kawabata.

His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, and the autobiographical essay Sun and Steel. His avant-garde work displayed a blending of modern and traditional aesthetics that broke cultural boundaries, with a focus on sexuality, death, and political change. He executed the ultimate ideology/art performance, ritual suicide by seppuku.

I had never heard of Mishima until I saw the dazzling 1985 film, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, directed by Paul Schrader who also directed American Gigolo, Cat People (link below) and many other films. After I saw the film, I did a tremendous amount of research on Mishima; this was early computer days for me and knew little about researching on the Net, so, that says something about the power of this film.

The film is based on the life and work of Mishima (portrayed by Ken Ogata), interweaving episodes from his life with dramatizations of segments from his books The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kyoko's House, and Runaway Horses. Francis Ford Coppola (link below) and George Lucas (link below) were executive producers of the film. There are surreal segments with vivid colors in the film.

Mishima was scored by Philip Glass (link below) which ranges from full orchestra to string trio to instrumental rock; it is brilliantly dramatic at times while softly romantic at others; for me it is his best work ever. I used some of the music from the soundtrack for several Obiko fashion shows (link below).

According to Damian Flanagan, of Nippon.com (link below), Mishima was highly influenced to perform seppuku by the images of St Sebastian and the dramatic play, Salomé, originally written by Oscar Wilde in French, and in particular the illustrations for the production by Aubrey Beardsley.

left: St Sebastian, Guido Reni right: Salomé, Aubrey Beardsley

Yukio Mishima was active as a nationalist who founded his own right-wing militia, the Tatenokai. On November 25, 1970, he and four other members of his militia attempted a coup d'état when they seized control of a Japanese military base, took the commander hostage, then tried but failed to inspire a coup. With a prepared manifesto and a banner listing their demands, Mishima stepped onto the balcony to address the soldiers gathered below (YouTube link below). His speech was intended to inspire a coup d'état to restore the power of the emperor. He succeeded only in irritating the soldiers, and was mocked and jeered. Mishima then committed ritual suicide by seppuku. The coup attempt became known as the "Mishima Incident".