| architecture |
| calligraphy |
| ceramics |
| clothing |
| comics |
| gardens |
| lacquerwork |
| literature |
| movies |
| music |
| painting |
| poetry |
| sculpture |
| tea ceremony |
| television |
| theatre |
| weaponry |
| thematic routes |
| timeline |
| the site |
context: literature > modern
|
Yukio Mishima 1925-70
Probably my favourite Japanese writer, Mishima was rather obsessed with sex and death. He is admired not necessarily because people agree with him, but for the force and purity and commitment (arguably to an insane degree) of the belief, though for me it's mostly the beauty and passion of his writing. He was very committed to bushido, the old samurai code, and the divinity of the Emperor. He had a deeply weird upbringing with a few crazy family members. His fitst novel was published in 1948, quickly followed by Confessions of a Mask, about his homosexuality. The Sea of Fertility tetralogy, 1968-70, is I think my favourite Japanese literature. It's based around four incarnations of the same person in 20th Century Japan.
His death was very famous: he attempted, with some acolytes, to launch a coup d'etat in 1970. He stormed and occupied some military command offices, then made a speech from the balcony intended to inspire a revolt, but the soldiers were not so inspired. Mishima then committed seppuku.