While America marks the anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, right wing politicos and lovers of literature in Japan mourn the loss of their most famous — and infamous — post-war writer every November 25. But who was Yukio Mishima and how did he die? The Guardian provides a primer:
After a failed coup attempt at Japan’s military headquarters on November 25, 1970 Mishima, the homosexual author of Forbidden Colours, sliced open his belly with a sword and then ordered his followers to decapitate him.
This act of seppuku – the ritual suicide of a samurai warrior – did not go to plan. Mishima failed to disembowel himself cleanly and his cohort’s hands were shaking so much that he could not chop off his master’s head in one blow. The author, who had been tipped for a Nobel prize, died an agonising death.
According to the media and politicians of the time, the suicide was also pointless: at best, an artistic performance by a showman and, at worst, a futile gesture by a deranged extremist.
The last day of Mishima’s life was a fitting end for a man who was attracted to contradictory extremes: Mishima was a poet/playwright/novelist/actor/filmmaker obsessed with masculinity, the military and Japan’s samurai culture. His work was a radical mix of both modern and traditional aesthetics. He was an intellectual who wrote an entire book on bodybuilding and suntanning. He was a married man and a father who also had gay lovers.
There are a number of good biographies about Mishima available and I’d recommend Confessions of a Mask as a great introduction to the author’s writing. Another way into the man’s life and work is the stunning, intense, gorgeous film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters which was co-written and directed by Paul Schrader in 1985.
Here is the film in its entirety:
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