This year we remember the 65th anniversary of the publishing of Yukio Mishima’s first novel, Confessions of a Mask. One of my favorite writers and thinkers of all time, Mishima lived and died by the example that art and obsession can make great beauty if also a bloody tragedy.
Here’s the Wiki…
Mishima’s early childhood was dominated by the shadow of his grandmother, Natsuko, who took the boy, separating him from his immediate family for several years…Natsu was prone to violence and morbid outbursts, which are occasionally alluded to in Mishima’s works.[7] It is to Natsu that some biographers have traced Mishima’s fascination with death.[8] Natsu did not allow Mishima to venture into the sunlight, to engage in any kind of sport or to play with other boys; he spent much of his time alone or with female cousins and their dolls.[7]
Mishima returned to his immediate family when he was 12. His father, a man with a taste for military discipline, employed parenting tactics such as holding the young boy up to the side of a speeding train. He also raided Mishima’s room for evidence of an “effeminate” interest in literature and often ripped apart the boy’s manuscripts.
…In 1946, Mishima began his first novel, Tōzoku (盗賊?, “Thieves”), a story about two young members of the aristocracy drawn towards suicide. It was published in 1948, placing Mishima in the ranks of the Second Generation of Postwar Writers. He followed with Confessions of a Mask, a semi-autobiographical account of a young homosexual who must hide behind a mask in order to fit into society. The novel was extremely successful and made Mishima a celebrity at the age of 24.
…Mishima was considered for the Nobel Prize for Literature three times and was a favorite of many foreign publications. However, in 1968 his early mentor Kawabata won the Nobel Prize and Mishima realized that the chances of it being given to another Japanese author in the near future were slim…
The rest of Mishima’s celebrated, intense life and shocking death are illuminated in this episode of the BBC program Arena…
For more about Mishima, check out this previous post which includes a link to Paul Schrader’s outstanding biopic Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters.
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