The Riddle of Yukio Mishima
20.07.2023 - 23:59
/ thegavoice.com
“Does this make sense?” We must ask that question when we look across cultures and times. So, how to explain Yukio Mishima and his brand of literate right-wing fanaticism?
Born into an old Samurai family in 1925 in Tokyo, the boy was essentially kidnapped by his paternal grandmother. She kept him isolated in her apartments, forbade him to go out into the sun, and only permitted him to play occasionally with female cousins and their dolls.
She encouraged him to read and write. He adored Hans Christian Anderson and Oscar Wilde, cherished European culture and philosophy, especially Nietzsche and the late Romantics, as well as Samurai classics.
He was clapped back to his father’s side at age 12. Concerned that his mother had sissified the boy, Daddy did things such as holding Mishima up to the side of speeding trains.
Mishima attended the most prestigious boy’s school in Japan, still writing in secret. When the War in the Pacific (WWII) was announced, he burned to fight for the Empire and die for the Emperor. But he was so scrawny that even when virtually anyone was being drafted, he was unable to lift the 100-pound bag of rice that proved your worthiness. Instead, he worked in a plant manufacturing Kamikaze aircraft.
Emperor Hirohito’s radio broadcast surrendering to allied forces in 1945 made Mishima vow to protect Japanese culture and the Emperor. He would first create a serviceable body, and began wildly rigorous training, including weights, karate, and Kendo (the Way of the Sword)
Mishima published a novel in 1950, Confessions of a Mask. Steeped in patriotic historiography and homoeroticism, it blazed across Japanese best seller lists and onto many European ones as well. Disciplined and prolific, he churned out well