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Novelist, playwright, film actor, martial artist, and political commentator, Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) was arguably the most famous person in Japan at the time of his death. Henry Scott Stokes, one of Mishima's closest friends, was the only non-Japanese allowed to attend the trial of the men involved in Mishima's spectacular suicide. In this insightful and empathetic look at the writer, Stokes guides the reader through the milestones of Mishima's meteoric and eclectic career and delves into the artist's major works and themes. This biography skillfully and compassionately illuminates the achievements and disquieting ideas of a brilliant and deeply troubled man, an artist of whom Nobel Laureate Yasunari Kawabata had said, "A writer of Mishima's caliber comes along only once every two or three hundred years."
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The Life and Death of YUKIO MISHIMA
Photo: UPI
The Life and Death of YUKIO MISHIMA
Henry Scott Stokes
First Cooper Square Press edition 2000 This Cooper Square Press paperback edition of The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima is an unabridged republication of the edition published in New York in 1995. It is reprinted by arrangement with Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. Copyright © 1974, 1995, and 1999 by Henry Scott Stokes Designed by Paula Wiener Grateful acknowledgment is extended to Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., for permission to quote from their copyrighted translations of the works of Yukio Mishima. We are also grateful to New Directions Publishing Corporation for permission to quote from two works by Yukio Mishima, Death in Midsummer and Other Stories, copyright © 1966 by New Directions Publishing Corporation; reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation. Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask, translated by Meredith Weatherby, copyright © 1958 by New Directions Publishing Corporation; reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation. Grateful acknowledgment is also extended to Kodansha International Ltd for permission to quote from their copyrighted translation by John Bester of Yukio Mishima’s Sun and Steel, and from Landscapes and Portraits by Donald Keene. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. Published by Cooper Square Press An Imprint of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group 150 Fifth Avenue, Suite 911 New York, New York 10011 Distributed by National Book Network ISBN 0-8154-1074-3 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992. Manufactured in the United States of America.
For Gilbert de Botton
CONTENTS
Prologue A Personal Impression ONE The Last Day 1 2 3 4 5
Off to the Parade The Fight in the General’s Office Tennō Heika Banzai! Hara-kiri “Out of His Mind” TWO Early Life (1925–39)
1 2 3 4
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword Birth Fairy Tales and Fantasies School and Adolescence THREE The Making of Yukio Mishima (1940–49)
1 Child of Ancient History 2 The “Irony” of It All
3 Fearful Days 4 Kawabata’s Protégé FOUR The Four Rivers (1950–70) 1 Pictures at an Exhibition 2 The River of Writing Part One 1950–54 Part Two 1955–63 Part Three 1964–70 3 The River of Theater 4 The River of Body 5 The River of Action Part One “Patriotism” Part Two Picnic on Mt. Fuji Part Three Sauna Baths and Secrecy Part Four The Decay of the Angel FIVE Epilogue (1995–99) Glossary Chronology Acknowledgments and Sources Bibliography Index Illustrations
Beauty, beautiful things, those are now my most deadly enemies. Yukio