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John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

Yukio Mishima


 Yukio Mishima, (January 14, 1925 – November 25, 1970), was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai, an unarmed civilian militia.

Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, but the award went to his countryman and benefactor Yasunari Kawabata.

 His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion  and the autobiographical essay "Sun and Steel"  Mishima's work is characterized by "its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles, and its obsessive assertions of the unity of beauty, eroticism and death".

Mishima's political activities were controversial, and he remains a controversial figure in modern Japan Ideologically, Mishima was a right-winger who extolled the traditional culture and spirit of Japan. He opposed what he saw as western-style materialism, along with Japan's postwar democracy, globalism, and communism, worrying that by embracing these ideas the Japanese people would lose their "national essence" and their distinctive cultural heritage (Shinto and Yamato-damashii) to become a "rootless" people.

Mishima formed the Tatenokai for the avowed purpose of restoring sacredness and dignity to the Emperor of Japan. On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of his militia entered a military base in central Tokyo, took its commandant hostage, and tried to inspire the Japan Self-Defense Forces to rise up and overthrow Japan's 1947 Constitution, which he called "a constitution of defeat". When his attempt failed, he committed seppuku.

Mishima’s jisei, (A jisei or death poem)

 

The sheaths of swords rattle

As after years of endurance

Brave men set out

To tread upon the first frost of the year.

Preceding those who hesitate 

                ………………….

 

A small night storm blows

Saying ‘falling is the essence of a flower’


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