Beautiful Star: Yukio Mishima (Penguin Modern Classics)

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The day of the Mishima Incident (25 November) was the date when Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa) became regent and the Emperor Shōwa made the Humanity Declaration at the age of 45. Researchers believe that Mishima chose that day to revive the "God" by dying as a scapegoat, at the same age as when the Emperor became a human. [204] [205] There are also views that the day corresponds to the date of execution (after the adoption of the Gregorian calendar) of Yoshida Shōin ( 吉田松陰), whom Mishima respected, [198] or that Mishima had set his period of bardo ( 中有, Chuu) for reincarnation because the 49th day after his death was his birthday, 14 January. [206] On his birthday, Mishima's remains were buried in the grave of the Hiraoka Family at Tama Cemetery. [198] In addition, 25 November is the day he began writing Confessions of a Mask ( 仮面の告白, Kamen no kokuhaku), and this work was announced as "Techniques of Life Recovery", "Suicide inside out". Mishima also wrote down in notes for this work, After Japan's defeat in World War II, the country was occupied by the U.S.-led Allied Powers. At the urging of the occupation authorities, many people who held important posts in various fields were purged from public office. The media and publishing industry were also censored, and were not allowed to engage in forms of expression reminiscent of wartime Japanese nationalism. [f] In addition, literary figures, including many of those who had been close to Mishima before the end of the war, were branded "war criminal literary figures". Some people denounced them and converted to left-wing politics, whom Mishima criticized as "opportunists" in his letters to friends. [68] [69] [70] Some prominent literary figures became leftists, and joined the Communist Party as a reaction against wartime militarism and writing socialist realist literature that might support the cause of socialist revolution. [71] Their influence had increased in the Japanese literary world following the end of the war, which Mishima found difficult to accept. Although Mishima was just 20 years old at this time, he worried that his type of literature, based on the 1930s Japanese Romantic School ( 日本浪曼派, "Nihon Rōman Ha"), had already become obsolete. [33] In 1956, the Japanese government had issued an economic white paper that famously declared, "The postwar is now over" ( Mohaya sengo de wa nai). [80]

Belsky, Beryl (18 October 2012). "Yukio Mishima: The Turbulent Life Of A Conflicted Martyr". Culture Trip.Sheridan, Michael (27 March 2005). "Briton let author commit hara kiri". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382 . Retrieved 8 January 2020. During the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, Mishima interviewed various athletes every day and wrote articles as a newspaper correspondent. [131] [132] He had eagerly anticipated the long-awaited return of the Olympics to Japan after the 1940 Tokyo Olympics were cancelled due to Japan's war in China. Mishima expressed his excitement in his report on the opening ceremonies: "It can be said that ever since Lafcadio Hearn called the Japanese "the Greeks of the Orient," the Olympics were destined to be hosted by Japan someday." [133]

Harakiri, by Péter Eötvös (1973). An opera music composed based on the Japanese translation of István Bálint's poetry Harakiri that inspired by Mishima's hara-kiri. This work is included in Ryoko Aoki ( 青木涼子)'s album Noh x Contemporary Music ( 能×現代音楽) on June 2014. [264]Mishima, Yukio (1966). フランスのテレビに初主演―文壇の若大将三島由紀夫氏[First starring on French television: Yukio Mishima, the Wakadaishō (whizz kid) of the literary world]. Mainichi Shinbun (in Japanese). collected in complete34 2003, pp.31–34 Persona: A Biography of Yukio Mishima by Naoki Inose with Hiroaki Sato (Berkeley, California, Stone Bridge Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1-61172-008-2) [257] The Death of a Man ( Otoko no shi ( 男の死)) by Kishin Shinoyama and Mishima (photo collection of death images of Japanese men including a sailor, a construction worker, a fisherman, and a soldier, those were Mishima did modeling in 1970) (Rizzoli 2020 ISBN 978-0-8478-6869-8) [237] Flanagan, Damian (21 November 2015). "Yukio Mishima's enduring, unexpected influence". The Japan Times.