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Yukio Mishima

みしま ゆきお

Mishima Yukio

Pen Names: Yukio Mishima（Pen name used as a writer）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1925-01-14 （2 Nagazumi-cho, Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan）
Died
1970-11-25 （Ichigaya Honmura-cho 1, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan, JGSDF Ichigaya Base） age 45
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese
Religion
Shinto
Residence History
Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Playwright, Essayist, Critic, Political activist
Active Years
1941-1970
Influenced By
Yoritsune Yasuda, Yasunari Kawabata, Junichiro Tanizaki, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Tatsuo Hori, Ogai Mori, Raymond Radiguet, Jean Cocteau, Oscar Wilde, Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Mann, James Joyce, Martin Heidegger, Rainer Maria Rilke, Stendhal, Prosper Mérimée, Victor Hugo, Marcel Proust, Georges Bataille, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Arthur C. Clarke
Influenced
Shintaro Ishihara, Kenzaburo Oe, Mariko Koike, Masahiko Shimada, Jiro Asada, Haruki Murakami, Kenji Nakagami, Hideo Nakai, Emi Yamada, Hikaru Okuizumi, Kyo Machida, Kazushige Abe, Keiichiro Hirano, Nao Kawamoto, Naoko Takeuchi, Shinya Tanaka, Setsuna Ira, Tate no Kai, Eiko Muramatsu, Tatsumi Hijikata, Miwako Miwa, Shusuke Nomura, Kunio Suzuki, Tokutaro Ushijima, Chikayoshi Misawa, Soichiro Maeno, Tetsuo Uotani, Shigechika Miura, Kanji Nishio, Koyu Nishimura, Tadao Takemoto, Koichiro Tomioka, Masahiro Miyazaki, Takao Sugiyama, Takeshi Itasaka, Soushu Shikko, Masahiko Akuta, Henry Scott-Stokes, Francis Ford Coppola, David Bowie, Jean-Jacques Burnel, Paul Schrader, Björk, André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Boris Akunin, Eduard Limonov, PewDiePie
Nominations
Nobel Prize in Literature nominee

Education

Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo
Faculty of Law / Department of Law
Degree: 学士
Period: 1942年-1947年
Year of Graduation: 1947
Country: Japan
Graduated from the Department of Law (German Law) at Tokyo Imperial University (University of Tokyo).

Awards

Shincho Literary Award
1954
Work: The Sound of Waves
Organization: Shinchosha
Result: 受賞
Kishida Drama Award
1955
Work: Nest of Termites
Category: 演劇
Organization: Kishida Kunio Drama Association
Result: 受賞
Yomiuri Literary Prize
1956
Work: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
Category: 小説
Organization: Yomiuri Shimbun
Result: 受賞
Yomiuri Literary Prize
1961
Work: The Tenth Day’s Chrysanthemums
Category: 戯曲
Organization: Yomiuri Shimbun
Result: 受賞
Weekly Yomiuri New Drama Award
1958
Work: The Rose and the Pirate
Category: 戯曲
Organization: Yomiuri Shimbun
Result: 受賞
Prix Formentor International Literature Award, 2nd Place
1964
Work: The Sailors Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
Result: 第2位
Prix Formentor International Literature Award, 2nd Place
1967
Work: After the Banquet
Result: 第2位
Mainichi Art Award, Literature Division
1964
Work: Silk and Insight
Organization: Mainichi Shimbun
Result: 受賞
Ministry of Education Art Festival Award
1965
Work: The Lady of the Marquis de Sade
Category: 演劇
Organization: Ministry of Education
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Confessions of a Mask

1949 Novel 360 pages

One of the representative works of postwar Japanese literature, autobiographical elements pursue themes of aesthetics and self-identity in postwar Japan.

Self-identityAesthetics
Adaptations
  • [Film] Confessions of a Mask / 三島由紀夫（監督） (1950)
Translations
  • Confessions of a Mask

Forbidden Colors

1951 Novel 450 pages

A work on the underground world of homosexuality, depicting the conflict of aesthetics in postwar Japan.

HomosexualityAesthetic consciousness
Translations
  • Forbidden Colors

The Sound of Waves

1954 Novel 329 pages

A pure love story set in a fishing village in Ise Bay, and Mishima's first literary award-winning work.

Pure loveNature
Adaptations
  • [Film] The Sound of Waves / 木下惠介 (1954)
Translations
  • The Sound of Waves

Five Modern Noh Plays

1956 Play 120 pages

A collection of modern plays based on Noh theater.

NohTradition

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

1956 Novel 280 pages

A psychological novel based on the arson incident of the Golden Pavilion, one of Mishima's representative works.

PsychologyBeauty

Rokumeikan

1956 Play 90 pages

A play set in the Rokumeikan of the Meiji era, depicting Japan's modernization.

ModernizationHistory

The House of Kyoko

1959 Novel 350 pages

A work depicting emotions and psychology in postwar Japan.

PostwarPsychology

Patriotism

1961 Play 50 pages

A play based on the February 26 Incident, also directed and starred by Mishima himself.

PatriotismDeath
Adaptations
  • [Film] Patriotism / 三島由紀夫 (1966)

The Lady of the Marquis de Sade

1965 Play 95 pages

One of Mishima's highly acclaimed plays.

AestheticismPhilosophy

Bibliography

  • Hanazakari no Mori
  • Misaki nite no Monogatari
  • Tozoku
  • Yoru no Shitaku
  • Housewife's market
  • Confessions of a Mask
  • Magrun Passing
  • Toudai
  • Kaibutsu
  • Love's Thirst
  • Pure White Night
  • Ao no Jidai
  • Forbidden Colors
  • Natsuko's Adventure
  • Nippon Made
  • City of Love
  • The Sound of Waves
  • Goddess
  • Shizumeru Taki
  • Koufuku Gou Shuppan
  • The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
  • Too Much Spring
  • The Staggering of Virtue
  • The House of Kyoko
  • After the Banquet
  • Ojosan
  • Beast Play
  • Beautiful Star
  • Love's Race
  • School of the Body
  • The Sailors Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
  • Silk and Insight
  • Spring Snow
  • Complex Him
  • The Temple of Dawn
  • Spring Snow Fortunes
  • Sword
  • Ranryo-oh
  • My Friend Hitler

Adaptations

  • Film adaptations of 'The Sound of Waves', 'Patriotism', 'The Black Lizard', 'Hitokiri', 'Karakaze Yaro' and many others.

Translations of Works

  • Confessions of a Mask
  • Forbidden Colors
  • The Sound of Waves
  • The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
  • Patriotism

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Rhetorically rich, flamboyant, poetic prose styleAesthetically refined style based on classical drama, with a strong sense of artificiality and constructiveness
Recurring Motifs
Life and deathLiterature and martial artsSpirit and bodyWords and actionsPerception and deedExistence and oughtTragedyDualismView of life and death

Health

  • Sciatica
    幼少期
    Contributed to mother's overprotective education.
  • Autointoxication
    子供の頃
    Worsened to near death.
  • Pulmonary infiltration (misdiagnosed)
    青年期
    Misdiagnosed at enlistment examination, leading to immediate home return and exemption from military service.

Legacy

A representative post-war Japanese author, internationally acclaimed. A fervent patriot who engaged in political activities in later years. His death had a significant impact domestically and internationally.

Museums

  • Mishima Yukio Literary Museum Tokyo, Japan Opened in 1999
  • Secret Literary Museum Hanazakari no Mori 4-65, Mukoshinjocho 2-chome, Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture Opened in 2008

Academic Societies

  • Nihon Romanpai Cultural Research Association
  • Yukio Mishima Research Association

Archives

  • Collections at Mishima Yukio Literary Museum
  • Private collections

In Popular Culture

  • Influence extended over diverse media including novels, films, stage plays, manga and musical works.

Quotes

  • I feel death entering the body from outside.
    Source: 'Mishima Yukio: Last Words' (1970)
  • There are two kinds of people in this world. Those whose minds are dead but bodies alive, and those whose bodies are dead but minds alive.
    Source: 'What is a Novel?' (1968)

Trivia

  • Mishima's pen name was given upon recommendation by his mentor Shimizu Fumio at Gakushuin.
  • First Japanese writer to appear on an American TV program.
  • The date of his death coincides with the day Shōwa Emperor acted as regent due to the illness of Taishō Emperor.