Mishima Yukio and His Suicide
Author(s): Hisaaki Yamanouchi
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1972), pp. 1-16
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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6, I
AsisnStudies7
Modern
(I972),
pp. I-I6.
Printedin GreatBritain.
andhisSuicide
Yulxio
Mishima
HISAAKI YAMANOUCHI
of Cambridge
University
YUKIOkilled himselfon 25 NovemberI970 at the age of
MISHIMA
forty-fivein the traditionalJapanesewarriormannerof septakuafter
a vain attemptto incite a unit of the Self-DefenceForcesto a coup
d'etat. The eventshockedand alarmednot only the Japanesebut also
by young army
peopleabroad.Manywereremindedof the I936 COUP
officers,and some,especiallyabroad,becameworriedabouta possible
revival of Japanesemilitarism.But the jeering by the rank and file
troops whom Mishima tried to rouse to action proves that such a
possibilityis very slight. The Japanese Government,including Mr
Nakasone,the Ministerof Defence,positivelydisapprovedof Mishima's action. The Prime Minister Mr Sato, was anxious lest such
scandalousbehaviouron the part of an eminentwritermight tarnish
the reputationof the countryfoundedon economicprosperity.Nevertheless,nothingseemsfartherfromthe truththan the PrimeMinister's
statementthat Mishimahad 'gone mad'. In every detail Mishima's
suicidewas an act calculatedwell in advance.In its politicalimplicationsit wasa challengeto the kindof stabilityandprosperityof presentday Japan of which the Prime Ministerhimselfis the representative.
intellectuals,but
or left-wingJapanese
Mishimadetestedthe progressive
he did not alignhimselfwlth the LiberalDemocraticPartyeither.Nor
was he preparedat all to link with the right-wingorganizations)in
spite of the ultra-nationalismof his own Shield Society. Ironically
enough,Mishimacould have agreedwith the dissidentstudentsof the
New Left who played the leading role in the I968-69 universityupheavals.For despitetheir differentviews on such mattersas the Imperialauthorityboth Mishimaand thosestudentsaimedtheircriticism
at the orderand prosperityof present-dayJapan.l
Politics,however,wasjust one facet of the multifariousimplications
This articleis basedon the paperreadat the seminarpresidedoverby Mr Richard
Storryat the lFarEast Centre,St Antony'sCollege,Oxford,on Wednesday,5 May
Acknowledgmentsare due to the Oxford hosts and also to Dr Carmen E.
I97I.
Blackerand Dr DouglasE. Mills, whose critical advice proved most useful to the
authorin revisingthe paperfor publication.
1On this point see the Appendz.
HISAAKI YAMANOUCHI
2
of Mishima'ssuicide. It was also rooted in what may be called his
personal and aesthetic motives. No explanation,in either purely
politicalor aestheticterms,is adequate:the truth may be seen only
froma due balancebetweenthe two. For Mishima'swhole careerwas
one of paradoxbuilt on an extraordinarytensionbetweenspirit and
body, wordsand action, and artisticcreationand commitmentto the
world. It is practicallyimpossiblefor a man of lesser stature than
Mishimahimselfto explainaway the matter,and the followingwill be
merelya modestattemptto trace the developmentof Mishimaas a
man and writerand to find the logical connexion,if any, betweenhis
aestheticsand its confrontationwith the worldwhichculminatedin his
*
*
.
sulclele.
*
*
*
Mishima'scontributionto modernJapaneseliteraturewasimmense.In
embracingboth traditionalJapaneseliterarysensibilitiesand knowledgeobtainedfromEuropeanliteraturehe wasas masterlyas Natsume
Soseki (I867-I9I6),
Mori Ogai (I862-I922)
and AkutagawaRyunosuke (I892-I927).
In Mishima'scase, however,the mode of amalgamatingthe two elementswasfar morecomplexthan in his predecessors. The philosophyunderlyinghis septakuwas definitelyJapanese.
The last phase of his vindicationof Japanese cultural identity was
fanaticallynationalistic.The literarypast and present, or Japanese
traditionand Mishima'sindividualtalent, were superblysynthesized
in his Modern
J%oh
Plays.On the otherhand Mishimawaswell versedin
Europeanliterature.RaymondRadiguet and FransoisMauriac,for
instance,are amongthosewritersto whomthe young Mishimalooked
for inspiration.Again, one of his plays was adapted from Racine's
PhAdre.
It is easy enough to detect in his work literary elementsof
Europeanorigin, such as the Greekidealizationof physical beauty,
Sadism,Satanismof Baudelaire'stype, and so on. Further,in its logical
clarityand rhetoricalrichnesshis prosestyle is by far the most distinguishedin modernJapaneseliterature;he is one of the few Japanese
writerswhose prose can equal the best of Europeanprose in these
qualities.In his achievement,afterall, Mishimasurpassedmanyof his
Japanesepredecessors.
Mishima'splace in the historyof modernJapaneseliteraturemay
best be clarifiedif we comparehim with the so-called 'I-novelists'.
The 'I-novel'is a peculiarlyJapanesephenomenonwith the following
features.First, it is a straightforward
autobiographicalconfessionby
MISHIMA YUKIO AND HIS SUICIDE
3
the herowho is none otherthan the authorhimself.Secondly,the hero
is in searchof a peculiarlypersonalideal or moralvision,which is at
odds with the bourgeoisstandardof life. Thirdly,as a resultthe hero
becomesinevitablyalienatedfromand eventuallydefeatedby society.
Fourthly,the herosometimesrevengeshimselfon societywithdeliberate
immorality,embodyingthe paradoxthat the initial moral vision assumes Satanic immorality.These featuresmay not look particularly
Japanese:they simplyindicatethat the 'I-novel'is concernedwith the
realizationof the modernego. Unfortunately,however,the 'I-novelists'
were neversuccessfulin fulfillingwhat their egos so earnestlydesired.
Consequentlythey simply depicted the misery of their life with a
monotonoustouch. Failing to be masterseither of art or of life, they
allowedart to servelife insteadof securingits autonomy.This was in
fromthe anomalousoriginof the 'I-novel'.It origifact partly-derived
novelsby TayamaKatai (I 87I-I 930),
natedin the pseudo-naturalistic
who had earlierbegunhis careeras a romanticwriter.In a sensethe
history of modernJapanese literaturemay be summed up as the
processby which the initialromanticaspiratiorltowardsthe fulfilment
of the ego came to be suppressedunder the heavy burdenof society.
modernJapanese writers
Accordingto the late Itoh Sei (I905-69))
were forcedeitherto become'maskedgentlemen',pretendingto conform to society, or to become 'runawayslaves',living as social outcasts.2The latter was exactly the fate of the 'I-novelists'.The alternativefor them was eithermadnessor suicide.
A typicalexampleof the 'I-novelists'was Dazai Osamu (I909-48).
The majorcharactersof his novelsare reflexionsof the authorhimself.
They are all at oddswith societyand violatethe code of respectability.
It is as if Dazai had to demoralizehis own life in orderto projectit into
his work. There is thus a curiousconfusionbetweenlife and work.
Eventually,in I948, Dazai committedsuicide,trailingbehind him a
cloud of immoralityand disgrace.
Mishimabegan his career as a writer under the influenceof the
Nihon-roman-haor JapaneseSchoolof Romanticism,of which Dazai
was a member.The fact is noteworthyin a double sense.First, some
membersof the School were renegadesconvertedfrom Marxismto
nationalismwho now advocatedthe Japaneseculturaltraditionand
indirectlycontributedto the propagandaput out by the militaristic
governmentduringthe War.The comparisonof theirversionof nationno Hoho(The Method of the lfovel), Tokyo, I948. Also
2 See Itoh Sei, Shosetsu
(On
usefulfor the genealogyof the 'I-novel'is NakamuraMitsuo,Fuzoku-shosetsu-ron
the Novel of Manners),Tokyo, I950.
4
HISAAKI YAMANOUCHI
alismwith that of Mishimais too big a subjectto be treatedhere, but
there is a connexionbetween them. A more importantpoint is his
relation to Dazai himself,of whom he soon became an opponent.
Betweenthe two therewerebothrepulsionand affinity.Dazaiindulged
in sentimentalityand self-commiseration,
which Mishimacould not
tolerate.The almostdeliberatemorbidityin Dazai'sreal life was unforgivableto Mishima.And yet Mishimasharedwith Dazai certain
characteristics
suchas physicalfrailty,in his youthat least, and a sense
of enmitytowardsthe world.But MishimadifferedfromDazai in that
he was a man of extraordinarystoicismwho continuallytransformed
his own self into its opposite.Furthermore,Dazai'sconfilsionbetween
life and art led to the failureof the latter. This had a curiousresult.
First, a sensitiveand frail young Mishimatried to disguisehis real
life underhis deliberatehealthiness.Secondly,he allowedroom in his
workfor the gloomof his mind'sabyss,but made everyeffortto make
the createdworldof his workindependentof his life. It will be my purpose to trace in Mishima'swork a hidden morbiditysomewhatlike
DazaiSs,and to see at the same time how he succeeded,unlikeDazai,
in maintainingthe autonomyof his work throughhis perfectartistic
method.
*
*
*
CMonfessions
of a Mask (I949) iS a short exampleof a Bildungsroman,
in
which the hero'spersonalhistoryis tracedfrom his childhoodto his
adolescence.One of its peculiarfeaturesis the author'suninhibited
treatmentof sexual perversion.What matters,however,is not sexual
perversionas such, but its widerimplications.Curiouslyenough,one of
the earliestchildhoodmemoriesof the frail,well-bredhero is a 'nightsoil man', to whomhe is attractedbecausehe represents'a marvellous
mixtureof nothingnessandvitality'.He is alsoattractedtoJoan of Arc,
whomhe misconceivesas a man.Howdisappointedhe is to discoverthat
Joan was a woman! The sensitivehero is also attractedto soldiers
throughthe smellof theirperspiration.
In thiscase,significantlyenough,
the charmof the soldiersderivesfromthe fact that they are destinedto
die. Still anotherexampleis the memoryof a portableshrinecarried
by sturdyyoung men, whose ecstasyis the sourceof their charm.All
these examplesof the hero'schildhoodresponseto the externalworld
foreshadowhis infatuationwith a physicallyprecociousbut unintelligent boy at school.The precociouslyintelligentbut physicallyfrailhero
thus aspiresto physicalstrength,the antithesisof his own condition,
MISHIMA YUKIO AND HIS SUICIDE
5
and it is all the betterif the objectof his aspirationlacksintelligence.
It is worth noticing that the hero's sexual perversionis curiously
connectedwith his attractionto deathas has alreadybeen hintedat by
hisfascinationwith soldiers.In readingfairytalesthe herodoesnot like
princessesbut onlyprinces,especiallythosewho aredestinedto die. The
hero is obsessednot only with the death of otherpeople but also with
his own. He exultsin the idea of his imaginarydeathand oncepretends
to be killed on the battlefield.The referencesto death are legion: a
circusyouthshotin the chest,the fracturedskullof a tight-ropewalker,
etc. But the mostimportantis the pictureof St Sebastian'sMartyrdom
by GuidoReni, whichevokesin the herothe combinedeffectoffascination with death and eroticfeeling,the latterleadingto his firstexperienceof 'ejaculation'.Anotherof the hero'sexperiencesof 'ejaculation',
by the way, takesplace by the sea, whichstandsfor eternityas opposed
to the worldlyorderand servesas the settingfor mentalexaltation.We
find here the elementsthat recurrentlyconstitutethe trinity in Mishima'snovels:death,love, eitherpervertedor not, and eternity.3
is placedin a historical
The hero'sobsessionwith death,furthermore,
the prospectof
a
burden.
Accordingly
his
future
to
be
setting.He feels
death on the battlefieldand even in an air-raidis attractiveto him
Ironicallyenough,however,he is dismissedfromthe armyon the very
firstday of recruitment.This intensifieshis desirefor death: he looks
forwardto the time whenthe Americantroopswill land and devastate
his nativesoil. The defeatin the Warthereforedepriveshim of his hope
there
and bringshim backto normallife.Thusforthe heroof Confessions
aretwo levelsof value:waragainstpeace,abnormalityagainstnormality, and inability against necessityto love women. One constitutes
realityand the other mere fiction. In other wordsthe hero stands at
odds with the societyof the post-warJapan, which is fictitiousonly;
realitylies somewhereelse.
From the hero'scharacterthere emergethe followingfeatures:his
sexualperversionand inabilityto love women,disbeliefin the existing
orderof the world,aspirationto the vast or eternalas symbolizedby
the sea, wishfor the end of the worldand inclinationtowardssuicide
In a wordthe herois a nihilistwho cannotfind any meaningin life and
of the 'I-novelists'and Dazai in
in a senseinheritsthe characteristics
3 It is commonlyobservedthat while the sea is the symbolused by Mishimato
representeternity,anotherimportantsymbolin Mishima'sworksis evening,which
standsfor the gloriousmomentof apocalypse.The protagonistof The Eempleof the
GoldenPavilionassociatesthe Golden Pavilion in his imaginationwith the sea and
eveningon variousoccasions.In TheSailorWhoFellfromGracewiththeSeathe significanceof the sea as a symbolof eternityin contrastto the mundanelife is self-evident
6
HISAAKI YAMANO UCHI
particular.Whatthen is the relationbetweenthe hero and the author?
Is the formera merereflectionof the latter and, if so, wouldit follow
that there is little to choose between Dazai and Mishima and that
Mishima'sdislike of Dazai is that of one's own counterpart?The
questionwouldlead us to considerthe meaningof the title of the novel:
Confessions
of a Mask.
At firstsightthe title soundsself-contradictory.
A confessionmustbe
the truevoiceoffeeling,whichindeedwasthe casewiththe 'I-novelists',
but in Mishima'scaseit is madeby a mask.What then is the meaning
ofthe mask?Is it merelya devicefor the authorto disguisehimself?If
so, the confessionwouldbe madeby the disguisedselfof the author.But
this author-heroidentificationdoes not explain the self-contradiction
of the title. There must be somethingmore in the implicationof the
mask.First,in the contextof the novel, the maskcould mean the hero
who is unableto, and yet pretendsto, love a woman.Contraryto the
ordinaryconceptof a stoic who restrainswhat he actuallydesires,the
heroof Mishimaforceshimselfin vain to like what he doesnot actually
desire.It seemsirrelevantto identifythe hero with the authorand to
considerwhetheror not Mishimahimselfwas homosexual.Certainly
homosexualityin itselfis an importanttheme, but it is alsothe means
of presentinga largertheme.The stoicismof the herowho triesunsuccessfullyto love a womanbecomeshis stoicismin puttingup with the
existingorder of the world which he actually does not accept. The
secondmeaningof the mask,therefore,is the disguisedself of the hero
who is at oddsand yet mustsomehowcometo termswith the world.It
is not the firstbut the secondmeaningof the maskthat makespossible
identificationof the hero with the authorand hencethe thirdmeaning
of the mask. So long as Mishimashareswith the hero nihilism and
stoicism,the hero is the maskof Mishimahimself.But the authoris so
well disguisedunder the maskof the hero that the confessionis not
as straightforward
as that of the 'I-novelists'.Viewed in this way, the
title is not self-contradictory
at all, but is a superbartisticdevicewhich
made it possiblefor the authorof this novel to detach his workfrom
life as the 'I-novelists'had neverdone before.And yet the fact remains
that the nihilismof the heroinevitablyrevealsthe abyssin the mind of
the authorhimself,which made the artisticdevice all the more necessary. The author'sown nihilism and his urgent need to disguiseit
under the highly artistic device were to become Mishima'smajor
preoccupations.
Mishima'saim in TheTemple
of theGolden
Pavilion(I956) wasto show
the logicalconsistencyof the protagonist'sact of settingfireto the Gol-
MISHIMA YlJKIO AND HIS SUICIDE
7
den Pavilionby enrichinghis character.On the surfacethe protagonist
looksso defectivethat one mightwell call him an anti-hero.Nevertheless he is equippedwith someimportantfeatures.The themeof alienation from society is as dominantas in Confessions.
The protagonistis
handicappedin many ways: his naturalhabit of stammering,physical
frailty,impoverishedbackgroundand so on, all of which are both the
fact and symbol of the barrierthat intervenesbetweenhim and the
externalworld.Thus rejectedby the world,the protagonistreactsto it
in a two-foldway. One alternative,as he envisages,would be to take
vengeanceon the worldby becominga despotpresidingoverit. In this
respectthe protagonistsharescertaincharacteristics
with such typical
devilishfiguresas RichardIII, some of the Byronicheroesand, more
generally,Satanhimself.The otheralternativewouldbe voluntarilyto
confinehimselfto his solitaryinfernoand to compensateforhis deprivation by adheringto the aestheticvalue. Hereinoriginateshis obsession
with the GoldenPavilionas the symbolof beauty.
By worldlystandardsthe protagonistis a mere criminaland not at
all heroic,but he is the masterof his innerworld,whichis fundamentally amoral,and wheregood and evil are reversible.He is confronted
with the choicebetweenlife and aestheticbeauty,in whichthereis no
room for compromise.So long as he adheresto beauty as an ideal
aestheticvalue, he cannot attain the fullnessof life. This is superbly
illustratedby the protagonist'sinabilityto make love with a woman.
There are two such occasions:just when he is on the verge of tasting
the honeyof life, he is preventedfromactionby a hauntingvisionof the
GoldenPavilion.As exemplifiedin many worksof literature,Satanic
solitudeor alienationfromthe worldentailssuchstatesof mind as selflove, Narcissism,and inabilityto love a woman.This is just another
variationof the sexualperversionin Confessions
and testifiesto Mishima's
preoccupationwith the theme. To repeat, it is irrelevantto wonder
whetherMishimahimselfwasperverted.Perversionin Mishima'snovels
is simplythe meansof presentinga largertheme, that is, the clash betweenfulfilmentof life and pursuitof aestheticvalues,andthe necessity
to sacrificethe formerto the latter.Again, the theme is presentedin a
historicalcontext. Curiouslyenough, the protagonistbecomesunable
to conceivethe beautyof the GoldenPavilionexcept as doomedto be
burntdown by an Americanair-raid.This pervertedvision of apocalypse increasesthe aestheticvalue of the Golden Pavilionjust as it
gives meaning to the otherwise meaninglesssequence of the protagonist'slife. We shouldnoticeherethe parallelto Confessions,
in which
the end of the War only adds to the hero'ssense of the futilityof life.
8
HISAAKI
YAMANOUCHI
The Golden Pavilionmust be an absoluteaestheticvalue in itself; it
must not be a part of the existingorder of the world to which the
protagonistis hostile;or else it mustbe destroyed.4
From the analysisof 7Che7Memple
of the ColdenPavilionthere emerge
such importantfeaturesas the protagonist'salienationfrom life, his
nihilismor inability to find any positive meaning in life, and his
obsessionwithbeautyas an absolutevalue.In fact,theseareall relevant
to Mishimahimself.And yet Mishima'sartis so perfectthat the created
worldof 7Che7Cemple
of theGoldenPavilionis completelyautonomous.The
workcertainlyrevealsMishima'sown preoccupations,but there is no
confusingthe world of art with Mishima'sown life. The world of his
work in itself is a reality, perhapseven more real than life, and by
attainingthat Mishimais able to survivehis own enmitytowardslife
itself.
Nihilismor the conceptof life as fictionstill continuesin Mishima's
workin the I960S. The precociousboy of thirteenand his companions
in 7Che
SailorWhoFellfromGracewiththeSea ( I 963) despiselife as boring,
hypocritical,sentimental,fictitiousand ultimatelymeaningless.There
are a few exceptions,however.In contrastto the ephemeralnatureof
ordinarylife, the sea representseternitys.Naturallyenough,the boys
find for a time an ideal in the Sailor, a solitarywandereron the sea
uncontaminatedby the world and embodyingvirile strength.By the
time Mishimawrotethis novel, he had already,in The Soundof Waves
4 There is a catachetic Zen problem, 'Nan Ch'uang Kills a Kitten' or 'Joshu
Wearsa Pairof Sandalson his Head'.This is firstcitedby the Superiorof the Temple
of the GoldenPavilionon I5 AugustI945, the day ofJapanesedefeat(ChapterIII).
The episodeis ratherambiguousin its implicationbut is useddeliberatelyby Mishima
becauseof its veryambiguity.Whenit is mentionedforthe secondtime (ChapterVI)
by Kashiwagi,a Mephistopheliancounsellorand in a sense the counterpartof the
protagonist,it becomesclear that the kitten, as much as the Golden Pavilion,is a
symbolof beauty.And thereseemto be threeattitudesthat one couldassumetowards
beauty.The firstis a vulgarone adoptedby the priestswho disputeoverthe possession
of the kitten as a pet. This must be transcendedby the two opposing attitudes:
the one representedby Nan Ch'uangwho killsthe kittenas a solutionto the dispute,
and the other representedby Joshu who expresseshis oppositionto his masterby
wearinghis sandalson his head. The formercorrespondsto Kashiwagi'sattitudeto
beauty and the latter to that of the protagonist.When the episodeis mentionedfor
the thirdtime (ChapterRIIII),however,thereis a sign that the protagonistchanges
his positionwith Kashiwagi,movingtowardshis finalact of settingfireto the Golden
Pavilion.Further,in connexionwith the episode,we maywell drawattentionto Nan
Ch'uang'scallousnessin killingthe kitten.This is a parallelto the callousnessof those
precociousboyswho kill a kittenin EheSailorWhoFellfromGracewiththeSea.It has
also to do with Mishima'sunflinchingreadinessto shedhis own bloodfor the sakeof
his aestheticcauseas demonstratedin his suicide.
5 See note 3.
MISHIMA YUKIO AND HIS SUICIDE
9
found a positive value in the Greek perfectionof physical
beauty. The boy watchesthrougha peepholethe love-makingof his
widowed mother and the Sailor, an ideal union in which physical
poweris untaintedby any sentimentality.Thus there existsa curious
parallelor link betweenthe boy and the Sailor.The Sailor,however,
undergoesa fatal disintegrationof personality.The boy's mother
becomesfond of him not as the incarnationof eternalvalue but as a
part of the existingorder of the world. When both are ready to get
married,in the normalway, the boys no longertoleratehim as their
heroandmustkillhim.Thereis an ironyin thewayin whichthe Sailor's
is materializedwhen
obsessionwith the Wagnerianidea of Liebes-%od
he is ultimatelymurdered.In fact, accordingto the standardset by the
precociousboys, the relativevalue of life and death is reversed.Before
killinga cat, which foreshadowstheir murderof the Sailor,the chief
of the boys says:
(I954),
They [=ordinary people] don't even know the definitionof danger. They
thinkdangermeanssomethingphysical,gettingscratchedand a little blood
runningand the newspapersmakinga big fuss. Well, that hasn't got anything to do with it. Real dangeris nothingmore thanjust living 6
The passageis perhapsas revealingabout Mishimahimselfas these
boys.7Finallyit mustbe noted that the nihilismof the boys is obverse
to their cult of physicalstrength.The novel is an autonomousworkof
art detached from Mishima'sown life even more perfectly than
Parilionand yet the curiousfact
of theGolden
and TheEemple
Confessions
what Mishimahad been
exactly
is
is that worshipof physicalpower
practisingsince the mid I950S in orderto transcendhis fundamental
nihilism.
What is particularlyinterestingin Mishima is the extraordinary
tension between his life and works. In some of his works, such as
Parilion,the majorcharacters,
and The Eempleof theGolden
Confessions
handicappedin life in variousways, cannotacceptthe externalworld
except as mere fiction, and their hunger for eternity, coupled with
theirdeath-wish,makesthemdesirethe end of the existingorderof the
world.In others,EheSoundof Wavesfor example,the majorcharacters
embodythe fullnessof life throughtheir ideal physicalstrength.Both
arein fact the two sidesof a coin: the formerrepresentsMishima'sown
nihilismdisguisedunder the highly artisticdevice of fiction and the
or searchforhis anti-self.In both cases
latterMishima'swish-fulfilment
in contrastto the 'I-novelists'there
that
Mishima
of
it is characteristic
is no easy confusionbetweenhis own life and the artisticallycreated
6
Part I, chapter 5. Translation byJohn lfathan.
7
See note 4.
IO
HISAAKI
YAM-ANOUGHI
world of his work. Mishimawas successfulin creatinghis world of
fiction not only as real as life, but also even more real than life. To
createsuch an autonomousworldof fictionwas the meansof compensatingfor his senseof enmitytowardsthe externalworldand hence of
masteringlife. In a word, writingnovelswas for Mishimaa meansof
survivaland salvation.
*
*
*
I have mentionedthe obsessionwith death and apocalypticaspiration
to the end of the world as pervasiveelementsin Mishima'snovels.
However,if we adopt the view that Mishima'swork constitutesan
autonomousworld, these elementsin themselvesdo not account for
Mishima'sown tragicdeath.Whatof Mishima'strilogythat dealswith
the coup d'etat of 26 February I936: Patriotism(December I959),
Wikuon the Eenth(Acted November;publishedDecemberI96I) and
TheVoices
oftheHeroic
Dead(June I 966)? Evenin theseworksMishima's
aim is not to treat the historicalincidentsas such but to createout of
them situationsin which the consciousnessof individualcharactersis
revealed.In Patriotism,
for instance,the February26th Incidentitself
is in the background,and in the foregroundare the Lieutenantand his
wife, whose integritythroughdeath is curiouslyidentifiedwith their
passionatelove-making(anotherexampleof Mishima'spreoccupation
witll the conceptof Liebes-Sod).But we shouldnotice a changein the
relationbetweenMishima'slife and art. In his earlierworksthe apocalypticwishfor the end of the worldis conceivedby negativecharacters
who are handicappedin variousways and cannot masterlife. In the
armymutineer,on the contrary,Mishimarepresentsa characterwho
is no longer handicappedbut fulfils his personal integrity by his
physical strength. Curiouslyenough, this is exactly what Mishima
practisedin his own life.
In his last years Mishima'smartial activitieswere becomingconspicuous:from I967 on he took part on severaloccasionsin training
exerciseswith the unitsof the Self-DefenceForces.The ShieldSociety
wasfoundedin OctoberI 968. Morethana decadebeforethatMishima's
personalbehaviourhad alreadybecomethe subjectof populargossip.
It was in I955 that the then frail-lookingMishimastarted weightlifting. This was just a preludeto his later feats of physicaltraining,
which includedboxing,traditionalJapanesefencing,karate
and so on.
By these meansMishimachangedhimselfinto a muscularfigure.At
first it might have looked to many like a mere ostentatiousgesture.
MISHIMA YUKIO AN1) HIS SUICIDE
I I
Nobody now doubts the logical consistencyunderlyingthese acts,
which is endorsed,for instance,by TheSunandSteel(I968). The remarkablefact was that Mishima'sphysicaltrainingprovedusefulfor
hismasteryof life as muchas the act of writinghis novels.ThusMishima
cameto find complementaryto each otherthingswhichhad originally
seemedantithetical:the worldand words,life and art, body and spirit,
and so on. As a corollaryto this Mishimaassertedthe Japanesetraditionof the unionof literaryand martialartsand WangYang-ming's
conceptof the unity of knowledgeand action.8Formerly,the created
worldof Mishima'sartwasa compensationforhis disenchantment
with
his unmanageablelife. Now Mishimawas the masterof bothspheresof
art and life, and, paradoxicallyenough,the two spherescame to encroachupon each otherin a differentway from that in which the 'Inovelists'achievedneitherartnorlife.Now the muscularand masculine
Mishimacould realize his desirefor an apocalypsein the sphere of
action,which culminatedin his final attemptat a coup d'etat and his
own sulclcle.
In explainingMishima'sdeath, therefore,it is necessaryto draw
attentionto its two facets,personaland social, aestheticand political,
both inseparablefromeach other.One may naturallywonderwhether
Mishimareally believedin the successof a coup. He certainlyhad
rehearsalsof attackingthe Self-DefenceForcesHeadquarters,but it is
unlikelythat a man of suchforesightas Mishimacould have imagined
in the given circumstances
that the coupwouldbe successful.It is even
morediEcultto guesswhathe couldhavedoneif it had beensuccessful.
His rehearsalsalso includedthe ceremonyof seppuku.
It seems more
likely, therefore,that Mishimahad envisagedthe failureof the coup
and that he was fully determinedto kill himself.Or to put it another
way, his determinationto die was the primarycauseand his attemptat
a coup its by-product.
In retrospectthere are a numberof proofsof Mishima'sfirm determinationto die. He held an unusualexhibitionat a departmentstore
in Tokyo,displayingnot only all his publishedworksbut manuscripts
includinghis school exercisesand photographsof himselfsince childhood. In a letterwrittento his formerteacherat schoolabout a week
beforethe incident of 25 NovemberMishimareferredto the fourth
volumeof his tetralogy,saying:'the end of thisworkwill meanthe end
*
.,
8 It is noteworthythat while Wang Yang-ming'sphilosophywas assimilatedby
sucha conformistthinkeras KumazawaBanzan(I6I9-9I),
it alsoprovidedresources
for a largernumberof non-conformist
radicalssuchas OshioEIeihachiro(I794-I837)
and YoshidaShoin (I 830-59). The influenceof theselatteron Mishimais morethan
accidental.
I2
HISAAKI YAMANOUGHI
of my world'.gThere is a longer and more importantexplanationof
the matterin one of his seriesof essayson the novel contributedto a
little magazine,7Che
Waves,fromthe springof I968 untiljust beforehis
death. Referringagain to the processof writinghis last masterpiece,
Mishimasays:
While I am engagedin writingthis long novel, my life comprisestwo kinds
of reality.As exemplifiedby the episodethat Balzacon his death-bedcalled
the doctorwhom he createdin his work,writersvery often confusethe two
kindsof reality.But it has been my essentialprincipleof life and art neverto
confusethe two....
So long as I do not commitmyself ultimatelyto either of the two kinds
of realitybut seek the sourceof the impulsesfor creationin the tensionbetween the two, the act of writingdoes not mean to be alwaysunderthe spell
of the inspirationinherent in the created world, but on the contraryto
conISrmthe basisof my own freedomat everymoment.This freedomis not
the so-calledfreedomof a writer:it is the freedomto chooseat any moment
eitherof the two kindsof reality.I cannotkeepon writingwithoutthis sense
of freedom.Briefly,the alternativeformy choiceis to dismisseitherliterature
or life. I keep on writingin the extremityof suspendingthe choice.A confirmation of freedomat a certainmoment warrantsthis suspension,which is
equivalentto the act of writing.
A writercan neverexpressadequatelyhis painfulfeelingwhen he becomes
conEnedto the createdworld of his own work.
I still havea volume,the lastvolume,to write.I forbidmyselfto ask'What
will become of me when I completethis novel?' I cannot conceiveof the
worldafterI finishthis novel.l°
The passagemight have escapedthe readers'attentionwhen it was
firstpublished,but evidentlyit anticipatedhis forthcomingdeath. It is
endorsedby Mishima'squotationof a letterwrittenby YoshidaShoin,
a patriottowardsthe end of the Tokugawaperiod,who died in prison
on 25 NovemberI 860:1l
Some perishin body but live in soul; it is uselessto live with a dead soul;
one loses nothingby dying so long as one's soul is alive.l2
Mishimacommentson the passage:
Whetheralive or dead, a writer'slife cannot be comparedwith that of a
man of action like Yoshida Shoin. Nothing can be more accursedthan a
9 A letter to Shimizu:Fumioquoted by the addresseein his tribute to Mishima,
the Shincho(New Current),a specialnumber(JanuaryI97I), p. I98.
10'Whatis the Novel?', chapterI I, reprintedfromthe ;Nami(Waves),the Shincho
(New Gurrent),a specialnumber(JanuaryI97I), pp. I 25-6. Author'stranslation.
11The date adaptedto the solarcalendar.There is no doubt that Mishimachose
the sameday of the samemonthfor his coup and suicide.
12 'What is the Novel?', the Shincho
(lNewGurrent),a special number(January
I 9 7I ), p. I 2 6. Author'stranslation.
MISHIMA YUKIO AND HIS SUICIDE
I3
writer'slife if, while alive, he is forced to suffierthe death of his soul and
observeits dying process.l3
Priorto the fatal incidenton the morningof 25 NovemberMishima
had handedin the last portionof the fourthand final volume of The
The completionof that workmeantthe breakingof the
SeaofFertility.l4
delicatebalancebetweenthe createdworldof hisworkandcommitment
to life.He had to confrontthe freedomto choose.In thissenseMishima's
death was no merepassivedefeat.On the contraryhe had the will to
controlhis own life. The situationwas one of paradox.If Mishimahad
remainedthe typeof writerwho, as in his earlieryears,felthandicapped
in life but compensatedforit by creatinghis work,he wouldhave kept
on living in that mode. Now he had acquiredphysicalstrength,by
meansof whichhe couldextinguishhis own bodyso that his soul could
live. It was a paradoxof attainingthe fullnessof life throughdeath.
As a phenomenonMishima'sdeathremindsus of Dazai and Akutafromtheirs.Akutagawa
gawa.But Mishima'scasemustbe distinguished
belongedto that type of frailintellectualwhom Mishimafelt it necessaryto transcend.Akutagawa'ssuicidewas not so muchthe masteryof
life as defeatby it. So was Dazai's.The coup d'etat was not the cause
but the occasionfor Mishima'ssuicide:the drivingforcewas a personal
and aestheticmotive, the wish to attain the integrityof life through
death. It is through its effect that the incident could be political.
Mishima'sdeathwasnot the resultof the antithesisbetweenlife and art.
He had completecommandof both: the excessivemasteryof lifenecessitated its own extinction;the masteryof art has left behind him a
corpusof masterpiecesin modernJapaneseliterature.
Appendis: Mishitna and the New Leftls
On the day that Mishima committedsuicide the Japanese Prime
Minister,Mr Sato,statedin his openingaddressto the Diet thatJapan
3 Ibid., I27. Author'stranslation.
14 The presentwriterintendsto write a
separatearticleon this masterpieceas it
deservesa detailed discussion.Mishimaincorporatedinto it his life-longconcerns
with his maturetechniques.The actionof the tetralogyturnson the Buddhistconcept
of 'transmigration'.The last of the four books ends with utter nihilism and preoccupationwith death,which gruesomelycoincideswith Mishima'sown suicide.
15 This is a tentativeresponseby the presentwriterto Mr RichardStorry'silluminatingpredictionthat 'Mishima'semulatorsmay come fromthe New Left rather
than the Old Right' and that a revolutionarysituation,if it ever arisesin Japan,
wouldbe 'stronglynationalist'.For Mr Storry'sargumentsee his articleon the social
implicationof Mishima'ssuicide in the forthcomingvolume, ReformandRevolution
in Asia,edited by G. F. Hudson.
I4
HISAAKI YAMANOUCHI
wason the thresholdof a new age. The coincidencein dateof the Mishima Affairwith the Prime Minister'sspeech is in itself ironical.But
thereis an ironyon a deeperlevel. The PrimeMinisterand Mishima
representedtwo totally differentapproachesto politics.The one was
fully confidentand the other deeplyscepticalof what post-warJapan
had graduallybuilt up: parliamentarydemocracy,domesticpeace,
and, above all, spectaculareconomicgrowth. Certainlythese are in
themselvescommendable,but one cannot help noticing their inadequacy when one considerssuch problemsas pollution,the enormous
strainimposedon individualsby the highly industrializedsociety,the
country'suncertaintyin copingwith the internationalsituationin the
fFarEast, and so on. Such problemshad given rise to doubt about the
validityof the existingorderof Japanesesociety.It is this scepticism,
paradoxicallyenough,that was sharedalike by Mishima,allegedlya
right-wingultra-nationalist,and the dissidentstudentsof the New
Left.
It is truethat somestudentstookpart in the I968-69 upheavalfrom
trivialmotives.But many of the so-called'non-sect'radicalshad very
sincere motives. Their complaintsmay be reduced to the following
factors.(I) Expansionof universitiesis in itself beneficial,but the too
rapidgrowthofJapaneseuniversitiesresultednot so muchin improvement as in stagnation.Someuniversitieswere nothingbut commercial
bodiesinsteadof academicinstitutions.(2) Somefaculties,engineering
for example,were thriving.But the achievementswere closelytied up
with industryin the form of what was called 'sangaku-kyodo'
(industrial-academiccomplex),which the studentsregardedas a symptom
of corruption.(3) Whetheracademiclifein the universitieswasstagnant
or thriving,the studentswonderedaboutitsrelevanceto theirimmediate
concerns.(4) The defectsand corruptionwere-not only the productof
the universitiesthemselvesbut the reflexionof the society at large,
which apparentlyenjoyedeconomicprosperitybut was not healthyat
bottom. (5) Internationally,the Vietnam situationwas at its worst.
There existedin Japan complexanxietiesabout the escalationof the
war and senseof utterpowerlessness
in the eventof a clashbetweenthe
super-powers,
America,Russiaand China,in the PacificArea.l6
Now fromthesefactorsemergesa curiousmixtureof differencesand
parallelsbetweenthe radicalstudentsof the New Lefton the one hand,
and Mishimaon the other.There were concreteproofsof their differ1c The senseof powerlessness
on the partofJapan may now be turningto the sense
of frustrationat the prospectivepowershiftin the PacificAreawhichhas loomedsince
the announcementof PresidentNixon'snew policiesin the summerof I97I.
MISHIMA YUKIO AND HIS SUICIDE
I5
ence. WherlProfessorKerltaroHayashi, the Dean of the Faculty of
Lettersat the Universityof Tokyo,was confinedand forcedto submit
to interrogation,Mishimawent to the Universityto encourageProfessorHayashi.An even more positive proof of their differencewas
given by the confrontationbetweenMishimaand the studentsat the
Collegeof GeneralEducation,the Universityof Tokyo.l7Furthermore,
while the studentswere armed with Marxisttheories,Mishimawas
uncompromisingly
anti-communist.In addition,the studentshad no
sympathyat all with Mishima'svindicationof the Imperialauthority.l8
So muchfor the diXerences,and now for the parallels.(I) Mishima
and the New Left radicalsagree,curiouslyenough,in identifyingthe
ills that underliethe apparentlyprosperoussociety.(X)Mishimawas a
conservativeby deep conviction.Politicsto him was not a matter of
'expediency'but of 'principle'.Strangelyenough,Mishima'sfidelityto
'principle'is alsosharedby the New Left.The majorityof the dissident
studentsdescribedthemselvesas 'non-sect',maintainingno allegiance
to eitherRussiaor China.This is indeedtruewith the New Leftin the
worldas a whole,as exemplifiedby the Britishcommunistswho left the
Party at the time of the Russianinvasionof Hungary,the nuclear
disarmamentprotesters,and the Czechoslovakreformists.It is a
curiousparadoxthat the New Leftcan be potentiallynationalistwhere
internationalcommunismfails.Thusthroughtheirfidelityto 'principle'
both extremes,Mishimaand the New Left, could meet. (3) As far as
I canjudge fromthe articlescontributedto variousprogressive
journals
in Japan, the 'non-sect'radicalshad a peculiarlyJapanese logic of
'self-abnegation'.A very intelligent and conscientiousassistant in
biologyat the Collegeof GeneralEducation,the Universityof Tokyo,
explainedthis articulately:to destroythe Universityof Tokyowas also
to destroyhimselfas a part of it and an embodimentof all the contradictionsof the establishment.It is to this spiritof 'self-abnegation'
that
Mishima'ssuicidecould appeal.
So far I have tried to analysethe potentiallynationalistelementin
the New Left to which Mishima'ssuicidecould appeal.Whetherthis
17 The recordof this confrontation
is mostinteresting.See MishimaYukiovs. Eodai
genkyoto
(MishimaYukiovs. the Universityof TokyoSolidarity),Tokyo:Shincho-sha,
I 969.
18 At the timeof the confrontation
Mishimaflatteredthe studentswith a suggestion
that he was willingto agreewith theircauseand tacticsonly if they agreedwith his
vindicationof the Imperialauthority.But the studentsshowedno sympathywhatsoever with Mishima'sflattery. Mishima'sview of the Imperial authoritymay be
touchedupon in this connexion.To him the Emperoris not the Emperoras he is but
the idealized concept. This is best epitomizedby a phrasefrom The Voicesof the
HeroicDead:'Whyhas the Emperorbecomehumanized?'
Ib
HISAAKI
YAMANOUCHI
potentiallynationalistelementin the New Left will developfurtheris
entirelya matterof speculation.One of the contributoryfactorswould
be the Japanesetraditionof group solidaritythat survivedthe defeat
in the last War, and now appearsin a new guise: for example,the
paternalismof big industries,the worldtoursorganizedby the Nokyo
(farmers'co-operative),and so on.
On the other hand there are factors that would work against a
nationalistrevolutionto be undertakenby the New Left. Firstof all,
a revolutionin the strictly Marxiansense has never taken place in
Japanese history, which is a proof that the conservativeJapanese
mentalityshiesaway fromradicalism.Secondly,there are factorsthat
markedlydistinguishthe Ig70sfrom,say, the I930S. (I) The political
power-groupshave dividedthemselvesinto so many factionsthat it is
difflcultfor them to collaborate.(2) There are radicalsof an entirely
radicals.They areindividuals
newtype,whomightbe called'grass-root'
too tough-mindedto conformto group solidarityalthoughthey too
haveformeda group.ThoseI have in mind are the peoplerepresented
by Oda Makoto (I932). (3) The Japanesehave acquiredsuch an
internationaloutlookthat they cannotwithdrawto a narrow-minded
nationalisticgoal.l9
Finally,what are the conditionsthat mightgive rise to a nationalist
revolutioncarriedout by the New Left? Possiblythe international
isolation,whethervoluntaryor involuntary,into whichJapan might
be forcedby the changingrelationshipbetweenthe big powersin the
PacificArea,America,Russiaand China.That in its turnwouldentail
ln apan.
economlcrecesslonor clepresslon
*
*
.
*
*
19I musthastento add that the mode of acquiringan internationaloutlookis still
in the making and sometimesmisguided:packagedtours, notably of the Aokyo,
hitch-hikingyouths strandedabroad, and so on. The last-mentionedincidentally
Miteyaro(Let'sSee Everything)
was startedby Oda Makotohimself,whoseNandemo
was a best-sellingbooksome ten yearsago.