Yukio Mishima



Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫, Mishima Yukio, real name 平岡 公威, Hiraoka Kimitake) (1925-1970) was one of the greats of post-war Japanese literature. A Manly Gay given to bodybuilding and Samurai worship, he unfortunately was also a Japanese ultra-nationalist who longed for the days of genuine Imperial rule and a strong Japanese military. And curiously, a girl he once went out with via an arranged date was Michiko Shouda... the future Empress Michiko of Japan.

Despite being mentioned as a potential nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature even before his fortieth birthday, he is more famous for his ill-advised attempt to incite a pro-Imperial coup against the government of Japan at a JSDF base in 1970, at the end of which he and his small band of followers committed Seppuku.

In 1985, Paul Schrader (most famous for writing Taxi Driver) co-wrote and directed a movie based on Mishima's life, appropriately called Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. The film earned critical accolades, despite completely tanking financially, though that's not entirely unexpected when you consider how (not) famous Yukio Mishima is in Schrader's native America, and the fact that the film is in Japanese, with subtitles.

As a final interesting note, Mishima himself made a short, silent film called Patriotism in 1966, in which he plays the main character: a disgraced military officer.