Mishima Yukio Research Articles

Mishima: Writer of body, life and death

On the basis of a longitudinal study, the aim of this paper is to examine the life and work of Yukio Mishima (1925–1970) in an attempt to understand the creative genius of this renowned Japanese author who took his own life by committing seppuku. Does the key to understanding Mishima lie in his work, in his life, or in his suicide? Was he a manic-depressive? An exhibitionist obsessed with beauty, death and glory? A terrorist? A megalomaniac? Attempts have been made to pigeonhole him into different categories, but he remains an enigma. How can clinical psychologists understand the entangled complexity of all this? What can be deduced from the kaleidoscope of possible diagnoses?

Nils von Dardel: Dandy persona and multifaceted painter

The Swedish modernist painter Nils von Dardel (1888–1943) was an integral part of the avant-garde of his time. Dardel's artistic and individual expressions developed from a dandy persona, who expressed dark personal conflicts, into a more integrated humanist perspective signified by love, jealousy, ambivalent sexuality, life and death, and the absurdity of existence. It was generally a turn from negation to optimistic values, as well as to universalism. His art – ironic and bizarre – has been continuously provoking from his premature death in New York City into the postmodern 20-s century. In order to add to the international scholarly discussion, the current article sheds light on this fascinating artist's life, work, and persona. Moreover, it juxtaposes some aspects of Dardel with those of the Swedish writer and painter August Strindberg (1849–1912), as well as the Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima (1925–1970).

Suicides of elite Japanese writers: The case of Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

Background . To mark the 130th birth anniversary of Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927), I revisit his suicide (as recorded by his hand) in comparison to that of his junior contemporaries, who also chose a similar mode of death. Data sources . Two works of Akutagawa, namely Tenkibo (1926: Death Register) and Aru Ahono Issho (1927: The Life of a Stupid Man) in English translation of Jay Rubin were used as the main sources, in addition to published literature about his creativity. Results . In his final work, The Life of a Stupid Man, completed in the penultimate month before suicide, 7 among the 51 brief descriptions, Akutagawa had described his thoughts on illness and death, in addition to visiting his biological mother in a lunatic asylum, and studying a cadaver for his famous short story 'Rashomon'. These descriptions offer a fascinating perspective on Akutagawa's state of mind, before his suicide. Akutagawa's suicide is also compared with the suicides of five other renowned Japanese writers (Osamu Dazai, Yasunari Kawabata, Misuzu Kaneko, Yukio Mishima and Juzo Itami). Conclusion . Before his suicide, doctors offered Akutagawa various diagnoses: 'insomnia, gastric hyperacidity, gastric atony, dry pleurisy, neurasthenia, chronic conjunctivitis, brain fatigue'. Though it is uncertain, what percentage of hereditary factor(s) played a role, why the practitioners of the medical profession in 1920s Japan failed to save the life of this creative individual still remains a question.

INTRODUCING A WRITER IN A FOREIGN CULTURAL SPACE THROUGH THE PARATEXT: FUNCTIONS OF THE BACK-COVER BLURBS IN THE ROMANIAN EDITIONS OF MISHIMA YUKIO’S NOVELS

In the case of literary translations from Japanese into Western languages, paratextual elements such as book blurbs are one of the tools through which the contact between the target-culture readers and the literary work is mediated. The purpose of this study is to determine the role of back-cover blurbs in the process of introducing and promoting a foreign author in a new culture – in our case, the Japanese writer Mishima Yukio (1925-1970) in Romania. Throughout this article, I will present six functions of blurbs which contribute to creating a specific image of a foreign writer and his work in the target cultural space: 1. (re)confirming his literary value and including him in a literary canon; 2. presenting the book-to-screen adaptations of his novels; 3. illustrating similarities between Mishima’s style and the style of some famous authors from the European cultural space; 4. marking the cultural difference; 5. referring to other valences of Mishima Yukio’s literary works; 6. exposing the universal character of Mishima Yukio’s literary work.

Queer Subjects in Modern Japanese Literature: Male Love, Intimacy, and Erotics, 1886–2014 ed. by Stephen D. Miller

Reviewed by: Queer Subjects in Modern Japanese Literature: Male Love, Intimacy, and Erotics, 1886–2014 ed. by Stephen D. Miller Erik R. Lofgren Queer Subjects in Modern Japanese Literature: Male Love, Intimacy, and Erotics, 1886–2014 ED. STEPHEN D. MILLER Ann Arbor. University of Michigan Press. 2022. 474 pages. STEPHEN D. MILLER has assembled an engaging collection of fourteen short stories, numerous poems in varied forms, and two essays spanning the better part of the modern and contemporary eras (1868–present) that explore and extend our understanding of an important dimension of Japanese literature. The works are arranged in a very rough chronological order and split pretty evenly between pre- and post–World War II material. Miller has gathered a broad range of translators, many of whom are noted in this field, which gives the anthology a wonderfully eclectic feel. This helps ensure that the many authors—not all of whom are male, it should be noted—represented in this collection have palpably different voices in English, a polyphony that is one of the many pleasures of this wide-ranging work. Although it is not essential to do so, readers would be well served to read Miller's informative introduction prior to delving into the meat of this anthology. First, it explores the limitations and advantages of the contested term "queer" used in the title. The term certainly refers to "topics and people, characterized [End Page 92] by peculiarity, eccentricity, uncanniness, nonconformity, subversiveness" but also to "a pleasing and even necessary variation upon pattern." Miller seeks to encompass and enfranchise this diversity while also suggesting the difficulty inherent in providing a simplistic categorization for the works included here. Second, the introduction provides a cogent historical summary of male-male love in Japanese literature from the ninth century until the modern day, framing that undergirds the translations. This basic contextualization is supplemented by the short biography and introduction found at the beginning of each chapter, which provide context for the text to follow. In and of themselves, these briefs make for engaging reading, providing a variegated bird's-eye view of the authors and literature in Queer Subjects. It is impossible, in this limited space, to comment on each of the pieces comprising this robust sampling of male intimacy, which is a shame as many deserve a moment in the spotlight. Suffice it to say that the variation ensures that there will be something for everyone, but I will mention two in particular. "Is This Love" (1909), by Yi Kwangsu, is notable for its intersection with Japan's colonial aspirations and the "heterolingual writing" it spawned. "Worse for Love" (1960), written by Mishima Yukio under the pseudonym Sakakiyama Tamotsu, is a harrowing literary dry run for "Patriotism" written later that year. Whether you are looking for literature to accompany a morning cup of coffee, an academic seeking a text for a course on sexuality, or desire an introduction to modern Japanese literature that eschews most of the "canonical" authors, Queer Subjects should be on your shortlist of possibilities. Erik R. Lofgren Bucknell University Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

Onnagata, Grotesque Beauty, and Aging: Reading Tennessee Williams’s Kabuki-Inspired Plays

This article examines Tennessee Williams’s kabuki-inspired plays, which were written after his first trip to Japan in 1959. I focus on And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens… (1957–70), which Williams began writing in 1957 but completed after his trip to Japan, and the 1964 version of The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, a play that Williams rewrote several times from 1962 to 1964. In so doing, I demonstrate how Williams used and modified kabuki traditions under the guidance of his Japanese friend, the acclaimed novelist and playwright Yukio Mishima. In And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens … the art of acting by the onnagata (male actors who play female roles in kabuki), especially those who live as “women” even off stage, underlies the male protagonist’s exploration of transgender identity as well as his female gender presentation. In The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, Williams seeks to transform the perceived grotesqueries of aging into allure by using kabuki’s aesthetic principles of “grotesque beauty” and “necrophilic” nostalgia, which had also been expressed in Hollywood films featuring older movie actresses. He deliberately wrote the role of the female protagonist for Tallulah Bankhead, who starred in the 1964 production, with the intention of celebrating her aging body through kabuki aesthetics.

From ‘the land of the rising sun’ to ‘the countries of the sun’: Mishima Yukio in Greece and Italy

AbstractThe famous Japanese author Mishima Yukio is known to have been keenly interested in ancient Greek culture. In this article, I seek to explain how his visit to Greece and Italy in the spring of 1952 intensified his philhellenism. To such an end, I will rely on Mishima’s travelogue titled Apollo’s Cup, which was published in the fall of that same year. I will pay close attention to Mishima’s encounters with the ancient ruins in Athens and with the sculptures of Antinous in the Vatican City, because they were the highlights of Mishima’s trip. I will argue that Mishima’s philhellenism was driven by his personal needs at the time and heightened by his fascination for the materiality of ancient Greece, since the ‘placeness’ of ancient Greece allowed Mishima not only to position and approach ancient Greece but also to idealize ancient Greece.

Angela Carter and Modern Japanese Fiction: Her Reencounter with Western Literary Legacies

Abstract This paper discusses the echo of modern Japanese literature in Angela Carter’s The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972), which was written in Tokyo and Chiba, paying particular attention to four of the most influential authors in this intertextual novel: Junichiro Tanizaki, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Yasunari Kawabata, and Yukio Mishima. Significantly, as well as being innovators of Japanese fiction, these writers were also great reinterpreters of Western literary legacies, who constructed their own original styles by absorbing both Japanese and non-Japanese literary traditions. The article, therefore, explores how Carter reencountered Western literary legacies through reading modern Japanese literature in order to clarify her feminist and political responses to the reinterpretation of the European and American canon by authors from the Far East.

Sympathy for an Invert: the Translation and Reception of Mishima Yukio's Kamen no Kokuhaku (Confessions of a Mask) in English

Sympathy for an Invert: the Translation and Reception of Mishima Yukio's Kamen no Kokuhaku (Confessions of a Mask) in English

Portret artysty w wieku dojrzałym. Analiza porównawcza „Patriotyzmu” Yukio Mishimy z filmową biografią tego artysty „Mishima” w reżyserii Paula Schradera

This article constitutes a comparison of two films — Patriotism (1965) by Yukio Mishima and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) by Paul Schrader, a biographical film about the Japanese writer and director of the first film. The article focuses on how the latter film imitates the former, both in formal style and in showing the act of suicide. The analysis also covers problems of adaptation, theatricality, homoerotism and the tradition of Japanese cinema.

INTERPRETATION OF MAN AND THE WORLD IN THE CREATIVITY OF ALIKHAN ZHAKSYLYK

The article presents an overview of the main themes and literary processes taking place in contemporary Kazakh literature, for the first time in the literary aspect, the works of one of the Kazakh authors Alikhan Zhaksylyk are considered. The poetic specifics of the writer’s stories “Loneliness in hell”, “Heartache”, “Wingless dream” and “Six continents” are analyzed. On the basis of various methods, the problem of ideological continuity in the named stories and works of other authors, the process of revival of cultural, literary and artistic processes and the specifics of perception, vision, perception of the world by the writer are revealed. The influence of the novels of Dante Alighieri, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Yukio Mishima, Franz Kafka, Kozuo Ishiguro and Tolen Abdikuly in world literature on the compositional parts of the author’s stories, the creation of a system of characters, some artistic, philosophical reflections are reflected in a comparative aspect. Well-known motifs, characters and storylines left by the representatives of this literature in the history of fiction in the works of the author were analyzed. The main themes in the works of A. Zhaksylyk, which excite him as an author, and the influence of science and technology on strengthening the poetics of his works are determined. The phenomenon of science and technology, which is rapidly developing at the present time, the author’s judgments and assumptions regarding its activities in society, were discussed on the basis of the stories received in the study. In addition, the activities of mystical and science fiction elements in the writer’s stories “Heartache” and “Loneliness in hell” were analyzed. Throughout the work, the operational activity of the literary devices reflected in such a merger is explained. The levels of the source text referred to by the author, the system of characters and the category of pronouns are considered, which served as the basis for organizing the compositional units of the works. Very similar main characters and actions of the characters in the stories of the writers T. Abdikuly “The right hand” and A. Zhaksylyk “Heartache”, as well as other compositional parts, were compared in the form of tables. Artistic techniques characteristic of the author’s individual work and shortcomings associated with the organization of the work were noted.The main sources were revealed – samples of world literature and the works of the writer, studied by the writer in the process of developing his personal creativity. On the basis of such differentiation, forecasts were made of the main themes and literary processes taking place in contemporary Kazakh literature, poetic searches, directions of development of literature in general, its connections with world literature and phenomena that are of interest to authors. The article focuses on the creative connection between A.Zhaksylyk and representatives of the above-mentioned world literature.

Suicide in Japanese Writers

has been claimed that more than 50 Japanese writers in the 20th century died by suicide, more than in other countries. Ten of these writer-suicides are briefly described, and the life of the most well-known (Yukio Mishima) discussed in more detail. It is apparent that the risk factors for suicide (psychiatric disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, and disrupted interpersonal relationship) were present in many of these writers. The role of Japanese culture and the link between creativity and suicide are also discussed.

The Connection between Mishima Yukio’s Depiction of Homosexuality and Misogyny

This paper aims to study Mishima Yukio’s description of homosexuality and misogyny. It will review discourses about Mishima, his performance, works and sexuality. It points out Mishima’s views on love, why the female characters in his books are always similar, and his attitude towards women. In conclusion, this paper will use the characters in Mishima’s novels as examples, analyzing his motives by explaining the intrinsic relationship between homosexuality and misogyny found in his literature.

A Fan through the Ages: Layers of Adaptation in SITI Company’s Hanjo

The love tale of Hanjo, presented by SITI Company in New York in 2017, traces its history back through the plays and dramatic treatises of Yukio Mishima and Zeami Motokiyo to a young maid (and eventual poet), Ban Jieyu, in ancient China. Informed by Andrew Sofer’s theory of the prop, this article uses the story’s central metaphor of a fan – which, like the protagonist, is cherished in summer but loses its value in autumn – to trace the tale’s adaptations, illuminating how with each reworking the central prop gains ever more complex meanings. As the tale undergoes numerous treatments, the original heteronormative context of Ban Jieyu’s romantic relationship becomes increasingly less straightforward as Mishima introduces taboo eroticism and SITI Company plays with gender roles, suggesting a woman with multiple non-normative possibilities for love. By analysing the evolution of Hanjo’s fan, this essay extends Sofer’s theory to consider the possibilities of a prop whose signification is not limited to a specific historical period but takes on new meanings when staged within a postdramatic production.

A Study on Yukio Mishima’s Onnagata - Focusing on Gender and Sexuality Issues -

Yukio Mishima’s novel Onnagata (1957) is an important literary work that represents Mishima’s interest in Kabuki. Mangiku, the main character of this novel, is a male actor who plays female roles in Kabuki, that is, Onnagata. Masuyama, an observer of Mangiku, is intoxicated with the charm of Mangiku, who crosses the boundary of gender. The narrator in this work focuses on Masuyama and defines Mangiku’s gender.<BR> Previous studies have not offered sufficient reviews of Masuyama till date. However, this paper analyzed, in detail, how Masuyama recognizes and names Mangiku’s gender. As a result, it was found that Masuyama derives femininity from the appearance of Mangiku behind the stage, regardless of Mangiku’s gender identity, and calls Mangiku “her,” a female pronoun, after knowing about Mangiku’s same-sex love. This confusion between gender roles and sexual orientation represents a contradiction to the sexuality expressed by Onnagata, and the gender norm of heterosexuality is latent in the background.<BR> Moreover, Onnagata received relatively lesser attention among Mishima’s novels depicting male homosexuality. However, it can be said that it is worthy of re-evaluation. This is because Mishima also applied a number of motifs of his representative works, Confessions of a Mask (1949) and Forbidden Colors (1951-1953), to Onnagata. Therefore, Onnagata needs to be discussed in relation to these preceding texts.

A Study on Yukio Mishima’s Onnagata - Focusing on Gender and Sexuality Issues -

Yukio Mishima’s novel Onnagata (1957) is an important literary work that represents Mishima’s interest in Kabuki. Mangiku, the main character of this novel, is a male actor who plays female roles in Kabuki, that is, Onnagata. Masuyama, an observer of Mangiku, is intoxicated with the charm of Mangiku, who crosses the boundary of gender. The narrator in this work focuses on Masuyama and defines Mangiku’s gender.<BR> Previous studies have not offered sufficient reviews of Masuyama till date. However, this paper analyzed, in detail, how Masuyama recognizes and names Mangiku’s gender. As a result, it was found that Masuyama derives femininity from the appearance of Mangiku behind the stage, regardless of Mangiku’s gender identity, and calls Mangiku “her,” a female pronoun, after knowing about Mangiku’s same-sex love. This confusion between gender roles and sexual orientation represents a contradiction to the sexuality expressed by Onnagata, and the gender norm of heterosexuality is latent in the background.<BR> Moreover, Onnagata received relatively lesser attention among Mishima’s novels depicting male homosexuality. However, it can be said that it is worthy of re-evaluation. This is because Mishima also applied a number of motifs of his representative works, Confessions of a Mask (1949) and Forbidden Colors (1951-1953), to Onnagata. Therefore, Onnagata needs to be discussed in relation to these preceding texts.

BUSHIDO (武士道) - TINH THẦN THƯỢNG VÕ TRONG TRUYỆN NGẮN MISHIMA YUKIO

Throughout his entire career, Mishima Yukio has always presented as a writer of martial spirit and beauty. Studying the his short stories, we can see a Mishima full of loyal to the king and patriotic with many criteria pushed to the limit. “Bushido” or “loyal to the king and patriotic” is that he not only inherited from his family background, from the situation of Japan protecting the imperial period, but also from favorite books named Hagakure. In his work, the ideal man in the bushido spirit is the full image of the modern Samurai: loyal to the king and patriotism, treating death as light as a feather and whether every moment of life or death, people also donate a rare beautifulness. However, it is because of the trend fascinated by death, his work has a sense of death fanaticism. This is probably the unfortunate limitation of a genius that people still praise as a strange “evil flower”.

Transpacific Fascism in John Okada’s No-No Boy

ABSTRACT This essay urges a reconsideration of John Okada’s No-No Boy as a transpacific text which engages with the erased history of Japanese America’s entanglements with fascism, particularly by situating the novel in relation to Japanese writers such as Tosaka Jun, Uno Kōzō, and Mishima Yukio. Rather than classifying No-No Boy as a fascist or anti-fascist text, an aesthetic conception of fascism demonstrates how this distinction is increasingly obscured by Cold War geopolitics. In its attempt to critique fascism, No-No Boy finds itself mobilizing ableist and liberal discourses for which the expulsion of the fascist as an unhealthy and deviant element of the national body ironically restores an idealized and militaristic nation-state.

Japanese Literature in Romanian Translation: The Case of Yukio Mishima

The translation and reception of Japanese literature in Romania has followed the vicissitudes of the country’s coming into modernity in the 19th century and slide into fascism and communism throughout the 20th century, as well as the subsequent ups and downs of the relationship with Japan. This research offers a brief overview of that sinuous path. It then focuses on the pre- and post-1990 reception of the works of Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), one of the iconic figures of Japan’s postwar literature and exemplary for his continued trials and tribulations with modernity. By making use of scholarly and journalistic sources, the current incipient research provides several examples of the translation and reception of Mishima’s works in Romania, as well as the extent to which his presence in this literary space has managed to permeate the psyche of Romanian scholars, literary critics and readers alike.

Anxieties of Authorship, Critique of Readership: Mishima Yukio’s Modern Noh Play Genji kuyō

Mishima Yukio's dramatic suicide half a century ago ensured that his name would forever be associated with a certain fanatic imperialism, and largely fulfilled his own wish that he would die as a military man. And yet, he was until the end foremost a literary artist, concerned with the critical reception of his written works and preoccupied with his lasting reputation as an author. This paper examines Mishima’s portrayal of the celebrity writer, as well as the potentials and limitations of literature as presented in his oft-neglected modern noh play Genji kuyō (Devotional offering for Genji, 1962). It positions the play within the long history of prayers for Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji, ca. 1008) that began in the twelfth century in response to the perceived ambiguous morality of the author Murasaki Shikibu (d. ca. 1014). Mishima's Genji kuyō provides a pointed criticism of readers, as well as anxieties regarding a writer's life and literary recognition. Though Mishima himself famously disowned it after its initial publication, Genji kuyō offers critical insights regarding the writing and reading of literature.