The Li$e and Death of Y U K I O M I S H I M A Photo: UP1 The Lzfe and Death ofYUKIO MISHIMA 0 - e Henry Scott Stokes ED re Square Press First Cooper Square Press edition 2000 This Cooper Square Press paperback edition of The Lqe and Death of Yukio Mishima is an unabridged republication of the edition published in New York in 1995. It is reprinted by arrangement with Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. Copyright O 1974, 1995, and 1999 by Henry Scott Stokes Designed by Paula Wiener Grateful achowledgment is extended to Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., for permission to quote from their copyrighted translations of the works of Yukio Mishima. We are also grateful to New Directions Publishing Corporation for permission to quote from two works by Yukio Mishima, Death in Midsummer and Other Stories, copyright O 1966 by New Directions Publishing Corporation; reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation. Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask, translated by Meredith Weatherby, copyright O 1958 by New Directions Publishing Corporation; reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation. Grateful achowledgment is also extended to Kodansha International Ltd for permission to quote from their copyrighted translation by John Bester of Yukio Mishima's Sun and Steel, and from Landscapes and Portraits by Donald Keene. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. Published by Cooper Square Press An Imprint of the Rowrnan & Littlefield Publishing Group 150 Fifth Avenue, Suite 911 New York, New York 1001i Distributed by National Book Network ISBN 0-8154-1074-3 @ The paper used in thls publication meets the minimum requirements of TM American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSVNISO 239.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America. For Gilbert de Botton C O N T E N T S Prologue A Personal Impression 3 O N E The Last Day 1 Off to the Parade 9 2 The Fight in the General's Office 11 3 Tennd Heika Banzai! 25 4 Hara-kiri 29 5 "Out of His Mind" 33 T W O Early Life (1925-39) 1 The Chrysanthemum and the Sword 35 2 Birth 37 3 Fairy Tales and Fantasies 42 4 School and Adolescence 48 T H R E E The Making of Yukio Mishima (1940-49) 1 Child of Ancient History 62 2 The "Irony" of It All 68 viii Contents 3 Fearful Days 79 4 Kawabata's ProtBgC 88 F O U R The Four Rivers (1950-70) 1 Pictures at an Exhibition 96 2 The River of Writing 97 Part One 1950-54 98 Part Two 1955-63 111 Part Three 1964-70 136 3 The River of Theater 168 4 The River of Body 181 5 The River of Action 191 Part One "Patriotism" 192 Part Two Picnic on Mt. Fuji 210 Part Three Sauna Baths and Secrecy 235 Part Four The Decay of the Angel 249 F I V E Epilogue ( 1995-99) Glossary 283 Chronology 289 Acknowledgments and Sources 297 Bibliography 301 Index 307 illustrations follow page 156 Beauty, beautiful things, those are now my most deadly enemies. Yukio Mishima, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion