I'm certain that most people in Japan of at least a high school graduate age are aware of Yukio Mishima, even if they aren't familiar with his work. It's difficult to give a nutshell summary of his life, but as briefly as I can, he was a Japanese author born in 1925 who had a childhood spread between being raised by his grandmother who rarely let him venture outside or participate in "boyish" activities, and his militaristic father who held a disdain for any sort of effeminate behaviour. Mishima falsified medical conditions to avoid being drafted to fight in WW2, and against his father's wishes, furthered his passion of writing into and beyond his teen years. He penned numerous novels, plays and short stories, and later in life developed an interest in bodybuilding, ultra-nationalism, and eventually formed his own private militia, the Tatenokai. On November 25, 1975, Mishima and members of the Tatenokai attempted to stage a coup d'etat at a Self Defence Forces base in Tokyo, aiming to reinstate the Emperor as the political power of Japan through an address on a balcony to the soldiers below. Upon its failure, Mishima retreated into the building, committed seppuku, and was beheaded by one of his followers.
First of all, I admit that I haven't even come close to reading a sizeable portion of his work, so extensive (and occasionally impenetrable) is his oeuvre. But whilst his novels tell genuinely captivating tales, I find the story of Mishima himself far more fascinating. The transformation from a timid, frail, and effeminate young man into a brutal, narcissistic nationalist with a fascination for death, combined with his not-so-closeted homosexuality, is rather unique. However, it seems he is often brushed off by many as simply being a "crazy man" or "a bit strange".
To me, Mishima is also one of many pieces in the puzzle of Japan's struggle to assert and identify itself in the postwar period. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, comfort women, Nanjing, SCAP Occupation, Yasukuni Shrine, history revisionism, etc., all play into this issue (and is an enormously broad topic about which volumes can and have been written!). Unto this, Mishima seems to have been adopted by numerous right-wing groups in Japan as a sort of inspirational figurehead (have a look at this link) despite his contrasting belief that Emperor Hirohito should have taken responsibility for those who died during the war.
Now, having said all that and having made a huge segue into right-wing groups, one point I'd like to get across is that I can't stand these twits. Not because of their politics or radical ideologies, but mainly because of the noise pollution they create. I'm not quite sure how the police manage to turn a blind eye (or rather, a deaf ear) to such a disturbance, as these groups would undoubtedly have their vehicles and equipment confiscated if they attempted to drive around blaring slogans and music in other countries. On a similar level, the police seem completely uninterested in reining in various bousouzoku bike gangs creating all kinds of noise at 4 o'clock in the morning, but appear quite willing to stop foreigners on their bicycles for no apparent reason...
Right, it's about time I went to bed!
Mishima is, I agree, an interesting character. I've only read one of his stories, unfortunately, 'Patriotism', for my Post War Japanese Literature class. It was interesting.
ReplyDeleteAs for the police here, I think it's a universal thing. By 'thing', I mean choosing a group of people whom to 'keep an eye on' and/or rarely listen to what they say. Profiling is maybe the word I'm looking for...maybe not. All I know, is that back home for me, the police will never listen to a teenager's/kid's word over an adult's, ever. I've got experience and have friends with similar experiences, so I refuse to believe it is coincidence.
If you'd like I can burn a copy of the movie Patriotism for you, from what I remember it's barely even half an hour long, although it's rather gruesome. :) Mishima's wife attempted to have all copies of the film destroyed after his death (touched too close to home I guess) but some mint-condition copies surfaced just a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteI'm not quite sure if profiling is the right word to describe my gripe here... whilst all my dealings with the police have been quite pleasant (unlike a lot of other people I know, unfortunately), there has been more than one instance where there'll be three or four police standing around me checking my ID on the side of the road yet being completely oblivious to drivers running red lights, talking on their phones whilst driving, bike gangs making lots of noise, etc.
I'm really impressed with the quality of the content and writing here, Ash. Your blog is a pleasure to read. I haven't thought about Mishima lately and you noted a few facts that I should have known but either forgot or never learned. I wonder just how much the Japanese students in our class know about him -- and what they know about him.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to selective enforcement of laws, I'm also concerned about what you and The One in the Shadows mentioned.
Noise, the name of your blog, is really something we should talk about. Come to think of it, I'm quite bothered by the noise of people talking during lectures and even today's speech contest (弁論大会). I wonder if many other Japanese students find this annoying too.
Many thanks for the kind words. :) Although a lot of the time I feel like I'm just recycling information, I ought to write more about my own feelings and experiences. As for Mishima, I find it difficult to gauge how relevant people believe him to be to the new-millennium Japan. Another aspect I forgot to mention is that I'm also fascinated by the divisiveness (or completely indifference) that extreme words and actions create - again, vaguely related to having a swastika on the back of one's jeans. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm extremely surprised by the constant murmur which is present during lectures and speeches, it's quite the opposite of what I expected in Japanese university. It utterly astounded me during the Entrance Ceremony at the start of April, too! In Australia it's not that uncommon for someone to yell "SHUT UUUUUP!" from across a lecture hall, cinema, etc., although it seems that doing the same here would be entirely out of place.
Talking in lectures is a topic of great interest to me. Perhaps we can talk about it in class.
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