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Katana japanese fusion1/23/2024 ![]() ![]() Mishima's early childhood was dominated by the presence of his grandmother, Natsuko, who took the boy and separated him from his immediate family for several years. ![]() His grandfather was in debt, so there were no remarkable household items left on the first floor. He lived with his parents, siblings and paternal grandparents, as well as six maids, a houseboy, and a manservant. Mishima's childhood home was a rented house, though a fairly large two-floor house that was the largest in the neighborhood. He had a younger sister, Mitsuko ( 平岡美津子), who died of typhus in 1945 at the age of 17, and a younger brother, Chiyuki ( 平岡千之). Mishima received his birth name Kimitake (公威, also read Kōi in on-yomi) in honor of Furuichi Kōi ( 古市公威) who was a benefactor of Sadatarō. Mishima's paternal grandparents were Sadatarō Hiraoka ( 平岡定太郎), the third Governor-General of Karafuto Prefecture, and Natsuko (family register name: Natsu) ( 平岡なつ). Shizue's father, Kenzō Hashi ( 橋健三), was a scholar of the Chinese classics, and the Hashi family had served the Maeda clan for generations in Kaga Domain. ![]() His father was Azusa Hiraoka ( 平岡梓), a government official in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, and his mother, Shizue ( 平岡倭文重), was the daughter of the 5th principal of the Kaisei Academy. Kimitake Hiraoka ( 平岡公威, Hiraoka Kimitake), later known as Yukio Mishima ( 三島由紀夫, Mishima Yukio), was born in Nagazumi-cho, Yotsuya-ku of Tokyo City (now part of Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo). Life and work Early life Mishima in his childhood (April 1931, at the age of 6) After his speech and screaming of "Long live the Emperor!", he committed seppuku. On 25 November 1970, Mishima and four members of his militia entered a military base in central Tokyo, took its commandant hostage, and unsuccessfully tried to inspire the Japan Self-Defense Forces to rise up and overthrow Japan's 1947 Constitution (which he called "a constitution of defeat"). Mishima formed the Tatenokai for the avowed purpose of restoring sacredness and dignity to the Emperor of Japan. He was proud of the traditional culture and spirit of Japan, and opposed what he saw as western-style materialism, along with Japan's postwar democracy, globalism, and communism, worrying that by embracing these ideas the Japanese people would lose their "national essence" ( kokutai) and their distinctive cultural heritage ( Shinto and Yamato-damashii) to become a "rootless" people. From his mid-30s, Mishima's right-wing ideology and reactionary beliefs were increasingly evident. Mishima's political activities made him a controversial figure, which he remains in modern Japan. Mishima's work is characterized by "its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles, and its obsessive assertions of the unity of beauty, eroticism and death", according to author Andrew Rankin. His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask ( 仮面の告白, Kamen no kokuhaku) and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion ( 金閣寺, Kinkaku-ji), and the autobiographical essay Sun and Steel ( 太陽と鉄, Taiyō to tetsu). He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, but the award went to his countryman and benefactor Yasunari Kawabata. Mishima is considered one of the most important writers of the 20th century. Kimitake Hiraoka ( 平岡 公威, Hiraoka Kimitake, 14 January 1925 – 25 November 1970), also known as Yukio Mishima ( 三島 由紀夫, Mishima Yukio), was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai ( 楯の会, "Shield Society"). Confessions of a Mask, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, The Sea of Fertility ![]()
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