Editing Yukio Mishima (section)

===Post-war literature===
[[File:Mishima Yukio 1948.JPG|left|thumb|200px|Mishima with his cat (''[[Asahigraph]]'', 12 May 1948 issue). He was known as a cat-lover.<ref name="etsugu-neko">{{Harvnb|Etsugu|1983|pp=91–97}}</ref><ref name="nosaka1">{{Harvnb|Nosaka|1991|pp=5–76}}</ref> Yōko (his wife) was jealous of his pet cat, and disliked him petting it.<ref name="etsugu-neko"/><ref name="nosaka1"/>]]
After Japan's defeat in World War II, the country was [[Occupation of Japan|occupied]] by the U.S.-led [[Allies of World War II|Allied Powers]]. At the urging of the occupation authorities, many people who held important posts in various fields were [[Purge (occupied Japan)|purged from public office]]. The media and publishing industry were also censored, and were not allowed to engage in forms of expression reminiscent of wartime Japanese nationalism.{{efn|In the [[occupation of Japan]], [[Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers|SCAP]] executed "[[sword hunt]]", and 3 million swords which had been owned by the Japanese people were confiscated. Further [[Kendo]] was banned, and even when barely allowed in the form of "bamboo sword competition", SCAP severely banned kendo shouts,<ref name="henkaku">{{cite journal |last=Mishima |first=Yukio |date=1970 |script-title=ja:「変革の思想」とは―道理の実現 |trans-title=What is "Idea of reform": Realization of reason |language=ja |journal=Yomiuri Shimbun  }} collected in {{Harvnb|complete36|2003|pp=30–38}}</ref> and, they banned [[Kabuki]] which had the revenge theme, or inspired the [[samurai]] spirit.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mishima |first=Yukio |date=1970 |script-title=ja:武士道と軍国主義 |trans-title=Bushido and Militarism |language=ja |journal=[[Weekly Playboy]]  }} collected in {{Harvnb|complete36|2003|pp=247–266}}</ref>}} In addition, literary figures, including many of those who had been close to Mishima before the end of the war, were branded "war criminal literary figures". In response, many prominent literary figures became leftists, joined the [[Japan Communist Party|Communist Party]] as a reaction against wartime militarism, and began writing [[socialist realism|socialist realist]] literature that might support the cause of socialist revolution.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|pp=181–182}} These newly converted leftists held great influence in the Japanese literary world immediately following the end of the war, which Mishima found difficult to accept, and he denounced them as "opportunists" in letters to friends.<ref>{{Harvnb|complete38|2004|pp=200–202, 313–318}}</ref><ref name="kimu">{{Harvnb|Kimura|1995|pp=247–267}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Honda|2005|pp=70–88}}</ref> Although Mishima was just 20 years old at this time, he worried that his type of literature, based on the 1930s {{Nihongo|''Japanese Romantic School''|[[:ja:日本浪曼派|日本浪曼派]]|Nihon Rōman Ha|}}, had already become obsolete.<ref>{{Harvnb|Matsumoto|1990|p=56}}</ref><ref name="henre-ob">{{cite journal |last=Mishima |first=Yukio |date=1963 |script-title=ja:[[:ja:私の遍歴時代|私の遍歴時代]] |trans-title=My Wandering Period |language=ja |journal=[[Tokyo Shimbun]] }}, collected in {{Harvnb|complete32|2003|pp=281–286}}</ref>

Mishima had heard that the famed writer [[Yasunari Kawabata]] had praised his work before the end of the war. Uncertain of who else to turn to, Mishima took the manuscripts for {{Nihongo|''The Middle Ages''|[[:ja:中世 (小説)|中世]]|Chūsei|}} and {{Nihongo|''The Cigarette''|[[:ja:煙草 (小説)|煙草]]|Tabako|}} with him, visited Kawabata in [[Kamakura]], and asked for his advice and assistance in January 1946.<ref>{{Harvnb|Matsumoto|1990|p=57}}</ref><ref name="henre-ob"/> Kawabata was impressed, and in June 1946, following Kawabata's recommendation, ''The Cigarette'' was published in the new literary magazine {{Nihongo|''Humanity''|[[:ja:人間 (雑誌)|人間]]|Ningen|}}, followed by ''The Middle Ages'' in December 1946.<ref name="chusei">{{Harvnb|Encyclo|2000|pp=230–231}}</ref> ''The Middle Ages'' is set in Japan's historical [[Muromachi Period]] and explores the motif of ''[[shudō]]'' (man-boy love) against a backdrop of the death of the ninth [[Ashikaga shogunate|Ashikaga]] shogun [[Ashikaga Yoshihisa]] in battle at the age of 25, and his father [[Ashikaga Yoshimasa]]'s resultant sadness. The story features the fictional character Kikuwaka, a beautiful teenage boy who was beloved by both Yoshihisa and Yoshimasa, who fails in an attempt to follow Yoshihisa in death by committing suicide. Thereafter, Kikuwaka devotes himself to spiritualism in an attempt to heal Yoshimasa's sadness by allowing Yoshihisa's ghost to possess his body, and eventually dies in a [[Shinjū|double-suicide]] with a ''[[miko]]'' (shrine maiden) who falls in love with him. Mishima wrote the story in an elegant style drawing upon [[medieval Japanese literature]] and the ''[[Ryōjin Hishō]]'', a collection of medieval ''[[imayō]]'' songs. This elevated writing style and the homosexual motif suggest the germ of Mishima's later aesthetics.<ref name="chusei" /> Later in 1948 Kawabata, who praised this work,<ref>{{Harvnb|Honda2|2005|pp=101–103}}</ref> published an autobiographical work {{Nihongo|''Boy''|[[:ja:少年 (川端康成)|少年]]|Shōnen|}} describing his experience of falling in love for the first time with a boy two years his junior.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kawabata |first=Yasunari |date=1948 |script-title=ja:少年 |trans-title= Boy  |language=ja |journal= Human }} collected in {{Harvnb|Kawabata10|1980|pp=141–256}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Itagaki|2016|pp=27–44}}</ref>

[[File:Yukio Mishima 01.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Mishima aged 28{{avoid wrap|(in January 1953)}}]]
In 1946, Mishima began his first novel, {{Nihongo|''Thieves''|[[:ja:盗賊 (小説)|盗賊]]|Tōzoku|}}, a story about two young members of the aristocracy drawn towards suicide. It was published in 1948, and placed Mishima in the ranks of the [[Second Generation of Postwar Writers]]. The following year, he published ''[[Confessions of a Mask]]'', a semi-autobiographical account of a young homosexual man who hides behind a mask to fit into society. The novel was extremely successful and made Mishima a celebrity at the age of 24. In 1947, a brief encounter with [[Osamu Dazai]], a popular novelist known for his suicidal themes, left a lasting impression on him.<ref>{{Harvnb|Stokes|2000|pp=89–90}}</ref> Around 1949, Mishima also published a literary essay about Kawabata, for whom he had always held a deep appreciation, in {{Nihongo|''Modern Literature''|[[:ja:近代文学 (雑誌)|近代文学]]|Kindai Bungaku|}}.<ref>{{Harvnb|Encyclo|2000|pp=476–479, 484–485}}</ref>

Mishima enjoyed international travel. In 1952, he took a world tour and published his travelogue as {{Nihongo|''The Cup of Apollo''|[[:ja:アポロの杯|アポロの杯]]|Aporo no Sakazuki|}}. He visited [[Greece]] during his travels, a place which had fascinated him since childhood. His visit to Greece became the basis for his 1954 novel ''[[The Sound of Waves]]'', which drew inspiration from the [[Greek mythology|Greek legend]] of [[Daphnis and Chloe]].'' The Sound of Waves'', set on the small island of "[[Kami-shima]]" where a traditional Japanese lifestyle continued to be practiced, depicts a pure, simple love between a fisherman and a [[ama (diving)|female pearl and abalone diver]]. Although the novel became a best-seller, leftists criticized it for "glorifying old-fashioned Japanese values", and some people began calling Mishima a "fascist".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sugimoto |first=Kazuhiro |date=1990 |script-title=ja:『潮騒』：「歌島」の物語 |trans-title="Shiosai": The Story of "Utajima"  |url=https://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110000466317/ |language=ja |journal=Journal of College of International Studies, Chubu University |volume=6 |pages=355–364 }}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Encyclo|2000|p=153}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Mishima |first=Yukio |date=1954 |script-title=ja:新ファッシズム論 |trans-title= New theory about fascism |language=ja |journal=Bungakukai }} collected in {{Harvnb|complete28|2003|pp=350–359}}</ref> Looking back on these attacks in later years, Mishima wrote, "The ancient community ethics portrayed in this novel were attacked by progressives at the time, but no matter how much the Japanese people changed, these ancient ethics lurk in the bottom of their hearts. We have gradually seen this proven to be the case."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mishima |first=Yukio |date=1965 |script-title=ja:「潮騒」執筆のころ |trans-title=Around the time of writing "The Sound of Waves" |language=ja |journal=Ushio }} collected in {{Harvnb|complete33|2003|pp=478–480}}</ref>

[[File:Ishihara Mishima.jpg|right|thumb|Yukio Mishima (lower) with [[Shintaro Ishihara]] in 1956 {{avoid wrap|(on the roof of the [[Bungeishunjū]] Building in [[Ginza]] 6-chome)}}]]
Mishima made use of contemporary events in many of his works. ''[[The Temple of the Golden Pavilion]]'', published in 1956, is a fictionalization of the burning down of the [[Kinkaku-ji]] Buddhist temple in [[Kyoto]] in 1950 by a mentally disturbed monk.<ref>{{Harvnb|Encyclo|2000|pp=92–97}}</ref>

In 1959, Mishima published the artistically ambitious novel ''[[Kyōko no Ie]]''. The novel tells the interconnected stories of four young men who represented four different facets of Mishima's personality. His athletic side appears as a boxer, his artistic side as a painter, his narcissistic, theatrical side as an actor, and his secretive, nihilistic side as a businessman who goes through the motions of living a normal life while practicing "absolute contempt for reality". According to Mishima, he was attempting to describe the time around 1955 in the novel, when Japan was entering into its era of [[Japanese economic miracle|high economic growth]] and the phrase "The postwar is over" was prevalent.{{efn|In 1956, the Japanese government had issued an economic white paper that famously declared, "The postwar is now over" (''Mohaya sengo de wa nai'').{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=217}}}}  Mishima explained, "''Kyōko no Ie'' is, so to speak, my research into the nihilism within me."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mishima |first=Yukio |date=1959 |script-title=ja:「鏡子の家」そこで私が書いたもの |trans-title="Kyōko no Ie" What I wrote in there |language=ja |journal=Advertising Leaflet }} collected in {{Harvnb|complete31|2003|p=242}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Mishima |first=Yukio |date=1959 |script-title=ja:日記―裸体と衣裳 「昭和34年6月29日（月）」 |trans-title=Diary: Naked body and Apparel "date of June 29, 1959" |language=ja |journal=Shinchō }} collected in {{Harvnb|complete30|2003|pp=236–240}}</ref> Although the novel was well received by a small number of critics from the same generation as Mishima and sold 150,000 copies in a month, it was widely panned in broader literary circles,{{sfn|Kapur|2018|pp=251–252}}<ref name="ino-kyo"/> and was rapidly branded as Mishima's first "failed work".<ref>{{Harvnb|Muramatsu|1990|pp=279–282}}</ref><ref name="ino-kyo">{{Harvnb|Inose-j|1999|pp=346–347}}</ref> It was Mishima's first major setback as an author, and the book's disastrous reception came as a harsh psychological blow.<ref>Mishima's letter to Yasunari Kawabata on 18 December 1959, collected in {{Harvnb|complete38|2004|pp=291–292}}</ref><ref name="nagisa">{{cite journal |last=Mishima |first=Yukio |date=1968 |script-title=ja:ファシストか革命家か |trans-title=Fascist or Revolutionist|language=ja |journal=Eiga Geijutsu  }} collected in {{Harvnb|complete39|2004|pp=729–760}} (dialogue with [[Nagisa Ōshima]])</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Ando|1998|pp=205–207}}</ref>

Until 1960, Mishima had not written works that were seen as especially political.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|pp=251–252}} In the summer of 1960, Mishima became interested in the massive [[Anpo protests]] against an attempt by U.S.-backed Prime Minister [[Nobusuke Kishi]] to revise the [[Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan]] (known as "[[Anpo]]" in Japanese) in order to cement the [[U.S.–Japan Alliance|U.S.–Japan military alliance]] into place.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=250}} Although he did not directly participate in the protests, he often went out in the streets to observe the protestors in action and kept extensive newspaper clippings covering the protests.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|pp=250–251}} In June 1960, at the climax of the protest movement, Mishima wrote a commentary in the ''[[Mainichi Shinbun]]'' newspaper, entitled "A Political Opinion".{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=251}} In the critical essay, he argued that leftist groups such as the [[Zengakuren]] student federation, the [[Japan Socialist Party|Socialist Party]], and the [[Japan Communist Party|Communist Party]] were falsely wrapping themselves in the banner of "defending democracy" and using the protest movement to further their own ends.<ref name="seiji-iken">{{cite journal |last=Mishima |first=Yukio |date=1960 |script-title=ja:一つの政治的意見|trans-title=A Political Opinion |language=ja |journal=Mainichi Shinbun }} collected in {{Harvnb|complete31|2003|pp=433–436}}</ref><ref name="jiten-seiji">{{Harvnb|Encyclo|2000|p=305}}</ref><ref name="tekina-b">{{Harvnb|Tekina|2015|pp=20–22}}</ref> Mishima warned against the dangers of the Japanese people following ideologues who told lies with honeyed words.<ref name="seiji-iken"/><ref name="jiten-seiji"/> Although Mishima criticized Kishi as a "nihilist" who had subordinated himself to the United States, Mishima concluded that he would rather vote for a strong-willed realist "with neither dreams nor despair" than a mendacious but eloquent ideologue.<ref name="seiji-iken"/><ref name="jiten-seiji"/>

Shortly after the Anpo Protests ended, Mishima began writing one of his most famous short stories, ''[[Patriotism (short story)|Patriotism]]'', glorifying the actions of a young right-wing ultranationalist Japanese army officer who commits suicide after a failed revolt against the government during the [[February 26 incident]].{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=251}} The following year, he published the first two parts of his three-part play {{Nihongo|''Tenth-Day Chrysanthemum''|[[:ja:十日の菊|十日の菊]]|Tōka no kiku|}}, which celebrates the actions of the 26 February revolutionaries.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=251}}

Mishima's newfound interest in contemporary politics shaped his novel ''[[After the Banquet]]'', also published in 1960, which so closely followed the events surrounding politician [[Hachirō Arita]]'s campaign to become governor of Tokyo that Mishima was sued for [[invasion of privacy]].<ref name="Cooper-ChenKodama1997">{{cite book|last1=Cooper-Chen|first1=Anne|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hzfVsTpRFBYC&pg=PA187|title=Mass communication in Japan|last2=Kodama|first2=Miiko|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=1997|isbn=978-0-8138-2710-0|page=187|access-date=22 September 2010}}</ref> The next year, Mishima published ''[[The Frolic of the Beasts]]'', a parody of the classical Noh play ''[[Motomezuka]]'', written in the 14th-century by playwright [[Kan'ami|Kiyotsugu Kan'ami]]. In 1962, Mishima produced his most artistically [[avant-garde]] work ''[[A Beautiful Star|Beautiful Star]]'', which at times comes close to science fiction. Although the novel received mixed reviews from the literary world, prominent critic {{Nihongo|Takeo Okuno|[[:ja:奥野健男|奥野健男]]}} singled it out for praise as part of a new breed of novels that was overthrowing longstanding literary conventions in the tumultuous aftermath of the Anpo Protests. Alongside [[Kōbō Abe]]'s ''[[Woman of the Dunes]]'', published that same year, Okuno considered ''A Beautiful Star'' an "epoch-making work" which broke free of literary taboos and preexisting notions of what literature should be in order to explore the author's personal creativity.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=213}}

In 1965, Mishima wrote the play ''[[Madame de Sade]]'' that explores the complex figure of the [[Marquis de Sade]], traditionally upheld as an exemplar of vice, through a series of debates between six female characters, including the Marquis' wife, the Madame de Sade. At the end of the play, Mishima offers his own interpretation of what he considered to be one of the central mysteries of the de Sade story—the Madame de Sade's unstinting support for her husband while he was in prison and her sudden decision to renounce him upon his release.<ref name="Inose-e 2012 454">{{Harvnb|Inose-e|2012|pp=454}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Mishima |first=Yukio |date=1965 |script-title=ja:跋 |trans-title= The epilogue  |language=ja |journal= Madame de Sade }} collected in {{Harvnb|complete33|2003|pp=585–586}}</ref> Mishima's play was inspired in part by his friend [[Tatsuhiko Shibusawa]]'s 1960 Japanese translation of the Marquis de Sade's novel ''[[Juliette (novel)|Juliette]]'' and a 1964 biography Shibusawa wrote of de Sade.<ref>{{Harvnb|Inose-e|2012|pp=453–454}}</ref> Shibusawa's sexually explicit translation became the focus of a sensational obscenity trial remembered in Japan as the {{Nihongo|"[[Juliette (novel)|Juliette]] Case"|[[:ja:悪徳の栄え事件|サド裁判]]|Sado saiban|}}, which was ongoing as Mishima wrote the play.<ref name="Inose-e 2012 454"/>  In 1994, ''Madame de Sade'' was evaluated as the "greatest drama in the history of postwar theater" by Japanese theater criticism magazine {{Nihongo|''Theater Arts''|[[:ja:シアターアーツ|シアター・アーツ]]}}.<ref>{{Harvnb|Encyclo|2000|p=149}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Taiyo|2010|pp=104–105}}</ref>

Mishima was considered for the [[Nobel Prize for Literature]] in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967 and 1968 (he and [[Rudyard Kipling]] are both the youngest nominees in history),<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=12680 |title=Nomination Database: Yukio Mishima |website=Nobel prize |access-date=12 May 2016}}</ref> and was a favorite of many foreign publications.<ref name="Japan Times Nobel">{{Cite news |url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2015/08/29/books/mishima-murakami-elusive-nobel-prize/ |title=Mishima, Murakami and the elusive Nobel Prize |last=Flanagan |first=Damian |work=Japan Times |date=29 August 2015 |access-date=12 May 2016}}</ref> However, in 1968 his early mentor Kawabata won the Nobel Prize and Mishima realized that the chances of it being given to another Japanese author in the near future were slim.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/05/05/books/revealing-the-many-masks-of-mishima/#.UY1fG7_fJlI |title=Revealing the many masks of Mishima |last=McCarthy |first=Paul |website=Japan Times |date=5 May 2013 |access-date=12 May 2016}}</ref> In a work published in 1970, Mishima wrote that the writers he paid most attention to in modern western literature were [[Georges Bataille]], [[Pierre Klossowski]], and [[Witold Gombrowicz]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mishima |first1=Yukio |title=My Mother/Madame Edwarda/The Dead Man |last2=Bataille |first2=Georges |publisher=Marion Boyars |year=1995 |isbn=0-7145-3004-2 |location=London |pages=4, 11}}</ref>