Mishima’s photo was used to illustrate this thoughtful article about the right, and Mishima was mentioned as a non-anti-Semitic rightist:
“…this particular prejudice did not affect some of Bolton’s case studies, like Italian proto-fascist Filippo Marinetti, Irish poet W.B. Yeats and Japanese militarist Yukio Mishima, none of whom was particularly exercised over the role of Jews in the cultural decadence they attacked.”
Perhaps even more interesting and relevant to this site was a distinction made between a political right and an aesthetic right–of which one could theoretically be a member of either or both.
Also, “an aesthetic protest against the kind of world the Left built.”
UPDATE: I forgot to post the link.
http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/opening_the_conservative_mind/
Tags: conservative, fascist, right, takimag
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Come to think of it, aesthetic appeal is one of the major items in the rhetorician’s toolkit. People want to look at or listen to something pleasant. They want to believe in something that appeals, that is comfortable. Aristotle would probably say that employing the appropriate aesthetic is key to establishing rapport and credibility with your audience. I just finished a paper about rhetorical disconnect between liberal and conservative audiences in the US, and that kind of appeal is important there — so important, in fact, that any message, no matter how well delivered and logical, tanks if the audience hates how it sounds.
This makes me think of Mishima’s final speech. It had the opposite effect he intended upon the Jieitai troops, while strangely, somehow I find myself moved by it — and I’m certainly not who he was talking to that day. I wonder whether Mishima assumed that the Jieitai troops, being soldiers in a sense, would have a traditional, warrior-oriented sense of aesthetics to which the notion of Bushido, the Emperor, and the defense of the nation would appeal. They instead seem to have been fully invested in the values set of peace, guilt, and self-castigation that typifies postwar Japan.
Mishima was no fool, and his message was masterfully crafted. It just seems like it didn’t have an audience that would listen at Ichigaya — even though they should have. I suspect he probably knew this and employed it to heighten the aesthetic of tragedy that surrounded his exit. Considering his appeal with the Uyoku now, It’s likely he achieved that goal, IMHO. Thoughts?
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Everything I’ve read about Mishima leads me to believe that he had no plans to really lead any sort of viable revolution even if his speech was surprisingly well-received. He chose a hill to die on. He made a point. He showed his guts and demonstrated his sincerity. This is what attracts me to him. He followed his message to its ultimate conclusion, which involved the gustiest of gutsy moves.
Actually, as you said, considering his appeal with the Uyoku now, he did achieve what I believe was his true goal. Like the “League of the Divine Wind” he became a symbol of dissent, sincerity, purity and adherence to the old ways. That’s actually the main idea of this site–a man who takes action and becomes a “headless god.” A sort of transfiguration from man into myth that follows courageous action.
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Excellent point. It’s the Bushido connection that first attracted me to Mishima, and which still holds my interest for the most part. Once I became aware of his attitudes and his own purity of action, so to speak, my attraction to him was solidified. The transfiguration that you mention is, I think, one of the most powerful things about Mishima or anyone else who has walked his path. On dying, even in failure — perhaps especially in failure — they are immediately transformed into an ideal and assume the characteristics of a myth or a legendary hero. Their nature is in that moment fixed and becomes immutable, and no matter how any opposition to their message may struggle, nothing that comes after can really obscure that which is already frozen in time.
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