Mishima: The Emperor as Joker

I see this kind of thought in reference to Mishima a lot, and I can’t imagine what the author has done that requires more balls than disemboweling oneself to make a point.

I mean really, there are a very select number of men in the word who can throw around the word “coward” and remain immune to mockery. I am sure that I will never in my life be one of them.

Image by Kiyonori Hasegawa

The Tokyo Ballet will be staging Maurice Béjart’s “M,” a 1993 ballet inspired by Mishima’s life, December 18 and 19, in honor of the 40th anniversary of Mishima’s death. More here:

The Tokyo Ballet In Rehersal for Béjart’s M

Yukio Mishima – Man of Words, Man of Action

Despite the longevity of his fame after his death, the mainstream press have largely boycotted him because of his far-right views.

The conservative Sankei daily, one of the few media outlets covering the anniversary of Mishima’s suicide, reported on the publication of books commemorating him.

But at Tokyo’s Kudan Kaikan hall, a few blocks from the Yasukuni war shrine, which honours 2.5 million war dead including top war criminals, organisers said around 1,000 people gathered to honour Mishima at a special ceremony.

A huge portrait of Mishima hung above an altar next to a Japanese national flag at the event, as a Shinto priest read prayers.

Mishima visited a Tokyo department store two weeks before he committed suicide, where a Yukio Mishima exhibit was held. (Mainichi)

From this write up in the Mainichi Daily News about several Japanese books on Mishima, published in response to the 40th anniversary of his death, we get a new quote for this site:

“Japan will disappear, and in its stead, an impersonal, empty, neutral, intermediate, opulent, shrewd, economic giant will be left standing in a corner of the Far East.”

- “Hatashieteinai Yakusoku” (Undelivered Promises)

A Japanese group pays homage to Mishima and Morita

Links:

• Memorial Lecture Held in Japan (Japanese – use Google Chrome to translate).
• Issuikai – The Reconquista (Japanese – use Google Chrome to translate).
• “In memoriam Misima Juki” – Ellenkultúra (Hungarian – use Google Chrome to translate).
• “Poetry with a splash of blood”  - Trevor Blake, OVO

Yukio Mishima – Kerry Bolton

Unabomber’s writings raise uneasy ethical questions for Stanford scholar
French Professor Jean-Marie Apostolidès finds link between blood and ink in Ted Kaczynski’s “Manifesto” – but should we listen to a killer?
BY CYNTHIA HAVEN
Stanford Report, February 1, 2010

‘Our words have no power’

“It’s the problem of scholars, even artists: Our words have no power. We think we are changing the world – particularly on the left,” he said, and paused. “You accept your symbolic castration – that your writing will take time to have a modest influence on your contemporaries.” In other words, he accepts the compromises necessary to live a normal life, with an income, collegial support, home and family.

Yet Kaczynski’s writings and life have intrigued Apostolidès by emphasizing “the relationship between writing and killing, ink and blood.”

“From a cynical perspective, I write books without killing anyone – my writing will have no impact. The only way I can be listened to is to associate my writing to something.” That is, “either your own blood or someone else’s.”

For instance, he cited Japanese writer Yukio Mishima, whose meticulously planned seppuku in 1970 triggered an avalanche of interest in his works.

Kaczynski is following in these footsteps, rejecting the petit bourgeois alternative that Apostolidès has knowingly embraced and instead “linking blood and ink.”