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“Isao had never felt that he might want to be a woman. He had never wished for anything else but to be a man, live in a manly way, die a manly death. To be thus a man was to give constant proof of one’s manliness–to be more a man today than yesterday, more a man tomorrow than today. To be a man was to forge ever upward toward the peak of manhood, there to die amid the white snows of that peak.
But to be a woman? It seemed to mean being a woman at the beginning and being a woman forever.”
- Yukio Mishima, Runaway Horses
Tags: manliness, manly death, womanhood, women
“As he saw it, there was only one choice–to be strong and upright, or to commit suicide. When a fellow from his own class killed himself, Jiro had approved of the act itself, yet had felt it a pity that it wasn’t the strong man’s suicide he had always envisaged, but that of someone frail in both mind and body.”
- Yukio Mishima, “Sword” Acts of Worship
“Most young men of Mibu’s age, even if they secretly revere someone, cant bring themselves to express it in words. Normally, the naive desire to appear self-sufficient makes them shy about such emotions. Mibu’s family thought it a sign of childishness that he was so forthcoming on the matter.”
- Yukio Mishima, “Sword” Acts of Worship
“…the samurai ethic is a political science of the heart, designed to control such discouragement and fatigue in order to avoid showing them to others. It was thought more important to look healthy than to be healthy, and more important to seem bold and daring than to be so. This view of morality, since it is physiologically based on the special vanity peculiar to men, is perhaps the supreme male view of morality.”
- Yukio Mishima, Mishima on Hagakure
Comment: This is an especially frank portrayal of the traditional concept of honor.
“Especially today, with the decline in the father’s authority, the ‘mother’s darling’ has become increasingly more common and there has been a dramatic rise in the number of what the Americans call the ‘domineering mother type’ [in English]. The father is ostracized, and the strict samurai instruction that is supposed to be handed down from father to son is completely neglected (indeed, there is no longer anything to hand down), and even for the child the father is reduced to a machine that brings home a pay-checque. There is no spiritual bond between them. The feminization of men is a common object of criticism today. But one should realize that the weakening of the father’s role is proceeding at an alarming rate.”
- Yukio Mishima, Mishima on Hagakure
“But what Hagakure has to say here about ideal human, or rather manly, beauty – ‘reverent yet stern, self collected’ – is still one kind of aesthetic for manly appearance. ‘Reverent’ requires a humility that inspires trust in others, while ’sternness’ hints at an air of austerity and aloofness. What is needed to reconcile and bind together these two opposite elements is a serene, unflappable calm.”
- Yukio Mishima, Mishima on Hagakure
“It is our common error to believe in the existence of heart or mind, conscience, thought, and abstract ideas, even when they are not directly revealed in conduct.”
“Cowardly words make the heart itself cowardly, and being regarded as a coward by others is the same as being a coward. The slightest flaw in word or deed causes the collapse of one’s philosophy of life. This can be a hard truth to bear.”
- Yukio Mishima, Mishima on Hagakure
“…a samurai is a total human being, whereas a man who is completely absorbed in his technical skill has degenerated into a ‘function’, one cog in a machine.”
“…a total person does not need a skill. He represents spirit, he represents action, and he represents the ideal principles on which his realm is founded.”
- Yukio Mishima, Mishima on Hagakure
“What is strength? It is not to be carried away by attempts at wisdom. It is not to go overboard in judgment. Jōchō knew what it was like to watch patiently while his motivation to action was crushed by wisdom and judgment. And he had seen many people lose their strength as they reached the age of discernment, so that even their newly gained wisdom and judgment were rendered ineffectual. There is a delicate paradox here. If one gains wisdom only at the age of forty, one must retain the strength to put it to use. Most of us do not, however. This is Jōchō ’s warning.”
- Yukio Mishima, Mishima on Hagakure
