Ever heard of Yukio Mishima?

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Luigi
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Ever heard of Yukio Mishima?

Postby Luigi » Fri Jul 06, 2018 6:38 am

Japanese author with a crazy life story. I was debating putting this in the chessboard subforum since there are a lot of politics involved and more people would have probably seen it, but whatevs I know Masato at least will read this.

Wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima

TLDR;

-He was a literary master who survived a harsh childhood
-was able to incorperate Western influence but also wrote in traditional style
-his works were greatly inspired by the politics of Japan(meiji period, Japanese traditionalism and imperialism)
-he is best know for his tetrology "The Sea of Fertility"
-he believed a strong body was needed to balance a strong mind and trained in Japanese sword fighting and lifted weights
-he organized a militia group of followers to help him spread his political message(wanted the emperor to have more power)
-when he finished the final book in his tetrology he left the final page open and set out with his militia to stage a coup d'etat. They seized control of a Japanese military base and Mishima read his prepared manifesto to the captured soldiers. Instead of supporting him they jeered him. He them committed seppuku(Japanese ritual suicide). He was well aware his coup would fail but he did so anyway in the hope that it would have a cultural effect and inspire similar political movements, as had been done in the may 15 incident which is often referenced in his literature.
-he was married with kids but rumored to be bisexual.

This guy deserves a mention in public education man, what a legend.
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SRBrant
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Postby SRBrant » Wed Jul 11, 2018 4:25 am

I have mixed feelings. He was a genius, yes, but Kokko-Shinto - the ideology that the Emperor is a living god descended from Amaterasu herself - is blasphemous.

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Masato
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Postby Masato » Wed Jul 11, 2018 1:58 pm

Good call, SR!

Regardless, his body of work is impressive, cool that he wrote plays and made films too!
34 novels
50 plays
25 books of short stories
at least 35 books of essay
one libretto
one film.

I always find it admirable when someone can create/accomplish so much in one life, despite the crazy conditions of life around them

What fascinating titles/subjects!

Hard to judge another man's view of reality in a different time and place... I think sometimes what people write can be heightened if a writer takes a more mythological view of life, he was obviously passionate about how he saw things in Japan, and could likely give you a pretty good argument for it, lol He even wrote a play about Hitler! lol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Friend_Hitler Wonder what his views were of the war, Japan's involvement and eventual loss etc

Here is a movie/biography about him!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mishima:_ ... r_Chapters


(couldn't find a full film yet)


presentation about him:



documentary:


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