The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima
. Henry Scott-Stokes. Cooper Square
Press. 2000.
Book review by Joel
This is the biography of Japan’s most famous 20th century author.
He wrote many books, plays, acted in movies, and started his own army.
This is the book Scott-Stokes wrote to try to explain his suicide by hara-kiri
at the age of 45. It was a planned suicide that was supposed to be a political
statement against the use of the Japanese armed forces--or lack of use.
Mishima was a militarist, and thought Japan was losing its identity to
the West. There are several Web sites for him; including some interesting
interviews on Youtube.com.
Henry Scott-Stokes’s purpose in this biography was to try and explain
why someone with so much going for themselves would do such a thing. Using
his large body of work and interviews with family members and friends,
he put together what he thought must have been going on inside Mishima’s
mind.
Yukio Mishima was a complex man. His first major book, Confessions of a Mask
, brought him literary fame and prestige. His writing was
different from what others were doing at the time. It was more honest
and had a flair for uncommon characters that better explained the ideas
he wanted to get across. He had a genius for language.
His life was a bit strange, however; his grandmother forcibly decided
to raise him after he was born, and brought him up as a little girl. He
was forbidden to go out, and could not play the way he wanted. His grandmother
was ill and became aggravated when he wanted to play with toys, such as
toy cars and toy guns. He had to stay in the room with his sick grandmother.
As he got older, he found that he was sexually excited by drawings of
men in battle near death--especially a picture of St. Sebastian, which
he found in an art book of his father’s. This picture influenced
Mishima deeply and references to it or like it are in many of his books.
He was obsessed with death. Many of his books ended with the main character
committing hara-kiri or dying in some horrible way, all described in great
detail.
Henry Scott-Stokes tries to capture the true author, but I feel he may
have fallen short. Even the author wrote that it is extremely difficult
to comprehend the Japanese culture completely if you are not from there.
My problem with this book is that it focuses on his death. The book starts
out with a minute-to-minute replay of the day he commits suicide. And
then it goes into his childhood, using extensive quoting of his writing,
especially Confessions of a Mask.
I would recommend the book only to those interested in Yukio, or in Japanese
literature. I thought it was very interesting but it was not a fun read.
Joel.
