If anything should define Yukio Mishima, it should be his commitment to casting a literary eye on cognitive dissonance. The everyday agony that people face when confronted with the knowledge that the human psyche is capable of holding two contrary beliefs at once. This was more than present in his life. A man who was dedicated to both poetry and violence, traditional Japanese art and avant-garde theorizing, beauty and decay. He was, to say the least, complicated. All of his written work reflect this, each one taut, stark masterpieces filled with both the classical, ethereal beauty and the brutality that he was so enamored with.
These are my top five, in no particular order.
5. Sun and Steel
Sun and Steel is a long, autobiographical essay about Mishima's relationship with his body.
It's fascinating. He describes his powerful physique as something to be both admired and detested.
One particular paragraph that stands out to me, in reference to Mishima's body, was this.
“If my self was my dwelling, then my body resembled an orchard that surrounded it. I could either cultivate that orchard to its capacity or leave it for the weeds to run riot in. I was free to choose, but the freedom was not as obvious as it might seem. Many people, indeed, go so far as to refer to the orchards of their dwellings as “destiny.”
4. Kyoko's House
Kyoko's House is perhaps the most semi-autobiographical out of all of Mishima's fiction. It follows the interconnected stories of four young men, a boxer, a painter, an actor, and a businessman. It's safe to assume that these characters represent the different sides of Mishima's personality, and that makes the businessman character so terrifying. He is the total nihilist, holding contempt for absolutely all life. If he is indeed meant to represent Mishima in some way, this adds another facet to his, already-troubled, psyche.
3. Five Modern Noh Plays
These five works are testaments to Mishima's ability to honor traditional Japanese art forms without ever feeling constrained by them. A Noh is a classical musical drama, often based on repetitious fables and folklore. Mishima takes these bits of folklore and updates them to a modern setting while forgoing the structure of the Noh play. It's an interesting effect. The second play, The Damasck Drum, is a highlight. The story centers around a particularly cruel, horrifying trick on an old man.
2. The Sailor Who Feel From Grace With The Sea
This novel will probably be the most familiar Mishima work to Western readers, as it was quite popular. It tells the tale of Ryuji, Fusako, and Noboro, and the horror of Nihilism acted out.
1. The Temple of The Golden Pavilion
If you read one Yukio Mishima novel, it has to be this one. An absolute masterpiece of the written word.
It details the life of young Buddhist acolyte Mizogouchi as he contemplates the efficacy of symbols and the horrible pain of beauty.
I'll leave you with this quote.
“Beauty is like a decayed tooth. It rubs against one’s tongue, it hangs there, hurting, insisting on its own existence. Finally it gets so that one cannot stand the pain and one goes to the dentist to have the tooth extracted. Then, as one looks at the small, dirty, brown, blood-stained tooth lying in one’s hand, one’s thoughts are likely to be as follows: ‘Is this it? Is this all it was?’
