Yukio Mishima and the Return to the Body

In this chapter, the life, work and philosophy of the Japanese author Yukio Mishima are explored. It is argued that the most interesting and profound properties of Mishima’s thought, his writings, and of the films associated with his thought and writings, are those that leave us with a sense of the open-ended struggle involved in his effort to define himself. The chapter examines some of Mishima’s most important literary works – including Confessions of a Mask, Temple of the Golden Pavilion, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea, Patriotism, and The Sea of Fertility – as well as cinematic interpretations of these works by directors such as Paul Schrader, Lewis John Carlino, and Yukio Mishima himself. It is concluded that for Mishima, the defeat of nihilism was ultimately realized in his suicide by ritual seppuku.