Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima (born Hiraoka Kimitake, 1925–1970) was a major Japanese writer—novelist, playwright and essayist—known for novels, plays and essays that engage themes of aesthetics, nationalism and identity.

Mishima used the pen name Yukio Mishima (real name Hiraoka Kimitake). He published novels, plays and essays. In 1970, after a dramatic public incident involving his private militia (Tatenokai) and the Tokyo Self-Defense Forces headquarters, he committed seppuku (ritual suicide).

Defender1's review praises Musica (1964) as a pleasing short novel that explores psychoanalytic themes through the case of Reiko, who 'cannot hear music.' The reviewer notes Mishima's real name (Hiraoka Kimitake) and his death by seppuku in 1970. The prose is described as didactic but engaging, with thriller-like twists.

For:Readers of Japanese literature, fans of psychological fiction and modernist prose