The Dedalus Book of Literary Suicides by Gary Lachman

Author:Gary Lachman [Lachman, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781909232464
Publisher: Dedalus
Published: 2013-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

Ten Suicides

Yukio Mishima

Probably the most spectacular literary suicide, certainly of recent times, was that of the Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima, who was born Kimitake Hiraoka on 14 January 1925 in the Yotsuya district of Tokyo. On 25 November 1970, before a literally captive audience, Mishima performed hara-kiri. His lover and disciple Masakatsu Morita, who would also attempt hara-kiri, after several attempts failed to decapitate Mishima as planned, leaving incomplete the kaishakunin part of the ritual, aimed to relieve the agony of disembowelment. Both received their finishing touches at the hands and sword of a third member of Mishima’s Tatenokai (“Shield Society”), a kind of private army that Mishima hoped would be a model for a new, right-wing Japan, recapturing the samurai glories of old.

That day Mishima and his followers had taken hostage an army general at a Jieitai (self-defence forces) military base at Ichigaya. On threat of death, Mishima compelled the general to assemble the garrison, some 1,000 men. He then addressed them from the balcony, hoping to instil some of the patriotic and military fervour that, along with his narcissism and strange sadomasochistic fantasies, had become a central part of his self-image. He called for a coup d’état, a rejection of the ‘Americanization’ of Japan that had begun following WWII, and a reinstatement of the emperor. His harangues failed; the soldiers shouted abuse and obscenities. They had no interest in Mishima’s samurai dreams. As the abuse grew, Mishima shouted “Listen! Listen! Listen!” No one did, and by this time police helicopters were drowning out both him and his hecklers.

Humiliated, Mishima returned to the room where they held the general. He tore off his jacket, revealing his naked torso. The general begged him to stop. “I was bound to do this,” Mishima replied. Then he knelt on the carpet, loosened his trousers, and grabbed the yoroidoshi, a foot-long, sharply pointed dagger. With his left hand he rubbed a spot on his lower left abdomen, then brought the point of the blade to its target. Behind him his lover Morita, shaking and sweating, raised his sword. Mishima shouted a final salute “Tenno Heika Banzai!” (Long live the Emperor!), then emptied his lungs. Taking one last breath, he exhaled powerfully and sent the dagger home. He made a deep horizontal cut across his stomach; blood poured onto the floor. Completing the incisions, his intestines exposed, he waited for Morita to end it. But as the shaking student hesitated, Mishima collapsed, and the blow only dug deep into his shoulders. Two more attempts failed to decapitate him. Finally, another follower, a student of kendo (Japanese fencing), grabbed the sword and finished the job. When it was Morita’s turn at disembowelment the panicky student did little more than scratch himself. The kendo student again took charge and quickly dispatched him as well. Then Mishima’s followers untied the general and surrendered themselves to the police.

Its tempting to allocate Mishima’s death to the Political Suicide category – a right-wing offering to balance Mayakovsky’s leftist sacrifice –

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