Yukio Mishima


Born
in Tokyo, Japan
January 14, 1925

Died
November 25, 1970

Website

Genre

Influences


Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫) was born in Tokyo in 1925. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University’s School of Jurisprudence in 1947. His first published book, The Forest in Full Bloom, appeared in 1944 and he established himself as a major author with Confessions of a Mask (1949). From then until his death he continued to publish novels, short stories, and plays each year. His crowning achievement, the Sea of Fertility tetralogy—which contains the novels Spring Snow (1969), Runaway Horses (1969), The Temple of Dawn (1970), and The Decay of the Angel (1971)—is considered one of the definitive works of twentieth-century Japanese fiction. In 1970, at the age of forty-five and the day after completing the last novel in the Fertility series, Mishima ...more

Average rating: 3.88 · 268,346 ratings · 28,444 reviews · 465 distinct worksSimilar authors
The Sailor Who Fell from Gr...

by
3.84 avg rating — 52,196 ratings — published 1963 — 150 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Confessions of a Mask

3.95 avg rating — 39,074 ratings — published 1949 — 6 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Temple of the Golden Pa...

by
3.97 avg rating — 24,692 ratings — published 1956 — 5 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Spring Snow (The Sea of Fer...

4.16 avg rating — 23,106 ratings — published 1967 — 137 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Sound of Waves

3.77 avg rating — 23,779 ratings — published 1954 — 154 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Life for Sale

3.71 avg rating — 14,619 ratings — published 1968
Rate this book
Clear rating
Runaway Horses (The Sea of ...

4.23 avg rating — 8,961 ratings — published 1969 — 88 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Sun & Steel

by
3.84 avg rating — 8,735 ratings — published 1968 — 83 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Thirst for Love

3.63 avg rating — 7,398 ratings — published 1950 — 10 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Death in Midsummer and Othe...

by
3.99 avg rating — 6,442 ratings — published 1953 — 85 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
More books by Yukio Mishima…
Spring Snow Runaway Horses The Temple of Dawn The Decay of the Angel
(4 books)
by
4.13 avg rating — 43,897 ratings

Quotes by Yukio Mishima  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“True beauty is something that attacks, overpowers, robs, and finally destroys.”
Yukio Mishima

“What transforms this world is — knowledge. Do you see what I mean? Nothing else can change anything in this world. Knowledge alone is capable of transforming the world, while at the same time leaving it exactly as it is. When you look at the world with knowledge, you realize that things are unchangeable and at the same time are constantly being transformed.”
Yukio Mishima, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

“Dreams, memories, the sacred--they are all alike in that they are beyond our grasp. Once we are even marginally separated from what we can touch, the object is sanctified; it acquires the beauty of the unattainable, the quality of the miraculous. Everything, really, has this quality of sacredness, but we can desecrate it at a touch. How strange man is! His touch defiles and yet he contains the source of miracles.”
Yukio Mishima, Spring Snow

Polls

September 2020 New School Classic Poll

 
  72 votes, 23.9%

Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima, 1968, 389 pages
 
  69 votes, 22.9%

Maurice by E.M. Forster, 1971, 256 pages
 
  42 votes, 14.0%

The Price of Salt by Claire Morgan (Pseudonym), Patricia Highsmith, 1952, 292 pages
 
  41 votes, 13.6%

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford, 1915, 368 pages
 
  33 votes, 11.0%

 
  24 votes, 8.0%

 
  20 votes, 6.6%

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
Goodreads Malaysia: Jangkauan geografi pembacaan kita.... 31 115 Apr 21, 2009 04:56PM  
The Book Challenge: Joel's 2009 Challenge 12 146 May 11, 2009 04:26PM  
The Seasonal Read...: Time to study abroad 52 539 Sep 04, 2009 11:27PM  
The Seasonal Read...: FALL CHALLENGE 2009 PLANS 167 1529 Oct 14, 2009 08:10AM  
The Next Best Boo...: Japanese Fiction 20 739 Nov 08, 2009 01:41PM  
The Seasonal Read...: This topic has been closed to new comments. FALL CHALLENGE 2009 COMPLETED TASKS 3942 2762 Nov 30, 2009 09:01PM  
Challenge: 50 Books: Az's Book Count [From 19th May] 33 250 Dec 20, 2010 08:47PM  
Nothing But Readi...: Diane's Progress on 1001 Books 8 64 Jan 13, 2011 03:24AM  
The Seasonal Read...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Winter Challenge 2010-2011 Completed Tasks (do not delete any posts) 2578 1107 Feb 28, 2011 09:05PM