Mishima: A Vision of the Void

by Marguerite Yourcenar, Alberto Manguel (Translator), Donald Richie (Foreword by)

On November 25, 1970, Japan's most renowned postwar novelist, Yukio Mishima, stunned the world by committing ritual suicide. Here, Marguerite Yourcenar, a brilliant reader of Mishima and a scholar with an eye for the cultural roles of fiction, unravels the author's life and his affection for Western culture, his family and his homosexuality, his brilliant writings, and his carefully premeditated death.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Japan, Essays, France, Japanese Literature, Literature

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 2, 1981

About the author

Marguerite Yourcenar, original name Marguerite de Crayencour, was a french novelist, essayist, poet and short-story writer who became the first woman to be elected to the Académie Française (French Academy), an exclusive literary institution with a membership limited to 40.
She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1947. The name “Yourcenar” is an imperfect anagram of her original name, “Crayencour.”

Yourcenar’s literary works are notable for their rigorously classical style, their erudition, and their psychological subtlety. In her most important books she re-creates past eras and personages, meditating thereby on human destiny, morality, and power. Her masterpiece is Mémoires d'Hadrien, a historical novel constituting the fictionalized memoirs of that 2nd-century Roman emperor. Her works were translated by the American Grace Frick, Yourcenar’s secretary and life companion.
Yourcenar was also a literary critic and translator.

Reviews

[Rowena · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Inevitably, an uneasy balance is established between our interest in the man and our interest in his books. Gone are the days when we could enjoy Hamlet and not interest ourselves in Shakespeare: vulgar curiosity about biographical anecdotes is a characteristic of our time, increased tenfold by the methods of a press and media addressed to a public more and more incapable of reading." - Marguerite Yourcenar

I quite liked this book. It's not a very detailed biography of Mishima's life but it does go into a lot of detail about Mishima's literary works and his influences.

Also interesting was Mishima's vision of Japan. He was definitely extremely patriotic; someone who planned his ritual suicide for 6 years was obviously extreme! I don't know enough about Japanese history to determine whether the following quote by Mishima is true or not: "Money and materialism reign; modern Japan is ugly. Japan is a victim of the green snake. We shall not escape that curse."

I feel I would have gotten more out of the book if I'd had more Mishima under my belt; however, I've only read two so I was a bit lost at times.I also think the book could have used some pictures too. I did enjoy Yourcenar's writing style and her musings into the writing of biographies.

[Deniz Balcı · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bu kitabı kaçıncı okuyuşum bilmiyorum. Zaman zaman elimin altında durur ve Mishima okumalarıma eşlik eder. Ancak Mishima'yı daha iyi anladığımı düşündükçe, Yourcenar'ın Batılı olmasının arkasına sakladığı hafif küçümseyen diğer yandan da vahşi bir tavırla yücelten yazını beni rahatsız etmeye başladı. Bu esere olan şükran duygum tamamen Mishima ile ilgili çektiğim açlığı bir nebze olsun farklı bir kanaldan doyurmuş olması ve karşılaştırma yapabileceğim başka bir alternatifin olmayışından kaynaklanıyor. Tüm bu mecburi istikamet durumunu bir kenara bırakırsak; Yourcenar eser boyunca kendi karmaşık edebi üslubunu, bu düşünce kitabına aktarmış ve bu beni her okuduğumda biraz daha irite ediyor. Ne gerek var öyle uzun, karmaşık ve süslü cümlelere? Neyse, eseri kesinlikle Türkçede yayımlanmış bütün Mishima kitaplarını okuduktan sonra okuyun. Zira spoilerlar yiyebileceğiniz gibi, bazı durumlarda olumsuz bazı durumlarda olumlu önyargılara kapılmanıza sebep olacaktır. Tüm handikaplarına rağmen elbette okunmayı hak eden bir çalışma. Zaten Mishima okumalarınızı yaptıktan sonra bu kitabı okuma isteği içerisinde olacaksınızdır diye düşünüyorum.
Herkese iyi okumalar!

[Josefina Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yazarın Mişima dan etkilendiğini fark etmemek imkansız fakat etkilendiği için de sanki kendisine kızıyor,devamlı başka kültürler detayına kafayı takmış.Yıllar önce izlediğim bir filmde Japon gelini olan Amerikalı bir kadının dostlarına gelini için söylediği bir şey aklıma geldi "Japon ama iyi kız yazık, tabii bizim gibi değil" burda ki kibri yazar da da fark ettim. Meşhur Fransız kibri!!! Mişima dünya edebiyat tarihinde bir çığır açmıştır. Bazı yerlerde bunun farkında oluşunu görmemize rağmen yine de Japon kültürüne Doğu kültürüne kafayı takmış bir şekilde rahatsız! ama asıl bu rahatsızlığı bence Marguerite Yourcenar 'in kendisinden kaynaklanıyor. Ve oldukca demogojik anlatımları var.Mişima yı henüz keşfetmeyen biri için; bu kitabı okuyup Mişima nin eserlerini okursa mutlaka daha önyargılı olarak okuyacak ki kesinlikle tavsiye etmem. Mutlaka benim gibi düşünmeyenler olacak belki biraz Mişima hayranı olarak duygusal davranıyorum.Yazarın eleştiri ve incelemelerini yorumlarını daha iyi anlamak için diğer eserlerini de okudum tekrardan.Hele Mişima'nın ilk okuduğum eseri zaten benim gözümde baş şahaseri olarak kalacak (Bir Maskenin İtirafları). Diger taraftan Japon kültürüne bağlı bazi durumlarda şöyle düşündüm Kawabata,Tanizaki,Osamu Dazai ve diger japon yazarlara göz attığımda onlarin dünya edebiyatı içinde görebiliyorum sadece Japon kültüründen kaynaklanan yazılar yazan birileri olarak değil.
Söyle yazmış ilk başlarken yazısına;"Çağdaş bir yazar hakkında hükme varmak her zaman güçtür: Mesafemiz noksandır. Hele bizimkinden başka bir uygarlıktansa onun hakkında bir hükme varmak daha da güç olur; çünkü ya egzotizmin çekiciliği ya da kendini egzotizmden sakınma girer devreye. Bu yanlış anlama ihtimalleri, Yukio Mişima’nın durumunda olduğu gibi, doymazlıkla içselleştirdiği hem kendi kültürünün hem de Batı kültürünün unsurları, yani bizim için tuhaf olan ve bizim için sıradan olan unsurlar, her eserde muhtelif etkiler ve mutlu tesadüflerle farklı oranlarda karıştığında artar"
Ayrıca şunuda yazmadan edemeyeceğim Mişima ya kayıtsız şartsız hayran biri olmam objektiv olmama engel değil mutlaka. Yine de onu dünya edebiyatında hak ettigi yeri aldığına inanıyorum.
Herseye rağmen okunulmasına inandığım bir deneme yazısı.Burada yazdıklarım beni tam olarak anti Marguerite Yourcenar yapmaz sanırım.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

D’un pas vif et le mot toujours juste tel qu’on le lui connaît, Marguerite Yourcenar offre à contempler en quelque 120 pages à peine le parcours littéraire et symbolique de Yukio Mishima. C’est fluide, c’est rapide, c’est presque économe en dépit du sérieux des thèmes abordés, mais toujours soigneusement raisonné par Yourcenar, comme on peut s’y attendre, pour mieux culminer avec le seppuku spectaculaire par lequel l’artiste japonais a choisi – dans la plus pure tradition ancestrale, sans compromis – de mettre fin à ses jours en 1970.

À défaut d’avoir lu tout Yourcenar ou tout Mishima, ce qui n’arrivera jamais de toute façon, à ce stade-ci j’ai suffisamment goûté aux publications des deux écrivains pour apprécier cette brève lecture posthume de l’un par l’autre. L’essai de Marguerite Yourcenar préserve – voire éclaire, nourrit – la superbe des deux têtes pensantes, la sienne en propre et celle de Mishima, l’une et l’autre emblématiques de leur époque et de leur contrée d’origine respective, l’une et l’autre passées à l’histoire pour y rester.

J’ai particulièrement apprécié les réflexions offertes quant au contraste entre la fascination de Mishima pour la culture occidentale, notamment littéraire, et son attachement aux valeurs traditionnelles du Japon. J’ai aussi profité assez goulûment de l’interprétation que fait Yourcenar des œuvres les plus marquantes de l’auteur, dont Le tumulte des flots (que j’ai lue en anglais : The Sound of Waves), une perle de fiction que j’avais trouvée tellement lumineuse et que Yourcenar confirme comme étant la plus candide, la plus politiquement détachée du lot. Le fait que certains romans de Mishima soient abordés au passage sans que je ne les aie lus n’a ni diminué mon intérêt immédiat pour l’essai, ni mis en péril mon appréciation future des romans en question si j’en viens à les lire, bien au contraire.

J’avais hésité à entreprendre la lecture de cet essai, si court soit-il. Le caractère sombre d’une mort par seppuku ne m’interpelait pas spécialement. Mais j’ai bien fait de miser sur Yourcenar : dans un savant mélange de faits avérés et d’opinions, l’approche préconisée par l’auteure réchappe son compte rendu tant du sensationnalisme que de l’alourdissement.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

5 stars for the totally banging cover. Love it. Is it supposed to be Mishima as Ryuji? Mishima as Saburo? Mishima as Isao? Mishima as the Lieutenant from Patriotism? Mishima as Kiyoaki? Top marks to Bill Tsukuda.

The text was a bit uninspiring. My vision of the void: Mishima and a troop of young toughs are relaxing in a bar, arm wrestling and talking about working out. In walks Marguerite and she's saying "Hey, Yukio! I've written a book about you!" and he pretends not to hear and takes his friends down to the Misty Sauna in Roppongi.

There's a weird bit where she seems to be explaining that Mishima isn't the first person to have included "savage flesh-eating rites" in art. Really?

Then she starts explaining how parts of some of his stories could have happened in the west. The gay party in "Forbidden Colours" could have taken place in New Jersey. But is anyone saying Japan invented gay parties? Were westerners reading "Forbidden Colours" thinking "This 'gay party' business is very far-fetched, it certainly wouldn't happen in New Jersey"?

Perhaps she does have a point in arguing her opinion that the setting and story of "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" could have been moved to a European monastery, without too much lost in translation. But no doubt something would have been lost in translation. And it only seems worth making this point if you think there are readers who are putting down the book because "it's unbelievable / too Japanese". Are people putting down Mishima because it wouldn't happen that way in New Jersey?

She tells us the story of "Spring Snow", which I didn't really need. In fact, she could have pitched a bit higher with her assumptions of readers' knowledge. I know the Meiji Restoration isn't the most famous thing ever, but surely we don't need a paragraph on it in a book like this?

The reincarnation theme of the Sea of Fertility: she's not a huge fan and seems to think that the three mole thing "irritates rather than convinces the reader". I like it! She, herself, totally digs the Isao / Kiyoaki face / off at Isao's trial. She's right about Honda:
"so anodyne and dull that even the adjective ‘bleak’ seems an exaggeration".

I like that she thinks Masakatsu Morita (young man who botched chopping Mishima's head off, and then died with him) is "very handsome" in his silly uniform. The biographers thought he was very plain. She doesn't like the love suicide theory, although she does assume they slept together. (This is ridiculous, how would she know? She never met any of these people. But everyone seems to have a view on whether or not Mishima and Morita had sex).

I liked that she briefly mentioned the photographs of the scene. Biographers seem to have been a bit shy about the carnage of the room. That photograph of Mishima's head next to Morita's:
"Two stones, rolled along by the River of Action, which the immense wave has for a moment left upon the sand, and which it then carries away."

I also liked:
"Even during the course of the most dazzling and fullest life, what we really wish to do is rarely accomplished, and from the depths or the heights of the Void, things that have been, and things that have not, both seem shadows or dreams."

She's obviously very clever.

Error #1: Tadeshina (Satoko's nurse in "Spring Snow")was not an "elderly geisha"! How bloody rude! Poor old thing.
Error #2: I can't be bothered to check, but I'm fairly certain that Isao wasn't showering under the waterfalls before a climb up the sacred mountain, but in order to pull the cart of lilies to the location of the next day's festival.

[Argos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kitabın başındaki cümle şöyle:
“Çağdaş bir yazar hakkında hükme varmak her zaman güçtür. Mesafemiz noksandır. Hele bizimkinden başka bir uygarlıktansa onun hakkında hükme varmak daha da güç olur.” Şok edici bir cümle.
Eğer tercüme hatası ise “ kültür” yerine “uygarlık” denmişse vahim bir hata. Daha kötüsü yazar bilinçli olarak “uygarlık” kelimesini seçmiş ise o kitap okunmamalı. Ben ilk seçeneği düşünerek okumaya devam ettim, kültür ile uygarlık farkını ayır(a)mayan bir kitabı yine de okudum. Zaten tercüme bir felaket. Bakın şu kelimelere; Hüsnütabir, mütebahirler, vaka-i adiye, mukadder, şedit, elzem, malik, musdarip, münhasıran, nasip, tevcih etmek, muhayyile, suret, emare, teşne olmak.... ve daha nice eski kelime dolu. Hem gençlerin kitap okumasını istiyoruz hem de onlara böyle çeviriler sunuyoruz. Ayıptır, Can Yayınları için bir kat daha ayıptır !!!
Kitap biraz bilgiç bir edayla yazılmış, yapılan bir iş, davranış veya eylemin olumlanması için mutlaka batıda da yapılıyor olması gerektiği gibi bir saplantı içinde kaleme alınmış. Örneğin “ ....gizli kapaklı buluşmaları, Tokyo yerine Paris ya da NewYork’ta da cereyan edebilirdi” cümlesinde olduğu gibi. Hep Batı Edebiyatı’ndan örneklerle tez veya anti-tez geliştirilmiş.
Aslında yazarın özellikle eserleri üzerinden, dönemin siyasi şartları ve yazarın çocukluğu da göz önüne alınarak trajik intiharın nedeni araştırılmış. Tüm intiharlarda olduğu gibi bir veya birkaç nedene bağlamak mümkün olamamış tabii. Yine de Mişima’nın “seppuku” denilen muhafazakar/geleneksel intihar yöntemini seçmesi konusunda bazı somut bilgilere ulaşılıyor. Özellikle 1936’da filmi çekilen ve kendisinin teğmen olarak başrolde oynadığı Yukoku (Yurtseverlik) filmi ve son yıllarında kurduğu Tate no Kai (Kalkan Derneği)’nin nasıl bir faşist milis gücü olduğu hakkındaki bilgiler ilginç. Olumlu bir yönü de Mişima’nın 4 kitabı (dörtlemesi) hakkındaki bilgiler oldukça yararlı. Çevirisi için bir yıldızı kırptım.

[Meltem Sağlam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mişima'nın eserlerinin okuması tamamlandıktan sonra okunmasını öneririm.

[Eric Byrd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richard Howard said that Yourcenar’s first novel, Alexis, or The Treatise of Futile Combat, has an “aphoristic glamour” which makes up for its “meagerness of incident.” An “aphoristic glamour” – isn't that what we all want? – certainly enabled me to enjoy Mishima, a book that, because it consists mostly of plot summaries and explication of novels I haven’t read, might easily have been boring.

Its beauty comes, in part, from its combining before our eyes living creatures and ghosts, who are practically the same thing in a world where impermanence is the rule…


…[patriotic] verses which prove to what extent a group of one hundred men is already a mob and expects, as such, its fodder of clichés.


…the Void which Honda had contemplated, and which suddenly seems nothing but a concept or a symbol too human in spite of everything.


…Satoko, whom he at first loved only a little and then madly.

I love Yourcenar’s essay on seppuku in That Mighty Sculptor, Time, and am lately curious about Mishima, so finding this book made my day.

[Philippe Malzieu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in the continuation of the 5 No. Yourcenar and Mishima is bound to them. Why such a link coming together? In what a western writer is him to judge an oriental writer? Except for their homosexuality, we do not see them common points. The danger is to apply a railing of western reading and to make a mistake.
Levy-Strauss pronounced 3 conferences in Japan which were published in France under the title "L'autre face de la lune." ( The other face of the moon). He noted the disturbing resemblances between France and Japan. He wondered if it was not of for the geographic situation of both countries, at the end of their continent, looking America.
Culturally, 2 countries thus present common points.
Yourcenar present a very fine study of the work of Mishima. I disadvise this book to those who do not know Mishima because she gives the end of books. I believe that Yourcenar had the culture and the necessary empathy to write this book.
A very important analysis of the work of Mishima.

[George Ilsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A French writer obsessed with the life and work of a Japanese writer. Writes a book, in French, about the Japanese writer's works which she has read in translation. The book is translated from French to English. We are thus somewhat removed from the source material — both the Japanese (which the author accessed in French) and the French (which is being read here in English).

I always wonder at the quality of translations. Yourcenar's observations are based on French translations and perhaps these are different in tone from English translations. This may explain some of the discrepancies that other reviewers have noted.

Even the titles of Mishima’s books have different connotations in French and in English. And so it begins ...

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yourcenar's take in Mishima is impressionistically concise and poetic, much like her fiction. And she is quick to dispel a lot of the nonsense around Mishima's political views, which were far more complicated (and also heavily tied up with his personal aestheticization of honor and death) than the caricature of right wing fanaticism he often gets labelled with. The book is most rewarding when she is trying to unravel and understand him than when she tries to dig into specifics and offer explications of his work, which she dispatches with a steely but ultimately only marginally impressive section. And her explication of the sea of Fertility cycle seems a bit muddled (which is fine by me, I haven't read it yet and would rather it not be spoiled). Ultimately, like many people, she is more interested in Mishima himself, as a person, as some self-made aesthetic symbol, as a living gateway into the concept of nothingness, than she is in his actual writing. Which is cool, because Mishima himself actively courted and developed that kind of persona.

[Mehmet]

"En göz alıcı ve tatmin dolu yaşam sırasında, hakikaten yapılmak istenen nadiren yerine getirilir ve Boşluk'un derinliklerinden ya da yüksekliklerinden, olmuş ile olmamış benzer şekilde serap ya da düş gibi görünür." (s.104)

[Israel Montoya Baquero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aunque es una buena aproximación inicial a la figura de Yukio Mishima, sinceramente me esperaba más, muuuucho más de este libro al venir de la pluma de quien viene.

[Karine Mon coin lecture · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5
Beaucoup aimé l'analyse des textes de Mishima à la sauce Yourcenar. Très intéressant aussi de voir le regard jeté à cette époque (il y a 45 ans) sur l'auteur et ses oeuvres. Toutefois, il n'y est pratiquement jamais question du côté queer de Mishima ni de l'impact que ceci a pu avoir sur ses textes et son destin.

[quim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es fascinante leer a Mishima y a la vez leer a una lectora muy buena de Mishima y luego volver a Mishima, ¿tal vez no funciona tanto como introducción sino como guía? Cuando me lea Nieve de primavera volveré aquí, sin duda

[ferrigno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mishima era una specie di D'Annunzio giapponese. Creò un gruppo paramilitare, 100 fanatici del Giappone tradizionale in divisa da operetta (un tripudio di baveri, mostrine e cappelli con la visiera). L'ultimo giorno della sua vita occupò un ministero e provò a incitare i militari a ribellarsi, blaterando contro il Giappone moderno; non li smosse. La frustrazione lo spinse a un seppuku di protesta. Se non è fascista lui (per la Yourcenar non lo è) non lo sono neanche quelli di Forza Nuova. "Mishima era antiborghese": anche Mussolini lo era, all'inizio.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Even during the course of the most dazzling and fullest life, what we really wish to do is rarely accomplished, and from the depths or the heights of the Void, things that have been, and things that have not, both seem shadows or dreams."

[Xeftis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rien à faire, la plume de M. Yourcenar saura toujours me charmer. (Re)plonger dans l'œuvre de Mishima à partir de sa perspective m'a été un véritable plaisir. Il me faut malgré tout avouer que les passages assez longs dans lesquels Yourcenar résume les différents textes de Mishima m'ont moins intéressé. Je n'ai pas lu tout Mishima et avoir une paraphrase était très pertinent, mais la place que prend proportionnellement l'analyse de Yourcenar est plus restreinte qu'attendu. De même, après avoir passé en revue l'œuvre, Yourcenar se tourne vers la vie de l'homme en question et cette relation de faits historiques, encore une fois, même si elle a certainement sa place, est un peu disproportionnée. Cela dit, il est facile de comprendre que tout cela forme un tout tressé avec habileté et que chaque paragraphe est l'occasion d'ajouter des éléments de réflexions nourrissant celui qui suit comme celui qui précède.
J'ai pensé que cet essai faisait preuve d'une grande cohérence et que l'axe du suicide, de la vie (involontaire) face à la mort (volontaire), a énormément de sens. Yourcenar fait très bien ressortir ce fil rouge et le relie à d'autres exemples issus de la littérature. Un autre grand thème est celui de l'Occident occupant (littéralement) le Japon et sa culture, laissant une grande empreinte chez Mishima. La rencontre entre ces deux pôles - Occident et Orient - est signée par cet essai même. D'ailleurs, Yourcenar témoigne d'une grande connaissance de la littérature japonaise, de son histoire et de ses thématiques. Du reste, les questions d'ordre politique ne sont pas ignorées et font l'objet de plusieurs passages, très intéressants au demeurant.
C'est un livre qui vaut certainement le détour si on est un peu familier avec ces deux auteurs. Il est de toute façon intéressant de lire ce qu'une grande autrice a pu penser d'un grand auteur.

[Maurizio Imbriale · Rating 4 out of 5]

In questo breve saggio l'autrice di Memorie di Adriano si sofferma soprattutto sulle opere di Mishima e in particolar modo su "Confessioni di una maschera" e sulla "Tetralogia della fertilità", quest’ultima considerata la summa della filosofia poetica e politica dello scrittore. In queste opere convivono la cultura occidentale e quella nipponica in una sintesi che trasporta nell’immaginario dell’autore una visione del mondo estetica con alcune caratteristiche immutabili della tradizione giapponese. “Il modo in cui, in Mishima, le particelle tradizionalmente giapponesi sono riaffiorate ed esplose nella sua morte fa di lui il testimone e, nel senso etimologico della parola, il martire, del Giappone eroico che egli ha per così dire raggiunto controcorrente.”
Il libro si chiude con la descrizione minuziosa del suicidio compiuto dalla scrittore giapponese, immortalato nell' agghiacciante foto che ritrae, nell’ufficio del generale, le due teste dei martiri, quella di Mishima e quella del suo attendente Morita, uno a fianco all’altra, posizionate con cura su un tappeto di acrilico. Esse, per la scrittrice, rappresentano "due relitti, sospinti dal fiume dell’Azione, e che l’immensa ondata ha lasciato per un attimo in secca sulla sabbia e poi trascina via".

[Fulya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kitabın pes ettiren iç sıkıntısı yazardan mı yoksa çevirmenden mi kaynaklanıyor bilemiyorum. Eski apartmanların yamuk yumuk merdivenleri olur ya, bunu da tırman tırman bitmedi. İç çekerek 41. sayfada pes ediyor, “Batılı yazarlar”a her nerede yaşıyor ve yaşatılıyorlarsa bu kitap özelinde lanet ediyorum.

[Chloé le feufollé]

Un livre très agréable à lire si ont veut découvrir Mishima et avoir une analyse plus littéraire et profonde sur lui ainsi que tou se qui a pus le guider vers le seppuku. Néanmoins ALERTE ! Marguerite yourcenar spoil énormément les œuvre de l’auteur puisqu’elle les utilises afin d’appuyer ses propos. Donc si comme moi vous n’avez pas lus toutes les œuvre de Mishima (comme la tétralogie de la mer de la fertilité (qui joue un rôle très important puisque elle fut finit le jour de son suicide) ou encore, le pavillon d’or, couleur interdîtes (amour interdite = traduction actuelle), confession d’un masque et quelque de ces pièce Nô, vous risquez de vous faire spoiler la fin du roman. :) sinon c’est avec une très belle plume qu’elle nous parle de mishima.

[Nooilforpacifists · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can, slowly, read French, but I found an out-of-print English translation, and read that.

Yourcenar remans an author of astonishing ability to assemble words and themes. Every page in this 150 page book was fascinating. I paused several times to marvel not just at her sentence structure but at the discipline she brought to her analysis of Mishima’s life and art.

But this book was written too soon (1980, only ten years after Mishima’s spectacular seppuku with his personal “Shield Society” army in a Japanese Defense Force barracks in Tokyo). “If a national and reactionary revolution ever triumphs, even briefly, in Japan—as happened in certain Islamic countries—the Shield Society will have been its forerunner.”

No: to the extent Japan remembers Mishima, it is with a mixture of loathing and embarrassment. None of my Japanese clients (over a 30-year period) could bear my mentioning his name, so I stopped. I visited some sites from his books once out from under my minders’ care.

To be sure, I agreed with Yourcenar’s analysis of Mishima’s short stories and novels. For example, she identifies exactly why and where I had great difficulty with his final tetralogy: in the second book, Runaway Horses, whose plot turns on reincarnation, as does the third volume, The Temple of the Dawn. This might have been plausible and interesting to Buddhists or Shintoists. But, as she notes, it comes off as lazy plotting to Westerners, especially because after the reincarnation is discovered by each novel’s protagonist, the protagonist wrecks his life and career for what he thinks is a childhood friend who died young, now reborn.

New to me is that Mishima filmed a Nō play he wrote, “Patriotism.” It’s a simple five-scene/two character play, with similar themes as “Decay of the Angel”. More than any other single thing, it presages Mishima’s last day. I will seek a copy of this film, but—in summary—a group of Right Wing army soldiers have been sentenced to death for attempting to revolt. The Lieutenant, played by Mishima, is spared, because he is a newlywed, but his pride does not allow him to outlive his comrades. His young wife not only agrees to act as her husband’s second, but does not want to outlive him. They make love then, he first, then she, suicide.

After Mishima’s death, his wife Yoko said she expected the suicide “but not for another year or two.” Mishima’s mother said, “Don’t grieve for him. For the first time in his life, he did what he wanted to do.” These are astounding quotes, and the fact that Yourcenar doesn’t mock them enough (she mocks Yoko) tells me she really believed Japan some day would reject its alliance with the US; delete Article 9 of its Constitution (committing its forces to defense only, not attack); and return to an honor-based society. Despite the fact that Japan, too, now manufactures in Malaysia, this is literally insane, and it was in 1980.

Obviously, I enjoy both Yourcenar and Mishima. (If anyone hasn’t read “Memoirs of Hadrian,” do so.) This short literary bio is a marvelous read for anyone who’s read Mishima’s work. But she completely misunderstood Mishima’s place in Japan’s culture and future: none.


UPDATE:

I now have seen “Patriotism,” and am surprised. For a Nō play, it is surprisingly “talky.” Not that the characters speak—that never could happen. But there’s a low-budget scroll in English, spelling out (literally) far too much. This from a man who spent a lifetime complaining about the gap between words and actions. Plus, there’s a great deal of skin between Mishima and, get this, a woman.

And the two ritual suicides here are by far the goriest I’ve ever seen depicted. This is the second filmed sequence of seppuku I’ve seen of Mishima, and the only realistic one. The music is spooky; the blood brutal. You have been warned.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since March 18, 2013, the day I committed to reading this book, I've read four to seven works of Mishima's, depending on whether you count his The Sea of Fertility as one or four. Since that day, I have read exactly one work by Yourcenar: this one. Both are authors I had found great favor with previously, enough for me to view a work like this as a happy confluence that would allow me to multitask in my autodidactism, perhaps even to the point of enjoying myself a tad. However, life has fallen out in such a way as to make me more than a little antipathetic to Yourcenar's priorities in evaluating one of her fellow writers who happens to be Japanese, queer, and one of those who has ended their own life. This is a really short book, and yet there's at numerous instances of Yourcenar going 'Look at all these choices/cultural methodologies/literary scenes that wouldn't be at all out of place in a European venue! Mishima really wasn't a freak after all!' or otherwise slathering her own insipid obsessions all over the figure she was supposedly defending against frequent misinterpretation and other instances of gross objectification by a white mass media. And yet, I found myself intensely attached to the subject, the perspective, even the typeface and spacing out of the text, and it was rather gratifying to come to an analysis of more than a half dozen works by a single author (again, depending on your definition of a tetralogy) and being able to follow along in almost every incident of reference and summary. As such, I will give three stars, be grateful that one of my local library's saw fit to not weed this from their shelves in the year of 2023, and leave it at that. I have even fainter reason to ever return to Yourcenar, but Mishima? I'll be chasing him a long while yet, and I don't see it ever becoming other than a pleasure to do so.

What one calls a morbid mania is for the other a heroic discipline. It is for the reader to make up [their] own mind.

[Jale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Asıl adı Kimitake Hiraoka olan, Çiçekli Orman yayımlanmadan önce Fuji Dağı'nın eteğindeki ufak bir şehir olan Mişima'dan kendine isim yapan Yukio'nun, çocukluğundan törensel intiharına kadar geçen süreci eserleri üzerinden inceliyor Yourcenar.
Muşima Bereket Denizi'nin son cildini yayıncıya "İnsan yaşamı kısa, ama ben hep yaşayacağım." notu ile beraber gönderdikten sonra, 4 arkadaşıyla beraber bir generali esir almak için yola çıkar. Kızı Noriko'nun okulunun önünden geçerken "Filmlerde duygusal bir müziğin işitildiği an bu." diye alay eder.
General esir alınır, birlikler dışarı toplanır ve Mişima 800 kişilik topluluğa "Biz Japonya'nın refah sarhoşu olduğunu ve ruhsuzluk içinde mahvolduğunu görüyoruz. Ona kendi suretini tekrar göstereceğiz ve bunu yaparak öleceğiz. Sizin için, ruhun öldüğü bir dünyayı kabullenirken, sadece yaşamanın önemli olması mümkün müdür?" der. İçeri girer, hançeri çıkartır ve seppuku (harakiri) yapar. Morita'dan çok acı çekmeden başını kesmesini istemiştir. Ağlayan Morita üç denemede de başaramaz, kılıcı alan Furu-Koga tek darbede başını keser Mişima'nın. Ardından Morita da seppuku yapar ve Furu-Koga onun da başını keser. Arkasından söylenen en hüzünlü söz annesine ait: "Ona acımayın. Hayatında ilk kez, yapmayı arzu ettiğini yaptı."
İntihar hüzünlü bir eylem, fakat Mişima'nın intiharı şiirsel ve görkemli...

[Anita · Rating 2 out of 5]

"It was ok" was not the rating I was expecting to give this book. But then, that's the problem with expectations, reality can never quite measure up to them.
I admit I was mislead by the interesting title to expect more than was reasonable, but I thought the subject matter was encompassing enough to not make boredom an issue. I was wrong. For a book this short, it took me two weeks to get through it, which is ridiculous.
The content itself was a mixture of literary criticism, armchair psychology and personal opinions. I was rather hoping for more of a personal outlook on the subject than what little there is, but I found the balance a bit underwhelming.
All in all, a book that is a must-read for those who study Mishima, if only because it is short and it actually has some really salient points buried in its pages. I would warn other readers, though, to be prepared for some digging.

[Beroha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cet essai a pour but d'éclairer les cheminements de l'auteur qui l'ont amené à se suicider selon les règles du seppuku le 27 novembre 1970, peu avant son ami, le prix Nobel Yasunari Kawabata. Marguerite Yourcenar, femme de lettres française, décode le parcours spirituel et littéraire de Mishima jusqu'à son aboutissement dans ce seppuku dans les bâtiments du ministère des armées. Une grande attention est portée au lien entre la tétralogie de l'auteur et la genèse de son action radicale. Il est préférable de connaître son oeuvre, ne serais-ce que sa tétralogie afin d'être familiarisé avec le style de l'auteur, mais cet essai est profitable aux lecteurs ayant déjà lu des œuvres de Mishima et intéressés par sa vie.

[Hojaplateada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una biografía de Mishima escrita por Yourcenar, tiene partes interesantes que explican algo de su vida

[Fermin Acosta Schieroni · Rating 5 out of 5]

mira lo que es la literatura

[Patrick McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was inspired to read Marguerite Yourcenar's book, Mishima: A Vision Of The Void (1980) because of eminent Japanese critic Donald Richie's praise of it. Make no mistake, Yourcenar has not attempted to write a definitive biography or critical study, however, has drafted a tribute to Japanese author Yukio Mishima as a symbol in life as well as expressed in his writings. She has made some interesting observations about his actions in life and how they reflected his ideas that have been preserved in his body of writing. I suppose this would be of most interest to people who are well-versed in the life and work of Mishima.

[Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a reading list than a biography. I disagree with the author's assumption's about Mishima's death, but then again the author seems to disagree as well. Was it all an act? Were Mishima and Morita in love?

In my library copy someone went through and corrected all the incorrectly Romanised Japanese. It's true what they say about people in universities.