Thoughts on Mishima?

japanese are great i love sushi haha!

I dislike categorizing Mishima like this. He was much more an aestheticist who translated his ideals of beauty onto the political, national scale, as opposed to be actually conservative. He was quite westernized, and in many ways decadent. It was at the end of his life that he assumed control of his life, but this didn't mean that he turned into a conservative. His character Honda, and especially Runaway Horses, show with what lucidity he observed the political spectrums of japanese society.

Isao wasn't a right-winger, he was an incarnation of a brutal god. The soldierdude, in whom he puts his hope for the assassination, was the typical right-winger, as was his father. More politicians than people with grand convictions, compromises instead of japanese purity and lust for death and blood.

A reading of Mishima as a right-winger is superficial and false.

forgot my pic...

He is still widely considered to be Right wing, even if you do not like it personally.
Plus there was that whole 1970 Coup attempt to restore glory to the emperor resulting in his Seppuku.
Fashy as fuck desu.

threadly reminder
>On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of the Tatenokai, under pretext, visited the commandant of the Ichigaya Camp, the Tokyo headquarters of the Eastern Command of Japan's Self-Defense Forces.[17] Inside, they barricaded the office and tied the commandant to his chair. With a prepared manifesto and a banner listing their demands, Mishima stepped onto the balcony to address the soldiers gathered below. His speech was intended to inspire a coup d'état to restore the power of the emperor. He succeeded only in irritating the soldiers, and was mocked and jeered. He finished his planned speech after a few minutes, returned to the commandant's office and committed seppuku.

noone ever thinks about this dead dude

I have stated my reasons. Him being a right-winger is "controversially discussed" (meaning opinions vary widely) in the academic interpretation of his works. And he himself has given us an answer with his essays and The Sea of Fertility.

>Plus there was that whole 1970 Coup attempt to restore glory to the emperor resulting in his Seppuku.

A coup that he knew would fail, and that was never planned to be succesful. He left a death note on his table in which he stated his desire for eternal life, a conviction of the samurai, that a great and beautiful death immortalized one. So even here is the explicit aesthetic element of his actions.

In Runaway Horses it is also described how it doesn't actually matter what the emperor says or does. Serving the emperor means to also defy the orders of the emperor. There is also a somewhat longish metaphorical anecdote in Spring Snow, which alludes to the neccesity of a symbolic, divine figure as to unite society. This means that he didn't actually plan towards succeeding with a coup, nor did the emperor in his physical manifestation matter, neither did it matter since the emperor had power or not. Akin to Isao's death, his coup and suicide was directed more at a motivation to find purity and beauty, than actual political action. (remember the distinction made between communists, and Isao in the prison, and recall how Mishims said that him and the communists were much alike, except that he had the joker: THe emperor)

Reminder of what?
He knew they weren't gonna join him, it was just part of his idealized suicide

>And he himself has given us an answer with his essays and The Sea of Fertility.
Elaborate and provide sauce pls desu.

If have already pointed it out vaguely in regards to Isao's characterization and that of the people surrounding him. Right-Wingers in Runaway Horses are generally depicted as mediocre, cowardly, oriented on succesful political careers and so on. Isao's own father (well, also Isao) who we remember from Spring Now as a man with principle and convictions is now a mediocre right-wingers, doing deals with capitalists and making party-politics. The young officer, whom Isao was so excited to see, cancels the plan for the attack, out of fear for his career at the military, and so on. The entire milieu of the right-wing political spectrum is essentially described as being just as corrupted and nihilistic as the rest of society, exactly as corrupted as the distanced and nihilistic intellectual Honda, who, just like the officer, is stratengly, perversely fascinated with young Isao's passion and unstoppable drive for violence and death. There is only a single nod at the communists in runaway horses, despite it being a very political novel, and that is a sense of shame and guilt in Isao, when he hears how they are tortured thus considered to be dangerous, while he is treated with sympathy and a condescending attitude by conservative, anti-leftist personal, who express their disdain for the left political spectrum.

His wisdom being that jap manlet genes are shit

I don't know man, imagine entering in a room and there he is, Mishima, a manlet half-naked bodybuilder, holding a katana, espousing pure traditional nationalism with beautiful, poetic rethoric, while knowing that he is also one of the most interesting writers of the 20th century.

He's truly like a novel character, it almost baffles me that there are people who managed to live such aesthetical and poetic lives.

Read Nietzsche and uncuck yourself senpai.

By sauce I meant a pdf link and page numbers.
I will admit I have never read Runaway Horses and the only Mishima I have read is Confessions of a Mask (Which I liked a lot). But, even in what you are laying out here (I cannot be sure without reading it for myself), is it not possible for a Right winger to criticize the current Right wing establishment and still be Right wing?

What was his favorite anime?

Oddly enough, Sailor Moon.

That manlet was cucked by every known spook there is.

I understand that maybe you want more, but this is Veeky Forums and i already feel exhausted writing so much in a language that does not come natural to me. In regards to essays you can read Sun and Steel.

>is it not possible for a Right winger to criticize the current Right wing establishment and still be Right wing?

It is, though it does not fit with Mishima's character. Until he adored Nietzsche's conception of Amor Fati, he was entirely unpolitical. His turn towards the political sphere was supported by aestheticist reflections on death and beauty, especially in ancient greece and feudal japan, as to find meaning and a noble cause in a world devoid of spirituality and meaning.

And what we find in his novels also support this. After all we learn that Isao, the princess and kiyoaki are all the same person, different reincarnations of Mishima's object of desire: people who embrace the transcience of existance, who light up like a grand fire, if only for a few moments, as to then perish, beautifully, meaningfully, for something that went beyond themself. With Kiyoaki it's love, with Isao it's Purity and Justice for the japanese people, and with the princess i have not yet reached a conclusion as to how to explain why Mishima let her die the way he did.

Of course we can't know for sure, but i think there's a lot of evidence, crucial evidence, that indicates that he was not a right-winger, but a radical spiritualist/aestheticist in the nietzschean sense.

>Sailor Moon
Gay, unlike Anal sex

Wrong senpai, he actually points out the spookiness of his convictions in the Sea of Fertility through Honda, but as opposed to Honda, who simply believes in nothing, Mishima makes his beliefs his property, deciding to embrace them, as opposed to believing they hold an "innate reality."

>That manlet was cucked by every known spook there is.

Of course, but from that indoctrination stemmed a beautiful character that could have been the protagonist of a beautiful novel. We can appreciate it on the virtue that he was, in the end, a loser who never managed to change anything.
It's like being fascinated about Gengis Khan, even if, at the end of the day, he was just a philistine orc going around fucking shit up.

Based Mishima poster, what books would you recommend reading aside from his fiction?

i.e. any companion pieces, etc

I've read a lot of Mishima and just finished the Sound of Waves. Definitely in my top 5 authors. Also, Based Mishima poster, what's your favorite Mishima book?

he's a fit guy

>I get to make stuff up on the internet
>I mean who is going to actually know anything
nbakki.hatenablog.com/entry/2014/05/30/173407

Conservatism isn't the only right wing political philosophy. He is unquestionably a reactionary. His desire to reintroduce the emperor back into political life and to minimize western materialism are both conservative and reactionary figure.

>Isao wasn't a right-winger, he was an incarnation of a brutal god.
A brutal god that is obviously right wing.

>was the typical right-winger, as was his father
And? There is more than just one type of right wing. I think you have the problem of believing that right wing political philosophy is very narrow, so to call Mishima right wing ties him to other right wing figures who you don't think he is similar to. But right wingers are very diverse. Mishima is without a doubt a right wing figure.

>but a radical spiritualist/aestheticist in the nietzschean sense.
I agree with this completely, except I would point out that makes him right wing, just as Nietzsche was.

Goals.

Malnourished subhuman (read: nonwhite) who was unable to adapt and ended up committing sudoku after making a huge fool of himself. His mental illness was caused by consumption and creation of literature, and his fate will be shared with all users of this board in due time.

>We are all going to commit Seppuku
Metal as Fuck desu

Yeah, but Fascism isn't really right-wing.
It's a synthesis of ideals from the left and right with a large dose of nationalism thrown in.

The night of long knives happened because the SA wanted more socialism.

>I would point out that makes him right wing, just as Nietzsche was.

Mishima was basically Don Quixote but less fun.

True and fair but in the modern popular lexicon Fascism and Nazism are solely Right Wing.

Wings don't exist.

That's the crux of the matter.

I completely agree with you but how are you going to convince the people of that?
One must use the Right Left Dichotomy to engage in wider political discussion post 1945.

He was trigged by Moravia.

Isn't the fact that we see her solely through Honda's eyes what sets Ying Chan apart from Kiyoaki and Isao? There is a definite shift in The Temple of Dawn concerning both the role of Honda and the overall atmosphere of the novel. Compare the purity which is shown in Kiyoaki's and Iso's behavior and especially emphasized in Runaway Horses with all those mentions of Shinto rites to the decay Honda sees everywhere in The Temple of Dawn. This change is addressed mostly in relation to Runaway Horses, for example in the aforementioned Shinto purification rites that Honda longs for in the oppressing heat of Thailand and India and also in the parallel that is drawn between the sun of Benares and Isao's sun, the burst of light he sees when he commits suicide. We never see any of Ying Chan's inner machinations, she is the object of desire par excellence, however her beauty remains poisonous and unattainable for Honda.

What do the Japanese think of him? One would think that trying to stage a coup could decrease public opinion of him

What is the 1 Mishima book I should read to understand his philosophy?

Confessions of a Mask is a must first. But Sun and Steel is what you are looking for.
**Read Confessions of a Mask first**

>coup

he tied up the general of one of the major bases so he could give a speech. he was booed because even the average Japanese was too smart for teenage style hero-worship of samurai culture and masturbatory, sociopathic thoughts of beauty and violence.

consider that mishima had been contemplating seppuku for a long time at that point. one of the reasons is he wanted to go out young...so his younger face would be what people remembered. that's petty af imo.

Sounds like he was into japanese tradition which is right wing .

First of i'm very glad to read your very thoughtful post on Veeky Forums, that shows that you read with care and passion.

Isao has a very strange dream in Runaway Horses that foreshadows his reincarnation as a female. i think the dream is very important for understanding Mishima's conception of feminity vs. masculinity and the reincarnations. One of my theories is, based on my interpretation of that dream, that the "corruption" of Isao/Kiyoaki into the passive Ying Chan stems from female nature, that the characteristics of the reincarnated being are infuenced by gender and of course society. I know that's pretty basic, but i believe that these are the two significant factors: Ying Chan's feminity leading to her erotic passivity and extreme sensitivity, and the further westernization of japanese society. In the first two books even Honda lives a somewhat japanese life, while in the third book he's deeply embedded in a westernized circle of the elite, into which Chan is also somewhat integrated. It goes deeper than this, especially Honda's incapability to dominate her is significant, but i have no explanation here.

The dichotomy of active nihilism and passive nihilism that is central for the trilogy and is split between #1+#2 and #3+#4 surely is important in this regard. As Honda becomes more of a central protagonist with every single novel (his role is increased very much going from #1 to #2, for example), japanese society becomes more and more westernized, we also witness his accute observation and capability to dissect degenerating, and his somewhat noble admiration turning into perverse, self-degrading voyeurism. Since Honda represents the archetype of the writer, the image of the artist who captures true beauty (which was not enough for Mishima, as he has stated:"Words are not enough" or "Art is only a shadow") we can assume that this was related to Mishima's fear of growing old and losing his acute sense for observation and beauty, the voyeurism of the writer becoming self-serving, incapable of capturing the beauty that his objects of desire emit. If read from this point of view Ying-Chans minor presence in the third novel could be understood as Honda simply being incapable of perceiving her individual beauty.

Bravo.

I have gone long ways to explain my point of view, it's tiring to see you trying to reduce everything i said to a couple of quotes and then just state the original once again:"Nuh-uh he was right wing because he was pro emperor.
+
You don't even differentiate between conservative and reactionary, which are not the same thing.
+
>just as Nietzsche was.
This is so terribly wrong.
>A brutal god that is obviously right wing.
Yeah, Susano'o is a reactionary conservative.

Do you happen to know what Mishima's stance on the concept of memory was? In Imanishi's Land of the Pomegranate memory is "the sole matter of our spirit" and when at the very end of The Decay of the Angel Satoko's denial of ever having known Kiyoaki basically eradicates Honda's previous existence as well as his purpose. Are there essays or more theoretical writings in which Mishima addresses this topic?

Forgot to quote, sorry
The "when" in the second sentence is obviously superfluous as well. I'm a bit tired at the moment.

>His speech was intended to inspire a coup d'état to restore the power of the emperor.

Mishima didn't get built until he was 30. There's still time for me.

D'Annunzio is better

You seem to ignorant of Mishima's long life and involvement in Nationalist activity. He and the Japanese literati saw his work as a legacy of the proimperial Romantic movement. His work focused on the aesthetic, much in line with Bataille who was a massive influence, and he was fully aware of the irony of his westernisation. That was precisely why he was so opposed to it and the need to preserve Japan, his prediction that Japan would "disappear, and in its stead, an impersonal, empty, neutral, intermediate, oppulent, shrewd economic giant will be left standing in the far East" is undoubtedly true, something that was laughed off in his time

English readers will probably never get a real understanding of his thought, most of his political and cultural essays remain untranslated and will probably stay so

This is the first time I have posted in this thread, so you should not confuse me with the other person.

>Nuh-uh he was right wing because he was pro emperor.
If the Stalin were to say that everything he did he did so ironically it wouldn't magically transform his regime into a non-communist one. Mishima has interesting reasons for being pro-emperor but he was pro-emperor in a way that functions identically to other Japanese right leaning figures. There is also his rejection of globalism and its impact on Japan, and he hearkens back to an older, more Japanese way of living that is now lost. These are all hallmarks of right wing political stance. Just because he has an aesthetic system does not prevent him from falling somewhere on the political spectrum, it only explains why he falls where he does.

>You don't even differentiate between conservative and reactionary, which are not the same thing.
Yes I did. I quite explicitly did this. I did this because you did not make any sort of distinction between any sort of right wing ideologies, and said that since Mishima is not a conservative in the normal sense of the word he is not right wing.

>This is so terribly wrong (in regards to Nietzsche)
He was pro-aristocratic, highly critical of democracy, and dismissive of the aims of liberalism. Nietzsche is a weird figure, and the left right dichotomy leaves much to be desired, so he doesn't fit all that neatly under any particular right wing position. That being said there is nothing in any of his thought that can be described as belonging to the left, while many of his ideas are compatible with the right. Unless you buy into Kaufmann's sanitised view on Nietzsche it's hard to escape the fact that his ideas fit far better in the right than the left. Not that Nietzsche is only political, or that he was a political philosopher, or that he was especially interested in it, but in the capacity that his ideas carry through to the political landscape they are far more right like than left.

Appreciate the contribution man. People like you make the board even half worth the time I spend here.

needs to find better photographer tbqh

Someone needs to fix that. Lack of translation of a figure's complete works seems to be a pressing issue.

no

>katana

He was like a weird Jap version of Ernst Rohm who killed himself far too soon. God bless him.

He's objectively one of the most patrician men to ever live. His very existence was poetic and sublime

A weird sexy Jap version of Ernst Rohm who killed himself far too soon.

I get second hand embarassment whenever I read about his life.

What did you do?!

Girlfriend goals.

really talented writer, but his hopes for a Nobel were dashed because of his horrible ab genetics

Oh shit, I've ordered "The Temple of the Golden Pavillion" as my first read. Have I screwed up?

Just read everything by Mishima at some point soon and you will be fine.

It's good that way. I started with confessions of a mask and it left me thirsty for more like it in many of his other works and it does tend to pain all of his work as fetishistic in nature which is a oversimplification.

read sound of waves and sailor who fell from grace with the sea, currently reading temple of golden pavillion and it's very good, his best so far

Rohm is a central character in "My friend Hitler "

Thank you for informing me that this exists.

gayyyyyy

>>Natsu did not allow Mishima to venture into the sunlight, to engage in any kind of sport or to play with other boys; he spent much of his time alone or with female cousins and their dolls.[7]

>Mishima returned to his immediate family when he was 12. His father, a man with a taste for military discipline, employed parenting tactics such as holding the young boy up to the side of a speeding train. He also raided Mishima's room for evidence of an "effeminate" interest in literature and often ripped apart the boy's manuscripts.