orig. Hiraoka Kimitake
born Jan. 14, 1925, Tokyo, Japan
died Nov. 25, 1970, Tokyo
Japanese writer.
Having failed to qualify physically for military service in World War II, Mishima worked in a Tokyo factory and after the war studied law. He won acclaim with his first novel, Confessions of a Mask (1949). Many of his characters are obsessed with unattainable ideals and erotic desires, as in The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956). His epic The Sea of Fertility , 4 vol. (1965–70), is perhaps his most lasting achievement. He strongly opposed Japan's close ties to the West in the postwar era (notably the new constitution that forbade rearmament) and yearned to preserve Japan's martial spirit and reverence for the emperor. In a symbolic gesture of these beliefs, he died by committing seppuku (ritual disembowelment) after seizing a military headquarters. He is often considered one of Japan's most important 20th-century novelists.