Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima was a prominent Japanese novelist, playwright, and essayist born in 1925, known for exploring themes of beauty, death, and tradition. His works often combined intense lyrical writing with political and philosophical reflections on Japan’s modern identity and its samurai past. Mishima was also a controversial figure due to his nationalist views and dramatic attempt to revive traditional Japanese values. In 1970, he famously and tragically committed ritual suicide (seppuku) after a failed attempt to inspire a military uprising, making his life and death emblematic of complex cultural tensions in Japan during his era.