Yukio Mishima - Nominee

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

- Yukio Mishima

He began writing poems and stories at an early age and had published widely before the success of his second novel, Confessions of a Mask (1949), made him one of the most famous writers in Japan. Largely autobiographical (although he later denied it) Confessions of a Mask was the first modern Japanese novel to deal openly with male homosexuality. Though Mishima did marry and father two children, he was most clearly attracted to men and was accepted by his many fans as bisexual. His preoccupation with masculinity led to a fanatical obsession with bodybuilding, martial arts and military training. Mishima’s failed over-throw of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces – where he had urged troop revolt, restoration of the imperial system and reinstatement of military sovereignty – drove him to perform ritual suicide in 1970. Despite publishing some 40 novels, 18 plays, numerous essays – and acting on stage and in films – Mishima remains a paradoxical, enigmatic figure for Japanese and non-Japanese alike. Finding modern life sterile and unsatisfying, he sought meaning in the love of comrades, manly action, and a very Japanese devotion to the nobility of failure.