Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima was born in January 14 1925 in Tokyo. This Japanese novelist, playwright, actor, film director, model and poet is now considered one of Japan’s greatest modern writers. In his lifetime he produced over 100 works, including novels, short stories, plays, literary essays, and screenplays. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times. His books tend to have themes such as death, spiritual barrenness, beauty, sexuality, cultural norms and changes, and the tensions between mind and body. Forbidden Colors is one of his many acclaimed novels, published in 1951, which deals with coming-of-age, homosexuality, the life of the wealthy in Japan and also the burden of the beautiful. Yukio Mishima himself never came out as gay, his family still denies the stories that several of Mishima’s lovers have disclosed. However, he is still very significant in Japanese literature, since he gave insight to life in Japan at that time. He influenced the new generation of Japanese writers, which includes Haruki Murakami. Yukio Mischima’s novels had references from his own life, Yuichi’s life is very similar to his author’s; because he had to understand the adversity that one goes through in life if different from the mass, as well as what it feels to be constricted and having to feel confused.
Born with the name Kimitake Hiraoka, in school he wrote a short story and submitted it to a local literary magazine. His teachers were so impressed with his writing, that they encouraged him to submit his work into the magazine Literary Culture; but so he wouldn’t be teased by his classmates, his teachers came up with the pen name Yukio Mishima. When he was young Mishima read a lot, his favorite authors included Rainer Maria Rilke and Oscar