num_pages: 300
description: At forty-five, Yukio Mishima was the outstanding Japanese writer of his generation, celebrated both at home and abroad for The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea . In 1970 he startled the world by stepping out onto a balcony in Tokyo before an assembly of troops and plunging a sword into his abdomen; a disciple then beheaded him, completing the ritual of hara-kiri. John Nathan's riveting biography traces the life of this tortured, nearly superhuman personality. Mishima survived a grotesque childhood, and subsequently his sadomasochistic impulses became manifest -- as did an increasing obsession with death as the supreme beauty. Nathan, who knew Mishima professionally and personally, interviewed family, colleagues, and friends to unmask the various -- often seemingly contradictory -- personae of the genius who felt called by "a glittering destiny no ordinary man would be permitted."
language: English
title: Mishima: A Biography
titlecomplete: Mishima: A Biography
characters: Yukio Mishima
genres: 20th Century, Biography, Philosophy, Japanese History, Japanese Literature, Literature, Nonfiction, Japan, History, Biography Memoir
ratings_count: 507
publisher: Da Capo Press