The Chrysanthemum versus the Sword in Suicide:

Yasunari Kawabata and Yukio Mishima

Mamoru Iga, Ph.D.

California State University a t Northridge
and

Joe Yamamoto, M.D.

University of Southern California School of Medicine

ABSTRACT: Within the last few years, two world-famous Japa-

nese writers have committed suicide. Kawabata represents the
chrysanthemum aspect of Japanese culture and resignation-despair.
Mishima symbolizes the sword aspect and aggression. Kawabata
described loneliness-helplessness and Mishima an ecstasy under the
threat of imminent death. Their different childhood experiences
produced an “orphan” complex in Kawabata and the problem of
sexual identity with an inferiority complex in Mishima. The
former sublimated his complex in literature, the latter overreacted
to it. For both, an immediate cause of suicide was the conflict
between their ideal and the postwar reality. For Mishima, there
were also occasions that gave vital blows t o his extremely
narcissistic temperament.

Yasunari Kawabata, the Nobel Prize winner for literature in

1968, routinely left his home in Kamakura in the afternoon of
April 16, 1972 for his workroom in nearby Zushi, without leaving
any sign of suicidal intent. That evening he was found dead with a
gas conduit in his mouth in the room, which commanded
magnificent views of an ocean and mountains. He was 72 years
old. Yukio Mishima, a Nobel Prize candidate in 1968, committed
hara-kiri (self-disembowelment) in November 1970, with one of his
admirers, following the traditional samurai ritual. He did so after
delivering an impassionate plea t o 1,200 members of the Self-
Defense Forces from the balcony of its Tokyo headquarters for an

198 Life-Threatening Behavior Vol. 3(3), Fall 1973

Mamoru Iga and Joe Yamamoto 199

uprising to produce a Constitutional change, which would revive

the Imperial Army. He was 45 years old. These suicides symbolize
two sides of the Japanese character: the chrysanthemum and the
sword. The Japanese people have been known for their militarism
and also for “the pleasure they get from innocent things: viewing
the cherry blossom, the moon, chrysanthemums, or new fallen
snow” (Benedict, 1946, p. 292). The difference between the two
suggests different causes of suicide: aggression for Mishima and
resignation and/or despair for Kawabata. This paper will discuss
variables in the two suicides on three levels-literature, personality
structure, and situation-to see if the above assumption is s u p
ported.

Literature

Both Kawabata and Mishima rebelled against the tradition of

modern Japanese literature, which, following modern Western
literature, aimed at a realistic description of the individual
oppressed by society. The rebellion took a form of nihilism.
Kawabata was a “sort of nihilist” (Nakamura, 1972, p. 24). He
repeatedly maintained that “literature is rebellion; the writer a
bumi no to [villain or outlaw].” Apparently, by burai, he meant
nonconformance to conventional morality. As an advocator of
Shin-Kankaku Ha (New Sensualism) in 1926, his nonconformity
was expressed in his emphasis on sensual gratification, which
traditionally was hinted but not directly exposed. The emphasis is
exemplified in Snow Country: “With a vague feeling that only this
forefinger is still wet with the touch of the woman, pulling me
back to her, I took the finger to my nose and smelled” (Kawabata,
1970, p. 8).
Mishima asserted that “you cannot really do a significant work
without being a nihilist” (Mizutsu, 1971, p. 10). His nihilism
provides the basic theme t o Kybko no Ie (Kyoko’s House)
(Mishima, 1958b), which summarizes the philosophies presented in
his previous works and foreshadows the one in his later works. The
novel also reflects the transition of Japanese society from its
postwar chaos to attempts at solution. Postwar Japan shifted from
its first stage of the reconstruction of world views (1946-52)and
its second, characterized by an obsessive concern with love and
sex, with a tendency toward anomie (1953-58)to the third stage
(1959 and after) in which attempts at solutions provided a primary
200 Life-Threatening Behavior

theme to literature (Mita, 1967). Although KyGko no Ie suggests

various alternative solutions, for example, murder-suicide, national-
ism, and mysticism, its primary theme was nihilism, as Mishima
himself wrote: “The characters in the book ran about in this
direction or that, as their individual personalities, their profession,
and their sexual preferences commanded them, but in the end all
roads, no matter how roundabout, led back into nihilism” (Keene,
1971, p. 5 ) .
Despite their nihilistic stance, it is questionable that either
Kawabata or Mishima was a true nihilist, because nihilism denies
traditional values as unfounded and existence as senseless and
useless. Apparently their nihilistic stance was their attempt at
“exploring selfhood through the mood of nihilism,” which is
common among Japanese intellectuals (Lifton, 1963, p. 272). It
was an expression of their rebellion against the tradition of modem
Japanese literature and of their awareness of the necessity of
detached observation for the writer.
By detached observation they expressed their philosophy of life
and created beauty in their unique ways. Kawabata sought after
pleasure and beauty experienced in daily lives. He described the
pathos of human life beyond time and space. Komako, a geisha in
Snow Country, loves Shimamura, but his feeling toward her is
never clear. She fears that her love will never be rewarded and will
only leave her in a desperate loneliness. Despite the fear, she
cannot but wait for him. She represents the beauty of feminine
affection, and the ultimate “aloneness” and “helplessness” of
human beings.
Another element of beauty in Kawabata’s literature is mysti-
cism. To him beauty was best realized in the world of phantasm-
between life and death. In a short story, “Fushi” (No Death), he
wrote about a couple who attempted a double suicide. The girl
died, but the young man failed and lived some 40 more years,
suffering from poverty and deafness. After he died, his spirit as an
old man returned and unexpectedly met with the spirit of the girl,
who still remained 18 years old. Their short conversation was full
of calm affection and pathos.
The philosophy of life of Kawabata was determined by
Nihon-ky6 (Japanism) and Heian literature. The former is char-
acterized by a high value on sensual gratification and an emphasis
on ninjo (capability t o satisfy the dependency need of the inferior)
Mamoru Iga and Joe Yamamoto 201

and on obligation to repay favors received from the superior. Other

values that characterize Nihon-kyG include traditionalism, mysti-
cism, and groupism (group goals superseding individual ones) (Ben
Dasan, 1971, pp. 114-15).Heian literature, as consummated in the
Shinkokin-shu (compiled in 1206), is characterized by the almost
exclusive concern with sensual pleasure and the beauty of nature,
an animistic belief in the existence and influence of spirits, and the
pessimistic view that life is suffering and death is sweet. To
Kawabata there was little difference between life and death, or
between this life and afterlife (Kon, 1972, p. 248). When he was
being massaged during his campaign in 1971 for Hatano, a
conservative candidate for the mayor of Tokyo, he suddenly rose
and said, “Welcome! Nichiren+arna.” Nichiren founded the
Nichiren Sect of Buddhism in 1253. At another time, when he was
also being massaged, he did the same and said, “Mishima-kun. Did
you come to help me campaign?” (Kon, 1972, p. 249). Mishima
had been dead for more than a year then. Recalling that Kawabata
often disappeared from his friends for a long time, Kon (1972,p.
252)theorizes that Kawabata might have left this world in the same
way as he took off on a trip. Not only was death intimate to him
but he was always living in a suicidal wish. Except when he was on
a trip abroad, there was no day when he did not wish to die
(Nakamura, 1972, p. 23).
Mishima wanted to create by detached observation eroticism,
or the ecstasy that an individual experiences at the brink of death.
When the protagonist of Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) was about to
have sex, the image of Kinkakuji, a symbol of eroticism,
intervened, and the sex urge was lost. Death is erotic but life
(including sex gratification) is not, because the one-time-nessof the
former produces erotic sensation, but life lasts and is repeated.
Therefore, life is essentially boring, unless death is anticipated, as
in the case of the samurai, who was forced to be ever ready to
sacrifice himself for the lord. Suicide is particularly erotogenic,
because it is the most extreme contraction of libido into oneself.
Eroticism appears only in a mental strain in a tragic condition,
as in the heroine of the Thirst for Love, killing a young servant for
jealousy. When the servant, whom she had attempted to seduce for
a long time, tried to rape her, she killed him. If she had sex with
him, there would have been no erotic ecstasy, as Mishima meant.
The obsession with tragedy is also the theme of Munatsu no Shi
202 Life-Threatening Behavior

(Death in Midsummer). It was evident even in his poem of his

childhood composed at the age of 15:

Every evening, I stood by the window

Waiting for some disaster to occur-
For the wicked, ferocious looking dust storm of a calamity
To march in a big wave from beyond the horizon
Like a big dark rainbow.

In addition to death, one-time-ness, and a mental strain in a

tragic condition, Mishima’s concept of eroticism includes activism,
or the belief that beauty appears only in action. Although Mishima
maintained that his activism derived from Wang-Yang-min’s philos-
ophy that “the ultimate significance of life is to attain the ‘great
nothingness’ and that in order to do so, it is necessary to reject
oneself in an action for a great cause” (Mishima, 1970, p. 217),
there is a great difference between the two. As Mishima (1970,p.
216) points out, when a person attains the “great nothingness,” his
action reaches “justice beyond life and death.” For example,
Heihachiro Oshio, a scholar of the Wang-Yang-min school, who was
one of the few scholars whom Mishima respected, demanded in
1837, a time of terrible famine, that the government open its
storehouses to the starving people of Osaka. “The government
officials refused, and in desperation Oshio and his men broke open
the storehouses. This triumph was short-lived. . . . he dismissed his
followers and killed himself” (Keene, 1971). The “great nothing-
ness” was the root of justice for which Oshio died. On the other
hand, that for Mishima (1970, p. 56) was a root of action
characterized by “solitude, tension and tragic resolution.” The
more apparently meaningless the action, the better, because it is
“purer and more unique” (Muramatsu, 1970,p. 54).Justice was not
his concern, but eroticism was. I t was a moment of ecstasy and his
own satisfaction that Mishima wanted. Therefore, his activism is
closer to hoodo maibotsu shugi, or the principle of forgetting
oneself in action for the purpose of tension reduction (Ishikawa,
1965,p. 41),than t o Wang-Yang-min’s “great nothingness.”
Mishima’s philosophy of life was determined by the samurai
culture, which was characterized by the fanatic belief in the
supremacy of one’s own group; nonrational obedience to the
master; the sacrifice of family members, lovers, and friends for
social superiors; and the elitist contempt of social inferiors.
Mamoru Iga and Joe Yamamoto 203

Mishima’s elitism was evident in his declaration: “Let the weak

alone. In the present world, it is the strong who is tortured. There
has been no time when the ‘morality of being strong’ is so
suppressed. Therefore, it is my task to restore the rights of the
strong.” He stressed the necessity for the elite to adhere to their
sogui (alienation) from the masses who were inevitably ignorant
and to uphold the rights of the elite minority (Mizutsu, 1971, pp.
163-64).
His view of death and suicide was also determined by samurai
values. Killing, whether homicide or suicide, was justifiable when it
was committed for a great cause. Assassination was good if it
followed Japanese tradition, that is, the assassin committed suicide
afterwards (Mizutsu, 1971, p. 167). Then what was Mishima’s
“great cause”? Although his final plea to the Self-Defense Forces
soldiers suggests nationalism and traditionalism, he really did not
care whether Japan won or lost (Mishima, 1958a, p. 217). His
traditionalism was not genuine either. Tradition was used as
materials for creating his conception of eroticism. Despite his older
age, he was not unlike the typical product of postwar Japan, which
is characterized by a “historical dislocation,” or the “absence of
vital and nourishing ties t o their own heritage” (Lifton, 1963, p.
261). What he wanted seems to be the satisfaction of his own
narcissistic needs.

Personality Structure

One of the major themes in Kawabata’s writings is loneliness.

During his first year of life, both his parents died, and he was
separated from his only sister, with whom he had no contact since.
The sister died when he was 10 years old. When he was 7, his
grandmother died, and his grandfather when he was 16 years old.
With all these deaths, his relationship with his family members was
a very limited one. Perhaps these experiences explain his feeling
that there was a continuity between life and death, and his mystic
belief in being able t o communicate with the dead. Such a belief
was probably necessary in order to cope with the childhood
deprivations.
The loss of parents at a very early age probably produced a
strong sense of deprivation and loneliness, which was aggravated by
the general idealization of the mother-child relationship among
Japanese people. It has been demonstrated that this relationship is
204 Life-Threatening Behavior

not only intense but continues to be very close, and is the source
of the stability and strength of the families. In such a cultural
context, the feeling that one was deprived of maternal love can be
extremely tormenting and depressive. One of Kawabata’s novels,
Nernureru Bijo (Sleeping Beauties), may symbolize his wish to
cuddle with and to be warmed by a maternal figure.
The sense of deprivation and loneliness was also aggravated by
the prejudice among Japanese people against the orphan. Because
of the close-knit families in that country, there is a belief that
without parental supervision and discipline, and with economic
insecurity due to the lack of a breadwinner, the orphan’s
personality would be too warped to be a reliable and loyal
employee. Thus, good companies, especially banks, do not employ
orphans, and people tend to regard them as untrustworthy and
inferior. Understandably, such expectation of rejection and dis-
crimination causes many orphans to feel that they are persecuted.
The consequent insecurity and paranoiac mistrust of others may be
called the koji konj6 (orphan mentality) or even the “orphan
complex.” The effects of the koji konj6 and the negative
expectation of others make it very difficult for the orphan to
relate with others. Although Kawabata was not a real orphan,
because of the existence of his grandparents, the loss of parental
love at the very beginning of his life must have affected him so
severely that he equated himself with an orphan. He wrote:
“Desperate of the suffocating depression due to severe self
examination that my personality at the age of 20 has been warped
by the koji konj6, I started on the trip to Izu” (Kawabata, 1970,
p. 588). Thus regarding himself as an orphan, Kawabata must have
experienced the strong feelings of prejudice against all orphans in
Japan.
On the other hand, the lack of emotional involvement with
family members could have contributed to his ability of detached
observation, which in turn affected his philosophy of life. His
creativity was enhanced much by his ability to be detached and to
observe as from inside and by his ability to be free of reality
restrictions, especially about man-woman relationships. Throughout
his writings, Kawabata makes very clear his conflicts about
man-woman relationships. For example, one might speculate that
the roles in Snow Country are reversed, and that the young geisha
Komako represents Kawabata’s own problems in loving and wish to
be loved, and also his view of man’s destiny as helpless to control
Mamoru Iga and Joe Yamamoto 205

his future. Perhaps this pessimism led him to turn to the past, and
eventually to death, for a solution.
If one combines the themes of the short story “Fushi” and
Nernureru Bijo, and allows for the possibility that unconsciously
the roles may be reversed, as in Snow Country, it becomes
reasonable to think that Kawabata prophesied his suicide. In the
short story, he tells of a couple attempting suicide in a love pact.
The girl dies but the young man survives until he is in his sixties.
Then he dies and is able, finally, to reunite with the sweetheart
who has remained a teen-ager. In Nernureru Sijo, Kawabata tells a
mystical story of an old man with young sleeping beauties. The
novel ends with the death of one sleeping beauty. The man is then
67 years old. This sort of unconscious equation of young for old,
woman for man, opposites for each other, symbolizes his own
conflicts and the characters’ deaths suggest his solution.
In contrast to Kawabata’s loneliness caused by a series of losses
of his “significant others” during his early childhood, Mishima had
quite different life experiences. He was born in a family of a high
bureaucrat in Tokyo. His grandmother “loved” him so much that
she took him away from his parents when he was 49 days old. She
was an invalid, but had a “rigid, indomitable, frantic and poetic”
personality. She was demanding and vain. Partly because of her
personality and partly of her ancestry which was much higher in
status than her husband’s, she was dominant in family affairs. She
lavished her love upon Mishima. Because of his physical frailty and
her fear lest he should learn “bad things” from boys, she reared
him as if he were a girl. This continued until he was 14 years old,
when she died and he was returned to his parents. In the
meantime, he was socially isolated from his peers, and his whole
world consisted of picture books and children’s stories, without the
usual sort of experiences with other boys. In his secondary school
days, he was still using at home the language of girls, which was
distinctly different from that of boys in Japan.
With this background, he was placed in the Peers School, which
stressed manliness and physical discipline as a reaction to the
general tendency among upper-class Japanese families toward
producing effeminate boys. Under such conditions the lack of
experiences with boys must have been quite a stress for Mishima.
He writes about this in Confessions of a Mask, where he exposes
the necessity of living a falsehood. Clearly, he was aware of his
frailty and feminine identification. He therefore had to emphasize
206 Life-Threatening Behavior

t o himself his masculinity, and felt guilty and uneasy about his
identity. His frailty and feminine identification probably made him
overcompensate and wish to be strong and active. Indeed, he was
so self-conscious that he played a game in which he would scowl at
strangers in streetcars, and if they would turn their gaze away, he
would feel that he had triumphed. The wish t o become a strong,
muscular man was reinforced by hero worship, which was marked
in Japanese culture, especially as taught by his grandmother and at
the Peers School, whose principals were usually army generals at
his time. The combination of the wish t o be strong and hero
worship produced an excessive form of narcissism.
The great uneasiness about whether or not he was normal
produced his deeply felt need to wear a mask. That is to say, a
mask was a defense against his inner fear that he was far from
normal. The inner fear is the main theme of his autobiographic
Confessions of a Mask. His tendency to play a role and not reveal
himself led him to be suspicious of others-that they also would be
false and betray him (Ooka, 1971, p. 110). His mistrust of others
and of himself, and concomitant aggression, underlie all of
Mishima’s literary works.
Mishima’s lack of experience with compeer relationships en-
abled him to be less than empathetic with his peers and caused
him to continue to be quite self-centered in his view of life. The
self-centeredness is evident in his anti-Communism stance, as he
explains: “Frankly I first thought of action. This is the first. I have
felt that ideology, idea and spirit debilitate when there is no
enemy. So, I wanted to have an enemy at any cost. I decided t o
have Communism as an enemy” (Mizutsu, 1971, p. 38). This
certainly suggests that his political view was nothing but for his
own need satisfaction. The self-centeredness with a lack of
understanding of human feelings is probably the most vital
weakness of Mishima’s literature. This is in sharp contrast with
Kawabata, who had an intimate knowledge of a great variety of
people. As a consequence, Mishima had to emphasize kyok6
(fiction) at the expense of reality. Naoya Shiga, often called “God
of novels” in Japan, criticized Mishima: “Are wa dameda. Yume
bakari kaite iru kara ikan [He is not good, because he writes only
dreams]” (Shuukan Gendai, 1970, p. 87). It does not require
much literary competency for educated Japanese t o detect a lack
of realistic atmosphere in Mishima’s novels, as Junnosuke Yoshi-
yuki pointed out (Shuukan Gendai, 1970, p. 153). The lack of
understanding of human feelings became a serious problem when
Mamoru Iga and Joe Yamamoto 207

his creativity declined as in his later works. When this happened,

Mishima, who was a superb critic (Shuukan Gendai, 1970, p. 151),
apparently had intense anxiety about this weakness, which he
repressed because of his pride. A consequence was aggression, as
shown in his contention in August 1970: “I cannot see any
cultural development in [postwar] Japan of any significance.
Poetry? No. Sculpture? No. Theater? No. In literature, there is
only myself” (Shabicoff, 1970).
The difference between loneliness and aggression as the basic
temperament of the two writers becomes more marked by
contrasting them in terms of parallels in their lives:
1. Both lived in the past. Kawabata wanted to return to old
beautiful Japan (furui utsukushii Nihon), which was in his mind
the Heian Period (A.D. 784-1185). Mishima, of course, wanted to
return to the era of samurai Japan.
2. Both had problems rooted in child rearing. Kawabata had an
orphan complex, and Mishima had problems about his sexual
identity.
3. Both had problems related t o their parents. Kawabata lost
his parents when he was one year old. Mishima was taken away
from his parents when he was 49 days old.
4. Both were preoccupied with death. Kawabata virtually lived
in a suicide wish, and Mishima constantly dreamt of a heroic
death.
5. Both lived in a world of fantasy related to the historical era
they favored. Kawabata lived in Heian literature, and in fantasy he
talked with Nichiren, who had died hundreds of years before.
Mishima had his own “samurai” (or military) group, and lived for a
fantasied world of the Imperial Army.
6. Both had some real question about mortality, and had their
own unique ways of coping with it. Kawabata believed in spirits.
The incident when he talked with Mishima, who had died more
than a year before, exemplifies his mystical solution. Mishima
(1958a, p. 139) once wanted t o enter the army with “the firm
conviction--arising out of belief in the primitive art of magic,
common t o all men-that I alone could never die.”
7. Both felt depressed-Kawabata for his orphanage and loneli-
ness, Mishima for his own inner awareness of his sexual identity
problem and his wearing a mask, which became a core element of
his personality and which made him feel guilty.
8. Both felt like outsiders, the one an orphan and the other
not quite a man.
208 Life-ThreateningBehavior

9. Both were afraid of aging. It was usually related in part to

the issue of mortality. Kawabata was “despondent about the
prospects ahead” (in Nemureru Sijo), and Mishima spoke often of
wanting to die young, with a beautiful body.
10. Both had lifelong themes which they tried to work
through in their literature: Kawabata, the theme of loneliness and
helplessness of human beings; Mishima, the themes of weakness
and passivity, which he dealt with by his emphasis on action and
strength.

Situational Factors

The philosophy of life and personality structure becomes

suicidogenic only under an overwhelmingly frustrating situation.
The first situational factor in Kawabata’s suicide was the internal
conflict between Nihon-ky5 and Heian literature, on the one hand,
and postwar Japan, on the other. Immediately after the war,
deprived of their traditional values-emperor worship and milita-
rism-Japanese people generally returned to a basic motive of
human beings: self-interest. It might be a natural reaction to their
traditionally stifled individuality. The self-interest motive was
reinforced by the concept of democracy as imported en masse
from Americans. Since American democracy was interpreted as a
claim for the individual’s rights, disregarding its responsibility
aspects, the “‘democracy” in postwar Japan produced many men
without principles. To this condition Kawabata reacted with
intense hostility. His emphasis on harmony and tradition was in
conflict with the modern tendency toward anomie, and his stress
on an intuitive and mystical comprehension was in conflict with
the new tendency toward materialistic rationalism. His following
view of Japan had not changed until his death: “Since the defeat
in the last war, I have nothing but to return to Nihon korui no
kunashimi [traditional pathos of Japan]. I do not believe in
post-war conditions, nor in reality” (Kawabata, 1970, p. 702).
The most immediate situational cause of Kawabata’s suicide
was the reception of the Nobel Prize, which enhanced his
popularity among the general public. The popularity was utilized
by politicians. His political involvement in 1971 was surprisingly
emotional, revealing an internal conflict in him, whose life had
been devoted to aestheticism. A result was a psychological
Mamoru Lga and Joe Yamamoto 209

disequilibrium (Hirano, 1972, p. 285; Seidenstecker, 1972, p. 347).

The involvement deprived him of much time and energy, weak-
ening his constitution, which had never been strong. The weaken-
ing, together with his old age, largely disabled him to enjoy beauty
and to gratify sensual wishes. With the difficulties, the aesthete lost
the meaning of life, and death became preferable to a mere
biological existence.
The postwar tendency toward the mass democracy frustrated
Mishima too, because of his samurai values and elitism. Due t o
obsession with tragedy, he disliked the stable and peaceful Japan.
His adivistic philosophy added to his frustration. By upholding
activism in actual life, Mishima gradually discarded his artistic
detachment and became involved in an ideological conflict. While
ideological writings were objects of his earlier attacks, he fell in the
same trap. Generally, Mishima’s ideological involvement is cor-
related with a decline in his creativity, and since he continued to
be a superb critic, he probably sensed his own difficulties.
In addition, his narcissistic temperament contributed heavily to
situational factors in his suicide. A core element of narcissism is
amae, or the attitude of assuming that others are always ready to
serve for one’s own needs. Because of his childhood indulgence and
a series of easy successes in adolescence and young adulthood,
Mishima’s amue appears to have been close to the infantile sense of
omnipotence. Consequently, when his a w e was not satisfied, the
psychological damage he received would have been unusually
strong. This apparently happened at least three times.
In July 1957, Mishima made a trip to New York for the
purpose of arranging for his Noh plays to be performed there, but
his expectation was not materialized. On Christmas Eve, when
Americans had a merry time, he desolately left the United States
for Europe. Donald Keene (1972, p. 58) later recalled that
Mishima apparently was dejected by what he must have thought
was “cold treatment” by Americans. His psychological damage was
symbolized by the desperate loneliness of Fujiko in Ky&o no Ie,
which was published the next year. Fujiko was a daughter of an
executive of a big company, of which her husband was an
employee. She accompanied her husband to New York, where he
was interested in nothing but his own business. In addition, all
Japanese there were her “enemies,” and her association with
Americans was not satisfying because she could not impress them
with her wits (Mishima, 195813, p. 459). She became desperately
lonely :
210 Life-Threatening Behavior

Her apartment room, confined by snow, looks like a prison.

Loneliness, burning inside, flushes her face. Standing up with her
cheeks in hands, she walks around in the room. Finally, kneeling
down in front of a window, she prays to God, whom she does not
believe: “Please help me! Please save me! I will do anything if you
relieve me of this loneliness.” [Mishima, 195813, p. 5001

In order to get attention from somebody, she wanted to attempt

suicide; t o break the loneliness, she slept with a white neighbor
and hoped that her husband would become angry and punish her
(Mishima, 1958b, p. 509). Although the degree t o which Fujiko’s
loneliness reflected that of Mishima in New York will never be
known, the feeling that he was not treated royally could have hurt
the narcissistic ego of Mishima, whose emotional maturity seems
to have been far behind his intellectual maturity. The incident was
probably a turning point in his literature from aesthetic eroticism
to ideological didacticism. The next year, he wrote a passionately
nationalistic Yuukoku (Patriotism).
The second incident that hurt his ego severely was the failure
t o receive acclaim for K y o k o no Ie (Mishima, 1958133, which he
thought was a masterpiece. After this work, critics generally
became increasingly more critical of Mishima’s works, which
became more and more didactic and abstract. In 1965 he was
dejected and worried. “He was disgusted with literature. He
suffered from the feeling of helplessness, and thought that nothing
he attempted was useful” (Fukushima, 1971, p. 258).
The third situational factor was the failure t o receive the Nobel
Prize in 1968. In his comparison of Mishima and Hemingway,
Weisman theorizes that when writers fulfill their extraordinary
gratification of self-esteem, exhibitionism, and omnipotence, they
will establish new standards to repeat the gratification. For doing
so, they must equal or surpass their past achievement, producing
often a gap between their self-conception and ego ideal (Weisman,
undated). In addition, the damage done to Mishima’s ego was more
severe because of his failure t o win the Nobel Prize.

Summary and Conclusion

Kawabata’s philosophy of life was largely determined by the

characteristics of Heian literature : ( a ) almost exclusive concern
with sensual gratification; ( b ) animistic belief in the existence and
Mamoru Iga and Joe Yamamoto 211

influence of spirits; and ( c ) the pessimistic view that life is

suffering and death is sweet. The dominant trait of his personality
and literature was loneliness. His identification with Heian litera-
ture, which prevailed in Kyoto in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, suggests an escape from reality. It is because the
literature was a collective representation of the wish for escape by
courtiers, whose power was rapidly eroding on account of uprising
warriors, rampant bandits, and frequent natural disasters, together
with commoners’ resentment against inept governments. On the
other hand, Mishima’s philosophy was determined by samurai
values in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, he was
not a samurai who sacrificed himself for his lord; the samurai
values were used for satisfying Mishima’s narcissistic needs. His
concern was primarily with maneuvering environmental factors for
his own satisfaction. Thus, the two philosophies and personalities
may be labeled by the value orientation of “man subjugated t o
Nature’’ versus “man over Nature,” respectively (Kluckhohn,
1953). These orientations apparently are correlated with basic
motives of suicides: despair and aggression, respectively.

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