Reason Why Yukio Mishima’s “confession of the mask” get popular in Japan

Yukio Mishima is one of the most famous writers in Japan. Even though Yukio Mishima’s works contains descriptions of homosexuality or direct sex, his novel is regarded as the most sophisticated and eminent work in Japanese literal history. Why was his work accepted during the era of Showa and does he get popular?

Here is the story of “confession of the mask”. The main protagonist is referred to in the story as Kochan. Being raised during Japan’s era of right-wing militarism and Imperialism, he struggles from a very early age to fit into society. Like Mishima, Kochan was born with a less-than-ideal body in terms of physical fitness and robustness, and throughout the first half of the book (which generally details Kochan’s childhood) struggles intensely to fit into Japanese society. Due to his weakness, Kochan is kept away from boys his own age as he is raised, and is thus not exposed to the norm. This is what likely led to his future fascinations and fantasies of death, violence, and sex. In this way of thinking, some have posited that Mishima is similar.

Kochan is a homosexual, and in the context of Imperial Japan he struggles to keep it to himself. In the early portion of the novel, Kochan does not yet openly admit that he is attracted to men, but indeed professes that he admires masculinity and strength. Some have argued that this, too, is autobiographical of Mishima, himself having worked hard through a naturally weak body to become a superbly fit body builder and male model.

The important point of this story is the concept of “mask” and “self consciousness”. To analyze where this mask come from, we should think Mishima himself.

For LGBT ( in this paper it is supposed Mishima is gay) who do not come out their sexuality, a mask is a part of their lives. A lot of gays and lesbians disguise heterosexual still now.

In his later years, Mishima organized “tate-no-kai” which is the right-wing organization composed by young and beautiful university students. He made a homo-social group and tried to seek a bond between only men. And this is also from his fetish to the military uniform and young obedient men.

Not only his works but also his life and performance are always showy and conspicuous. He also appeared on the stage or screen and expressed himself by using variation of tools. It is said that Mishima was too self consciousness and anthropophobia so that he did abnormal performance. But as I mentioned before, this characteristic is not peculiar to him, but also general among homosexual people.

Living with mask of heterosexual imposed people to be sensitive other people’s eyes. As a result they are seized with fear of society while they want to express themselves overly.

This work was released in 1949 , the four years after the World WarⅡ. This is the times Japanese society restarted and a lot of people are confused by this drastic change. Because of the lost in the war, established moral and system of society was destructed. “Confession of the mask” is located in this stream.

Seemingly, this novel aimed to descript the young gay man and his recollection, but what attracted people of this time is the new concept of “self consciousness”. From the Peace Preservation Law which was established in 1928, freedom of culture and art is overly restrained and people have no way to express themselves. Works which deal with homosexuality is tabooed for a long time.

In spite of this fact , people accepted this novel and Mishima. The drastic content about gay boy is of course its reason of popularity. But true fact is people desired to learn how to express themselves and what is self-consciousness.