Ko (Yukio) Mishima - Japanese writer, poet, playwright. Mishima is one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. Yukio's work is characterized by rich speech and decadent metaphors, the fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles and intrusive claims about the unity of beauty, eroticism and death.
early years
Mishima was born in the Tokyo area of Yotsuya (now part of Shinjuku). His father, Azusa Hiraoka, is a government official, and his mother, Shizue, was the daughter of the fifth director of the Kaisei Academy. He also had a younger sister, Mitsuko, who died of typhus in 1945 at the age of 17, and a younger brother.
In early childhood, Mishima was looked after by his grandmother Natsuko, who took the child, separating him from her family for several years. Natsuko was prone to violence and painful outbreaks, which are sometimes mentioned in Mishima's works. This stern woman did not allow Yukio to go out into the sunlight, play sports or play with other boys; Most of the time he spent alone or with cousins and their dolls.
Mishima returned to his family when he was 12 years old. His father, a man prone to military discipline, searched Mishima's room for evidence of interest in literature and often tore the boy’s manuscripts. He believed that the love of books has no place in the soul of a real man.
Education
At the age of six, Mishima entered the elite Gakushyu school for teenagers in Tokyo. At twelve, Ko Mishima began to write his first short stories. He eagerly read the works of numerous classical Japanese authors, as well as Raymond Radige, Oscar Wilde, Rainer Maria Rilke and other European writers, both in translation and in the original. Yukio studied German, French and English. After six years of schooling, he became the youngest member of the editorial board of the literary society. Mishima was involved in the works of Japanese author Mitidze Tachihara, who in turn created an assessment of Waka's classical Japanese poetry. Mishima's first published works included Wak's poetry; later he turned his attention to prose.
During World War II, Mishima was called up to the Imperial Japanese Army. During a medical examination, he caught a cold, and a young army doctor mistakenly diagnosed him with tuberculosis. Yukio was declared unfit for service.
Although the authoritarian father forbade him to write new stories, Mishima continued to do his work every night secretly, supported and protected by his mother, who was always the first to read a new story. Koh Mishima graduated from Tokyo University in 1947. He received an official position in the Ministry of Finance of the government. After persuading the mother, his father agreed to his resignation during the first year of work, so that Ko could completely devote himself to writing.
