Sort of a bummer that Mishima may have died due to a scheduling mishap. He had no way of knowing this, but when he staged his coup, all of the elite soldiers usually on base were gone on a training excercise. He was stuck tryin to preach to the rear echelon class of soldier, the exact group a guy like him could never convince of anything because their views would be so diametrically opposed. He needed to speak to the tip of the spear, not the lazy weak cretins who carry the water up the rear.
I think regardless, he didn't expect it to actually work(his demands were ridiculous), and the whole plan was for him to act out his fantasy and receive his honorable death. As you can tell from the video, he was particularly obsessed with the idea of a beautiful and symbolic death, he planned it for a year prior and even pre-enacted his seppuku a few times.
"What you don't want to help a crazy cosplayer try to overthrow the constitutional government in the name of a bunch of silly aesthetics even he didn't believe in? You're clearly lazy and weak."
Would not have made a difference because A. those 'elite' soldiers would have rejected any attempt to establish a military government anyway and B. Mishima saw this as a final act or even theatre to begin with. It never was supposed to 'work'
I always thought that Honda represented those people who, while of a brave and noble spirit, find themselves constricted by the warren of societal expectations and cultural bureaucracies imposing themselves upon the unsuspecting individual; confining him, as if a weighted net looming over carp, in both body and spirit. The disfigured remnants clasping what sparse threads of cold sunlight yet remain may yearn for an escape - as Mishima himself put it in another interview "for a sudden explosion" - but are, ultimately, unable to tear for themselves their bonds, and revive (in spirit if not in action) that spark which now occupies only the distant hollows of their memory. Someone like Isao - unclouded by the intellectualizing of Honda's character - could, perhaps, have freed Honda. But, in the final analysis, the paralyzing qualities of his probing mind couldn't be transcended, and Honda was rendered a catatonic lifeless husk; condemned to follow the shadow of Kiyoaki, and, ultimately, reduced to one himself: dark, empty, and forever unable to embrace the body he incesently follows.
@@georgepantzikis7988 totally, but I would suggest something else, that Honda is the embodiment of who Mishima didn't want to be, someone who sits idly by, doing nothing of any real merit, and constantly in the shadow of someone else. When Mishima debated in Tokyo university he said "be it left wing or right, I am pro violence" clearly violence meaning action. Something which Honda tried to steer Isao away from. This paired with the fact that Honda is (I could be wrong here) the only main character who didnt die at the end of any Mishima's books. It just shows that, as you said, Honda is a noble and righteous man, but he ultimately accomplishes nothing and dies old. It's clear that the reader is supposed to like Honda, but I think he represents everything which Mishima was scared of happening to him. I think if Mishima was to write a self help book, he would tell you to be anything but Honda, even being the hated Torū, who is undeniably evil, is better. It's clear Mishima didnt like left wing politics, but if you are to act on your beliefs it is better than doing nothing, and dying of disease like Honda or maybe he just pitied people of non-action like Honda.
@@Kugel-- I agree with most of what you've written, and I would also point out the narrative metaphors which, in my opinion, are where Mishima's genius of subtle writing comes in. For example, there is the pretty evident symbolism of Honda being a judge, representing objectivity, clear-headedness, enlightenment ideals (perhaps a stretch, but seems plausible) which have infected his mind, stopping him from being able to act. I think this is one of the big points Mishima is trying to express: no one is to blame but society itself; where his fellow nationalists saw a conspiracy to undermine Japan - in the same way many right-wingers today talk of a similar "plot to undermine the west" - he saw the natural progression of liberal democracy. It slowly eats you up, and before you realize it, you are already reduced to a passive observer -- lacking vigor. The true solution, for Mishima, may be found in the re-kindling of public consciousness, and by causing a kind of ideological revolution. After all - and this is another brilliant narrative metaphor - once Satoko embraces the Japanese spirit and tradition by becoming an abbot, she forgets who Kiyoaki even was. She stops being occupied with the empty intellectual shadows of modernity (as Mishima saw them) and is able to embrace life with a new sense of spirituality.
This gave me the chills especially the end. What a true man of honor. He didn’t kill a bunch of innocent people like these incels do, he died for what he believed in but in the MOST HONORABLE way.
first thing you do is bring up incels because they are the lowest in society so they are easy to look down upon and make yourself feel better why don't you learn some empathy also most incels don't commit mass murder
I think what he failed to see when he spoke of Hagakure is that there was maybe a reason why that Samurai lived a long life, robbed of a heroic death. Because of his long life, he managed to write the same works which inspired Mishima, because of his long life he managed to inspire and teach possibly thousands during his lifetime, and millions thereafter. A honorable death has to be for something, it can never be self-serving. If a society teaches to seek out death rather than grow old, you rob it of it's best, it's bravest and those who are most noble, often times before they can pass on the same values, which they have lived by their entire lives. Mishima died for a cause he believed in, but what could he have accomplished, had he remained alive? How many millions of people could he have inspired to be better, how many generations could have looked up to him, what greatness could he have created? He died an honorable death, but the values he believed in and the culture he believes in, fades with him. The world is poorer for his sacrifice and I would go so far as to say that he had a responsibility to stay alive. It reminds me of the adherents to the old Norse gods, the Pagans, who believed that they would only see Valhalla if they died in battle, so they sought it out, to die the heroic death that would see them enter the halls of the Gods. And while they were out on their longships, the Christians preached in their homes, and rather then stay alive to keep their culture and their beliefs alive, they sought out death nonetheless and ultimately, their faith died with them. Cultures who place the noble death above all else are cultures which will inevitably die out, because they prefer to take their values to the grave, rather than to live and hold them up so that future generations may live by them as well.
I agree 100% with you!, if he would have stay alive to preach his message, many young men around the world would have become something better, he would have become a force of good for this world!!
Well spoken, but I disagree. 'Literature is impotent; in the end, you have to act.' Mishima's suicide was certainly self-serving, but it put meaning behind his works and his words. It seems that for now, Mishima was the last 'true samurai', and his death itself was the final line of his philosophy. Had he lived a long life, and died unspectacularly, each speech and book where he exudes this idea of dying strong and gracefully would've carried no weight. Besides, Mishima was neither a politician nor rebel, not in this modern age. He was an artist, enacting his play on the world stage.
And now look at the Christians; their lassitude is faulty, and is the production of a despicable modern world that promotes only illness and servitude as tenable virtues for living. It is, for the same reason, why Socrates rejects Crito's offer to escape his punishment; to live beyond one's ideals is a condemnation of one's own character, but to die for them is an affirmation of life in the greatest sense, not dissimilar to finishing a painting or a composition or a poem. The adherents of those old cultures are complete; they did not fetter into oblivion as we do, into an ever-abyss of discontinuity with tradition, but suffered under the jubilance of battle--by the crucible of sun and steel--wherein their pleasure in life was tenfold than what ours is. They are every part our better, we, the repugnant sons and daughters of the gods. But, occasionally, and sometimes almost infinitesimally, there is a sublime circumstance, where, up comes some worm, who exits the dirt he was birthed in, writhes in the light and attains something the rest of us in mud do not get; sometimes, up comes some individual, who, almost by fate, attains that aspect of those divines that we forget we descend from. These new gods, who herald a world significantly worse than our fathers, are those who shall receive great love should they die--and in their death we shall eternally seek new ones...
That will just make the values last a little longer and to also possibly die in their weakest stages. As a Christian I still take up on a lot of the values from these different honorable men. Jesus himself said to a centurion that he didn’t find anyone in Israel with such great faith as his. great men usually identify each other, no matter the culture or values.
Mr. Mishima already knew his coup would fail. He originally had a much more elaborate and effective plan set up but one of the key players in the plan backed out after falling victim to the interests of the elite. But even though his original plan fell apart, he was not the type of person to give up on what he believes in even if it had no chance of succeeding, and even if he had to stand alone.
One of the few examples of an Ubermensch. In the future, perhaps when humanity looks back at what it has accomplished, it will all pale in comparison to the plentiful wonder and amazement of the oh-so-many combinations of the human experience that have been lived; it will say to itself, "Yes, we have had someone great live like how you describe, and we shall show you who he is." and I do not doubt that, if given the chance, Mishima would do it all over again.
While, generally speaking, most ppl in todays world, are fake/superficial, Mishima, on the flip side of things, was the antithesis: the man was as real as they come. U Got to respect that.
I wanted too a heroic death but sadly I was born in a wrong generation aswell, it is the soon fast death or coping with life to fight the boredom of this how things work in my opinion
@@reinarforeman6518 Dying worshipping useless material as opposed to dying for something sounds like a miserable thing to favor bro. Everything you will do in your life amounts to nothing, nor does it mean anything, nor will it be remembered. Your existence is but a barcode that's already stamped on plenty more units that can just replace you the moment you expire, as your existence means nothing.
This is nice and all. But I cannot take this seriously because I know that this man has a suicide fetish. This is not being dramatic. It was the central motif of his semi-autobiography- Confessions of a mask. WARNING- don't read that novel, unless you want to read sexualized Christian martyrdom fanfiction. Because that is the "thing" about that novel. He goes back to it over and over.
Yes. Having seen this man turned in the West into myth/ ideal of honor and patriotism (values forbidden in our societies), he somewhat garnered my attention and interest. I found a library with two books written by Mishima and picked the one you refer. It is quite much as you say. I give him credit for portraying the homosexual psyche for what it is (an entanglement of unhealthy obsessive images of sex, violence and desperate depersonalisation) and not embellishing it (he would not be seen in a pride parade), yet I wonder if those who worship him have actually got the trouble of reading him. Besides, the prose itself was just above average (I cannot affirm this is reflecting of the original, as it was a translation of a translation). I also read a short story of him, which I liked at the time (can’t remember the name), yet again the themes were far from heroic. It revolves around contemptuous feelings for women, which again is quite commendable for the honesty as how females are perceived by males with a feminine psyche.
Beautiful portrait of a man who stayed true to his youthful self.
Touched.
The entire life of this man was a truly piece of art
A man of unspeakable thumos.
Truly,
That look of despair in his eyes when he says he'll probably die in a hospital bed....ooof.
But he didn't so no despair!
A true artist.
Sort of a bummer that Mishima may have died due to a scheduling mishap. He had no way of knowing this, but when he staged his coup, all of the elite soldiers usually on base were gone on a training excercise. He was stuck tryin to preach to the rear echelon class of soldier, the exact group a guy like him could never convince of anything because their views would be so diametrically opposed. He needed to speak to the tip of the spear, not the lazy weak cretins who carry the water up the rear.
I think regardless, he didn't expect it to actually work(his demands were ridiculous), and the whole plan was for him to act out his fantasy and receive his honorable death. As you can tell from the video, he was particularly obsessed with the idea of a beautiful and symbolic death, he planned it for a year prior and even pre-enacted his seppuku a few times.
@@milksu the goal is always victory even so
"What you don't want to help a crazy cosplayer try to overthrow the constitutional government in the name of a bunch of silly aesthetics even he didn't believe in? You're clearly lazy and weak."
Would not have made a difference because A. those 'elite' soldiers would have rejected any attempt to establish a military government anyway and B. Mishima saw this as a final act or even theatre to begin with. It never was supposed to 'work'
@@mikaelbauer3818 if the army said that they were willing to go through with it i think mishima would have gone for it
A fantastic tribute. The best i have seen so far.
Incredibly based.
and dare I say redpilled?
@@animeodysseus4794 nah
@@animeodysseus4794 more like Thumos pilled
Yes
@@Justin-yt7pi Mishima was an imperialist… 😂
1:11
Wrong translation. He says here "Today, I wonder if we even live with the idea of death in our minds"
thanks ❤
I will never forget him.
HONOUR !
One of the greatest men I've ever had the pleasure of knowing of
I can totally feel his Yamato spirit.
I dont think this gets enough attention. He is terrified of dying to cancer, while at the same time writes that Honda will (most likely) die of cancer
I always thought that Honda represented those people who, while of a brave and noble spirit, find themselves constricted by the warren of societal expectations and cultural bureaucracies imposing themselves upon the unsuspecting individual; confining him, as if a weighted net looming over carp, in both body and spirit. The disfigured remnants clasping what sparse threads of cold sunlight yet remain may yearn for an escape - as Mishima himself put it in another interview "for a sudden explosion" - but are, ultimately, unable to tear for themselves their bonds, and revive (in spirit if not in action) that spark which now occupies only the distant hollows of their memory. Someone like Isao - unclouded by the intellectualizing of Honda's character - could, perhaps, have freed Honda. But, in the final analysis, the paralyzing qualities of his probing mind couldn't be transcended, and Honda was rendered a catatonic lifeless husk; condemned to follow the shadow of Kiyoaki, and, ultimately, reduced to one himself: dark, empty, and forever unable to embrace the body he incesently follows.
@@georgepantzikis7988 totally, but I would suggest something else, that Honda is the embodiment of who Mishima didn't want to be, someone who sits idly by, doing nothing of any real merit, and constantly in the shadow of someone else. When Mishima debated in Tokyo university he said "be it left wing or right, I am pro violence" clearly violence meaning action. Something which Honda tried to steer Isao away from. This paired with the fact that Honda is (I could be wrong here) the only main character who didnt die at the end of any Mishima's books. It just shows that, as you said, Honda is a noble and righteous man, but he ultimately accomplishes nothing and dies old. It's clear that the reader is supposed to like Honda, but I think he represents everything which Mishima was scared of happening to him.
I think if Mishima was to write a self help book, he would tell you to be anything but Honda, even being the hated Torū, who is undeniably evil, is better. It's clear Mishima didnt like left wing politics, but if you are to act on your beliefs it is better than doing nothing, and dying of disease like Honda or maybe he just pitied people of non-action like Honda.
@@Kugel-- I agree with most of what you've written, and I would also point out the narrative metaphors which, in my opinion, are where Mishima's genius of subtle writing comes in. For example, there is the pretty evident symbolism of Honda being a judge, representing objectivity, clear-headedness, enlightenment ideals (perhaps a stretch, but seems plausible) which have infected his mind, stopping him from being able to act. I think this is one of the big points Mishima is trying to express: no one is to blame but society itself; where his fellow nationalists saw a conspiracy to undermine Japan - in the same way many right-wingers today talk of a similar "plot to undermine the west" - he saw the natural progression of liberal democracy. It slowly eats you up, and before you realize it, you are already reduced to a passive observer -- lacking vigor. The true solution, for Mishima, may be found in the re-kindling of public consciousness, and by causing a kind of ideological revolution. After all - and this is another brilliant narrative metaphor - once Satoko embraces the Japanese spirit and tradition by becoming an abbot, she forgets who Kiyoaki even was. She stops being occupied with the empty intellectual shadows of modernity (as Mishima saw them) and is able to embrace life with a new sense of spirituality.
Thanks for the spoiler...
Yes Mr. Mishima, all your power lives on. Eternal fame shines on your being. We're forever grateful.
Yukio Mishima’s wise words are the reason why I push myself when in the gym.
Which words or books exactly?
@@ayumelove could be Sun and Steel.
This gave me the chills especially the end. What a true man of honor. He didn’t kill a bunch of innocent people like these incels do, he died for what he believed in but in the MOST HONORABLE way.
"incels", you mean blacks and trans/feminist/wokes?
first thing you do is bring up incels because they are the lowest in society so they are easy to look down upon and make yourself feel better why don't you learn some empathy also most incels don't commit mass murder
you're so fckn cringe and pathetic. Hope she saw this at least.
Violence haters when they are weak and pathetic
A pure and clear mind. Lived and died with loyalty to itself.
Yukio Mishima was fucking BASED
You sound so stupid. Stop using Reddit terms or the disease of how modern social media has affected your vocabulary
@@redwaterfilmworks7210 reddit terms are all these incels have in this world.... don't take it away from them 😰
@@redwaterfilmworks7210 i didn't learn it from reddit because I'm not a s0yb0y
@@reinarforeman6518 shouldn't you be sharing minion memes on FB with your grandma?
@@Varlwyll go give covid to your elders.
I think what he failed to see when he spoke of Hagakure is that there was maybe a reason why that Samurai lived a long life, robbed of a heroic death. Because of his long life, he managed to write the same works which inspired Mishima, because of his long life he managed to inspire and teach possibly thousands during his lifetime, and millions thereafter. A honorable death has to be for something, it can never be self-serving. If a society teaches to seek out death rather than grow old, you rob it of it's best, it's bravest and those who are most noble, often times before they can pass on the same values, which they have lived by their entire lives. Mishima died for a cause he believed in, but what could he have accomplished, had he remained alive? How many millions of people could he have inspired to be better, how many generations could have looked up to him, what greatness could he have created?
He died an honorable death, but the values he believed in and the culture he believes in, fades with him. The world is poorer for his sacrifice and I would go so far as to say that he had a responsibility to stay alive. It reminds me of the adherents to the old Norse gods, the Pagans, who believed that they would only see Valhalla if they died in battle, so they sought it out, to die the heroic death that would see them enter the halls of the Gods. And while they were out on their longships, the Christians preached in their homes, and rather then stay alive to keep their culture and their beliefs alive, they sought out death nonetheless and ultimately, their faith died with them.
Cultures who place the noble death above all else are cultures which will inevitably die out, because they prefer to take their values to the grave, rather than to live and hold them up so that future generations may live by them as well.
I agree 100% with you!, if he would have stay alive to preach his message, many young men around the world would have become something better, he would have become a force of good for this world!!
Well spoken, but I disagree. 'Literature is impotent; in the end, you have to act.' Mishima's suicide was certainly self-serving, but it put meaning behind his works and his words. It seems that for now, Mishima was the last 'true samurai', and his death itself was the final line of his philosophy. Had he lived a long life, and died unspectacularly, each speech and book where he exudes this idea of dying strong and gracefully would've carried no weight.
Besides, Mishima was neither a politician nor rebel, not in this modern age. He was an artist, enacting his play on the world stage.
And now look at the Christians; their lassitude is faulty, and is the production of a despicable modern world that promotes only illness and servitude as tenable virtues for living. It is, for the same reason, why Socrates rejects Crito's offer to escape his punishment; to live beyond one's ideals is a condemnation of one's own character, but to die for them is an affirmation of life in the greatest sense, not dissimilar to finishing a painting or a composition or a poem. The adherents of those old cultures are complete; they did not fetter into oblivion as we do, into an ever-abyss of discontinuity with tradition, but suffered under the jubilance of battle--by the crucible of sun and steel--wherein their pleasure in life was tenfold than what ours is.
They are every part our better, we, the repugnant sons and daughters of the gods. But, occasionally, and sometimes almost infinitesimally, there is a sublime circumstance, where, up comes some worm, who exits the dirt he was birthed in, writhes in the light and attains something the rest of us in mud do not get; sometimes, up comes some individual, who, almost by fate, attains that aspect of those divines that we forget we descend from. These new gods, who herald a world significantly worse than our fathers, are those who shall receive great love should they die--and in their death we shall eternally seek new ones...
That will just make the values last a little longer and to also possibly die in their weakest stages.
As a Christian I still take up on a lot of the values from these different honorable men. Jesus himself said to a centurion that he didn’t find anyone in Israel with such great faith as his. great men usually identify each other, no matter the culture or values.
Mr. Mishima already knew his coup would fail. He originally had a much more elaborate and effective plan set up but one of the key players in the plan backed out after falling victim to the interests of the elite. But even though his original plan fell apart, he was not the type of person to give up on what he believes in even if it had no chance of succeeding, and even if he had to stand alone.
What was his original plan? I’m so curious. I didn’t know he had another plan.
As of late, this man understood who I am, if I really existed.
It's strange finding some video of a man from decades ago and being more understood by him than the those around me.
The man stood his ground,,,a true hero,a true man .
he died 52 years ago today. RIP
Intense!!!!
Baller and Shot Caller
One of the few examples of an Ubermensch. In the future, perhaps when humanity looks back at what it has accomplished, it will all pale in comparison to the plentiful wonder and amazement of the oh-so-many combinations of the human experience that have been lived; it will say to itself, "Yes, we have had someone great live like how you describe, and we shall show you who he is." and I do not doubt that, if given the chance, Mishima would do it all over again.
While, generally speaking, most ppl in todays world, are fake/superficial, Mishima, on the flip side of things, was the antithesis: the man was as real as they come. U Got to respect that.
‘‘I'll probably die in bed’’ 😏
Must've said that tongue-in-cheek.
What a lad
Great man indeed
Mishima missed his chance in wwii for an honorable death.
So he made his own honorable death
The last samurai.
If we only mind the demential "life" we're forced to live today.
All the fanboys of that idea themselves don't knowidea what that purpose would be...
Based
Sartre, whose political inclination is totally the opposite of Mishima's, wrote something similar describing his French resistance days.
今の日本人に三島由紀夫を理解出来る人がいるであろうか。
GHQの教育が成功して現代の殆どの日本人は全く別人種に成り果てた。
only if bro had a mic and a loudspeaker when giving the speech he would have not committed the act of seppuku
Live with purple, die with purple.
this is kinda depressing
it's what you do with it that counts
It is incredibly inspiring, actually.
@@TheKrazyLobster Why?
@@johkupohkuxd1697 If I have to explain it to you, it's probably useless.
@@TheKrazyLobster "I hardly have anything to say to most who aren't like me"
I wanted too a heroic death but sadly I was born in a wrong generation aswell, it is the soon fast death or coping with life to fight the boredom of this how things work in my opinion
❤
Yes hello
Kimitake Hiraoka.....
What is your noble cause ?
There is a longer version where it ramps up the music and goes into his suicide. Anyone know where I can find it
Yes
its on YT
Anyone got a link?
4:12
great video, unnecessary music
Truly, he was a nutball.
NPC, you will die in bed or by accident.
Truly, you are a weak hedonist.
Materalistic fools just can't accept their insignificance before the greater cause. You'll never understand it.
Only a nutball is sane in a nutball world. Mishima was as human as I can hope to be.
He was a great man but i dont like how alt-right is reducing him to memes , workout philosophy etc
go away, stupid leftist.
As opposed to the LGBT community reducing him to a forgot? I know which generalization Yukio "anti-democratic coup" Mishima would've preferred.
@@serbianmapping4642 Triggered by his love of dick I see. Maybe you should try some. Would compensate for your lack of one.
the nolan garbage soundtrack ruins it but otherwise nice :)
Amazing man but I cannot for the life of me understand why you felt the need to put a stupid fucking generic orchestral music in the middle of it.
guess he only chose the wrong purpose
Debatable.
Dafuq how can someone be wrong in a meaningless world, his path was merely unfavourable by others.
@@distinctloafer what a great way to defend fascism and war mongering. ❤
@@reinarforeman6518 anything basically
@@reinarforeman6518 Dying worshipping useless material as opposed to dying for something sounds like a miserable thing to favor bro.
Everything you will do in your life amounts to nothing, nor does it mean anything, nor will it be remembered. Your existence is but a barcode that's already stamped on plenty more units that can just replace you the moment you expire, as your existence means nothing.
This is nice and all. But I cannot take this seriously because I know that this man has a suicide fetish.
This is not being dramatic. It was the central motif of his semi-autobiography- Confessions of a mask.
WARNING- don't read that novel, unless you want to read sexualized Christian martyrdom fanfiction. Because that is the "thing" about that novel. He goes back to it over and over.
Yeah, I know he's Japanese.
Yes. Having seen this man turned in the West into myth/ ideal of honor and patriotism (values forbidden in our societies), he somewhat garnered my attention and interest. I found a library with two books written by Mishima and picked the one you refer. It is quite much as you say. I give him credit for portraying the homosexual psyche for what it is (an entanglement of unhealthy obsessive images of sex, violence and desperate depersonalisation) and not embellishing it (he would not be seen in a pride parade), yet I wonder if those who worship him have actually got the trouble of reading him. Besides, the prose itself was just above average (I cannot affirm this is reflecting of the original, as it was a translation of a translation). I also read a short story of him, which I liked at the time (can’t remember the name), yet again the themes were far from heroic. It revolves around contemptuous feelings for women, which again is quite commendable for the honesty as how females are perceived by males with a feminine psyche.
@@hermes1740 well. he got a lot of books other than that one. can't really judge a author through only one book
@@hermes1740 You typed alot but said nothing really
@@hermes1740 Go suck a dick. You might just enjoy it. I'm talking to your psyche by the way.