Yukio Mishima and the Aestheticization of Politics from a Deleuzian Perspective on Death and Sacrifice

Mishima Yukio is not the only Japanese writer to commit suicide. In culture like the Japanese one, in which the act of suicide is not ostracised by religious taboos, voluntary death has taken on different forms over time and has been expressed in strict codes and rituals. Osamu Dazai, Mishima’s literary rival, committed shinjū (13 June 1948), a double suicide out of love, together with the woman he loved. Akutakawa Ryūnosuke, Mishima’s idol, killed himself at the age of 35. However, the present paper’s focus on Mishima’s suicide is due to the political undertone the writer sought to impart to the ritual act of seppuku by which he ended his life. To understand the motives behind this act, in my view, it is not enough to merely present the political aspects and the historical context. A certain fascination with violent death, in general, and ritualistic death, in particular, also transpired from his work. In the present study, I will analyse Mishima’s political view from a new perspective, by starting from Gilles Deleuze’s view on the becoming of politics.

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