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Paper short abstract

Mishima Yukio cast a long shadow over Japanese cultural space, as seen in numerous works of fiction produced after 1970 that feature Mishima or are inspired by him and his work. This paper focuses on several fictionalized versions of Mishima and explores the symbolic potential of these spectres.

Paper long abstract

Mishima Yukio (1925–1970) was outspoken about his pessimistic views on Japan’s present and future, especially towards the end of his life. His grotesque suicide and puzzling body of work (mainly Hōjō no umi tetralogy) cast a metaphorical „gaze“ or „shadow“ on whatever possible future was in store for his country and became a „curse“, that keeps „haunting“ Japanese cultural landscape to this day. This is evident in an unprecedented number of novels, poems, comic books, films or even video games produced since 1970 that feature Mishima or are inspired by him or his work. These portrayals range from fictionalized versions of the historical Mishima to supernatural ghosts, from talking severed heads to alternative history, from minor cameos to leading roles.

A hauntological analysis of Mishima's spectres reveals that the past is present and still alive in contemporary Japan, and questions the legacy of Japanese modernity, post-war development and historical consciousness. Fictionalized Mishima is mainly characterized by the tension between absence and presence, history and fiction. While the approaches of different authors vary greatly from serious to parodic, Mishima in fiction is always a product of a reading that transforms his absence into a symbolic or metaphorical presence, thus keeping the spectre "alive". Historical Mishima embodies contradictory and complicated nature of modern Japan, while fictional Mishima can be both historical and atemporal, with authors using him as a device to create a space for self-reflection of Japanese (post)modernity and its future.

In this paper I will present an outline of various incarnations of Mishima’s continued presence in fictions written after his death, and focus more closely on three works: Kasai Kiyoshi’s metaficional mystery novel Tenkei no utage (Revelation Banquet, 1996) where Mishima and the political turmoil of post-war Japan is contrasted with the idea of "the death of the author“, novel Sayōnara, watashi no hon yo! (Goodbye, my books!, 2005) where Ōe Kenzaburō continues his long-lasting creative involvement with Mishima that began shortly after his death, and finally Fukanō (Impossible, 2011) by Matsuura Hisaki, which envisions a world where Mishima (named Hiraoka) survives and leaves prison to enter the contemporary world.