Two modern Noh plays – The Lady Aoi and Hanjo

by Yukio Mishima

Snowfall in a hot summer

“Wilting like a flower.” “I can’t wait any longer”

I don’t like talking about my production. I prefer to let Yukio Mishima’s last action speak. Mishima committed suicide at the age of 45, at an army camp in Tokyo on November 25, 1970.

After the Second World War, Mishima became increasingly convinced that the so-called period of peace was a lie, and was profoundly indignant at the inaction of intellectuals.

Mishima carried out his action 26 years after the war, at a time when economic growth and consumerism had reached gigantic proportions. Mishimasaid: “My action may seem mad, but I am wholly pure in my patriotic feelings, and think this will be understood. Many people will not understand, but I have to show that it is necessary and important that I now die a dog’s death. To defend your ideas, you need to pay with your body.” This was in accord with the ancient Chinese ideology of Yomeigaku which holds that action and understanding are linked.

Mishima left his life, his family, his work, his position, his money. Is there anything more important? Mishima’s ideology is opposed to the now, it is “anti-now.”

“A poet’s life is like a flower: the inside blooms by itself”

A flower that seems to be for eternity. A hidden flower.

(Kuniaki Ida)