Yukio Mishima’s life and work are often characterized by a dramatic intertwining of eroticism, violence, and a profound exploration of death as a form of tragic fulfillment. His personal revolt and ultimate suicide echoed the historic Ni Ni Roku incident of February 26, 1936, a failed coup in which Japanese army officers sought to push the emperor toward a more militaristic stance by seizing parts of Tokyo. Although this rebellion was swiftly quashed, it left a lasting imprint on Mishima, who channeled its fervor into his creative endeavors.

One such work is “Yukoku” (“Patriotism”), a short story that reveals Mishima’s admiration for the officers’ cause. The narrative follows an officer, sympathetic to the revolt's objectives, who faces the unbearable prospect of attacking his comrades. To escape this moral quandary, he chooses the ancient ritual of seppuku, a form of honorable suicide, with his wife following suit. Moments before their deaths, the couple engages in an intensely passionate act of love, intertwining themes of desire and destruction. Mishima not only penned this gripping tale, but he also embodied it onscreen, portraying the officer in a film adaptation so intense that it reportedly caused some audience members to faint.

The motif of finding tragic fulfillment through violent death recurrently surfaces in Mishima’s fiction, often linked to acts of rebellion. This is evident in his novel Kinkakuji (1956; The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, 1959), inspired by a real-life event where a Zen Buddhist acolyte, driven by complex motivations, sets fire to a sacred temple. Similarly, in Homba (1969; Runaway Horses, 1973), the central character’s journey culminates in seppuku, mirroring Mishima’s own dramatic end.

While Mishima’s body of work brims with a myriad of interpretations, his autobiographical essay Sun and Steel arguably serves as a key to understanding the existential questions that consumed him. It does not provide definitive answers to the enigma of his life’s work, but it offers crucial insights into the complex dance between his creative output and his spectacular demise.