Persona: A Biography of Yukio Mishima [ハードカバー]

My introduction to Japanese literature was through Yukio Mishima's tetralogy The Sea of Fertility. Ever since, I have been fascinated by his life and works. It has been nearly forty years since a major biography on Mishima has been released in English. I was very excited when I learned that Stone Bridge Press would be releasing Persona: A Biography of Yukio Mishima by Naoki Inose and Hiroaki Sato at the end of 2012. The English-language edition is actually an updated and expanded version of Inose's 1995 Japanese Mishima biography Persona: Mishima Yukio den. Sato was primarily responsible for the adaptation, expansion, and translation of the English-language edition of Persona. It is a mighty tome. With over 850 pages, Persona promised to be the most comprehensive and complete biography of Mishima available in English.

Yukio Mishima, the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka was born on January 14, 1925 to Azusa and Shizue Hiraoka. His upbringing was a bit peculiar--his controlling grandmother snatching him away from his parents. As a child he often struggled with health issues, but exhibited an intellectual precociousness and a talent for writing at a young age. Mishima would eventually become one of the preeminent and most visible authors of his day. He was also an extremely prolific writer, responsible for creating thirty-four novels, more than one hundred seventy short stories, close to seventy plays, six hundred sixty poems, and numerous essays, articles, and other works. Many of Mishima's writings have been translated, but only a fraction of his total output is available in English. He was also involved in the film industry, served as a subject and model for photographers, and was active in martial arts and bodybuilding. Later in life, becoming more politically active, he was a vocal supporter of the Tenn system in Japan. Mishima ended it all in a shocking act of ritual suicide on November 25, 1970.

Persona really is the most comprehensive single-volume work on Mishima currently available in English. However, in part due to its length, it is difficult to recommend the biography as a introductory resource. Before attempting to read Persona, it is useful to have a least some basic understanding of Mishima and Japanese history in general. Persona isn't strictly just a biography of Mishima--it places him within a greater context of economic, bureaucratic, political, literary, and cultural Japanese history. While Mishima always remains an important touchstone, frequently Persona uses him a launching point to address other aspects of Japanese history as a whole. Occasionally the authors seem to wander off on tangents that aren't directly related, but Mishima and his enormous personality are always there in the background even when they're not at the forefront of the work.

Although Persona generally follows a chronological progression, beginning with Mishima's family history and background and ending with his suicide and its aftermath, the biography is organized more by subject and theme. The authors do not limit themselves to adhering to a rigid timeline, which allows them to bring together related material more efficiently. In addition to the main text, Persona also includes notes, an extensive bibliography, and a thorough index. Though its length may be daunting and it's not always a particularly easy read, Persona really is an incredibly complete Mishima biography. Addressing both Mishima's public and private personas, it delves into areas of his personal life (including his sexuality) which I haven't seen as thoroughly explored in English before. While not a biography for the casual reader, reading Persona is well worth the effort for someone with an established interest in Mishima and Japanese history.

I agree with Thiessen for the most part. Maybe there are some mistakes here--HITOKIRI is usually translated as MANSLAYER, for instance--but the overall effect is excellent and very detailed. The translation of KARAKKAZE YARO as WINDBLOWN DUDE is the best yet, though I hate the word "dude." There's much new information here and Mishima seems more human than usual--he did get drunk more than once in his life, we learn. People not familiar with Mishima will have trouble with the writing but critics and fans will be mesmerized. It's not easy reading but it's well worthwhile. The lack of any photographs is a drawback--one had hoped to see some new ones--but we can't have everything. Anyway, if you like Mishima you should like this book. In over 800 pages there are bound to be a few mistakes but those are minor quibbles in the overall grandeur of this work. Jerry Piven's The Madness and Perversion of Yukio Mishima is still the best critical psychobiography of Mishima and his works but this new book is a long-awaited treasure.

This brief review is based on a partial reading of the text, due to... struggle and boredom....
It contains many details that fascinate, but the sentence structures, and the often literal-feeling translations, make it such an effort to read that all joy in learning or knowledge gained is seriously vitiated.
Compared to the translations of Mishima's own work for Tuttle by Gallagher or Marks, that sparked my love of Mishima's subtle, evocative and directly human explorations of man in society, this is a tremendous, anti-literary let-down.
In addition, the writer seems to feel that listing out everything is sufficient, but there is little in the presentation of facts to layer their relative importance, which is a task all good authors perform on behalf of the reader... Ruskin, George Steiner, Donald Richie, Ruth Benedict, Susan Sontag, &c all managed it.
On balance, I'm pleased to own this book, but what a struggle to read it!