ABSTRACT
ON NOVEMBER 25, 1970 after hearing of MISHIMA Yukio's suicide, a Chinese professor asked Iida, "I have been giving a course 011 Japanese literature, for I can read and write Japanese. But I am not so sure now. Please tell me the reason why the Japanese commit suicide so easily?" Iida replied, "No man commits suicide easily, not even the Japanese novelists. However one thing can be said-while the Chinese think "We live only once," the Japanese tend to say, "We die only once!" For example even on the joyous occasion of the New Year, issues of the, Japanese literary magazines were, as noted by SAEKI Shoichi,2 full of death motifs. Mishima was a prime example of this attitude of 'dating with death', or shi ni shitashimu. He was fascinated by death and the idea of dying. Mishima committed seppuku, the Japanese ritual suicide, on the morning after the completion of his only tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. He was indeed faithful to the model of 'Mishima' aestheticism, i.e. "The death reveals itself at the height of life."3 Much has been \vritten about the meaning of his death by many, from a prime minister to novelists, critics and psychologists. Some call him a fanatic nationalist who hysterically committed seppuku in a vain attempt to restore pre-war militarism under the Emperor. Surprisingly few words came from Buddhist scholars exceptfor an essay by MIYASAKA Yiisho, one of the leading scholars in the field. We share his words:
On and after that day and even now, countless people are dying in numerous ways. But there has never been such a case where a novelist's death gave birth to such lively discussion. While it is a 'crazy death' for the man on the street,
it is a "literary, political and meaningless death" for some. As for me, it does not matter. The crux of the matter is the fact that Mishima brought home for us anew the subject of 'death', an ancient question that is perpetually reborn in many ways.4
