ABSTRACT
Sun and Steel: Art, Action and Ritual Death is an autobiographical memoir by one of Japan’s most celebrated and controversial novelists, Yukio Mishima (1925–970). The book (published in 1968) reflects upon Mishima’s experiences with bodybuilding and martial arts training, analysing the effect these had on his literary work and vice versa. This chapter explores the mutual influence of his bodybuilding upon his art – an art that was universally recognized for its genius. Mishima was expected to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, but pulled back from the competition in order to allow his fellow countryman Yasunari Kawabata to win. Much to the astonishment of Japan and the world, in 1970 he committed ritual suicide by seppuku (according to the samurai tradition), after a symbolic coup attempt aiming at restoring the status of the Emperor.
