Mishima's Sword

Yukio Mishima was always a fascination of mine. I never really knew much about him beyond the way he died in 1970. I guess that is not a surprise and it may even be the expectation when your death is by seppuku - ritualistic suicide.

The book ‘Mishima’s Sword’ follows Christopher Ross’s journey as he searches for the sword Mishima used to end his life. Ross reassesses Mishima’s life as he encounters those who knew the famous author. Mishima was a very complex man who, like the rest of us, had as many flaws as he had strengths.

I am not sure how I feel about the book. It was not what I had expected but in retrospect I am not surprised. I had romanticized Mishima’s death to be an altruistic act to draw attention to how he felt his country had lost its way. I realize that there was a huge narcissistic component to Mishima’s motives that fateful day also. His death was as much a planned performance to manipulate his legacy as it was to make a political statement - maybe more.

Yukio Mishima’s example is the extreme but I do believe there is a lesson there for all of us. Are not our personal legacies better defined by how we live than how we die?

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” - Norman Cousins (1915 - 1990)