Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫, Mishima Yukio) was the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka (平岡 公威, Hiraoka Kimitake, January 14, 1925–November 25, 1970), a Japanese author, poet and playwright, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku.
Mishima was born in the Yotsuya district of Tokyo (now part of Shinjuku). His father was Azusa Hiraoka, a government official, and his mother, Shizue, was the daughter of a school principal in Tokyo. His paternal grandpar...
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Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫, Mishima Yukio) was the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka (平岡 公威, Hiraoka Kimitake, January 14, 1925–November 25, 1970), a Japanese author, poet and playwright, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku.
Mishima was born in the Yotsuya district of Tokyo (now part of Shinjuku). His father was Azusa Hiraoka, a government official, and his mother, Shizue, was the daughter of a school principal in Tokyo. His paternal grandparents were Jotarō and Natsuko Hiraoka. He had a younger sister named Mitsuko, who died of typhus, and a younger brother named Chiyuki.
Mishima's early childhood was dominated by the shadow of his grandmother, Natsu, who took the boy and separated him from his immediate family for several years. Natsu was the illegitimate granddaughter of Matsudaira Yoritaka, the daimyo of Shishido in Hitachi Province, and had been raised in the household of Prince Arisugawa Taruhito; she maintained considerable aristocratic pretensions even after marrying...
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