famous Japanese writer, playwright, actor and director. One of the most prominent literary figures of 20th century Japan, famous for his nihilistic works as well as for his ritual suicide - sepuku - and its circumstances. He was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Mishima was born in Tokyo to Adzusa Hiraoka, a civil servant. Until the age of 12, he lived in the home of his grandmother, who instilled in him a love of literature and theatre, and of the traditions of his native country. This later had a profound influence on Mishima's work. In 1931, he entered the elite Gakusiuin School in Tokyo. At the age of 16, he wrote his first work, The Flowering Forest. From 1944 to 1947, while studying at Tokyo University, the writer qualified as a lawyer, but he worked in his profession for less than a year, and from then on he devoted himself entirely to writing literature. Between 1951 and 1952, the writer embarked on a round-the-world journey that changed his style of writing and his outlook on life. From 1955 onwards, Mishima became interested in the national martial arts of kendo and karate, as well as bodybuilding and boxing. In 1958 he married Yoko Sugiyama, the daughter of Yasushi Sugiyama, a renowned master of classical Japanese painting. In 1967, the writer founded the "Shield Society", a paramilitary organisation.
