Mishima’s death provides an excellent and salutary occasion to look at two important phenomena: the nature of Zen culture in Japan, and the condition of the Japanese army.
Mishima was one of the main vectors of Zen culture to the West, and to the American beatniks primarily: through books like The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (probably his most widely read work in the West), he was influential on a whole generation of writers, headed by Kerouac. Since Kerouac ended up supporting Ronald Reagan and Goldwater, and Mishima died urging the Japanese army to greater violence and aggression, the connection deserves scrutiny.
It is rarely stressed in mystified Western writing on Japan that Zen was introduced from China as an essentially aristocratic and militaristic culture—in the late 12th century: ‘Because of the powerful hold which it has held over the military classes of Japan, Zen is the form of Buddhism which has most affected Japanese ultra-nationalist philosophy. It is implicit in many of the concepts of self-denial and sacrifice for the Imperial Family which are basic to the theme of Kokutai no Hongi.’footnote1 Zen Buddhism has always appealed to the Japanese warrior class, and its centre was at Kamakura, the military capital, at the height of the period of the feudal wars. Zen, although a derivative of the original Buddhist