斜阳与铁：昭和中期文学一瞥Setting Sun and Iron: A Glimpse of Mid-Shōwa Literature

"When I regarded my self as a house, my body was like an orchard surrounding it... I set about cultivating this orchard with all my might, and what I used for it was the sun and iron." -- Mishima Yukio, Sun and Steel In the early twentieth century, Japan's old nobility, known collectively as the kazoku, declined with the light, carefree speed of a hummed tune, until they were abolished altogether two years after the end of the Second World War. The imperial centralisation won at the expense of the feudal nobility withered under militarism, until the emperor, in a few unprecedented broadcasts in his own voice, formally renounced his divinity and stripped Shinto belief from national identity. Militarism itself yielded to the overwhelming force of the US military, and the Empire of Great Japan was demoted to the State of Japan. All these events, together with the many Western ideas and cultures that had entered Japan over more than a century, once again turned the spirit of a generation away from the chauvinism of hakkō ichiu, with its union of state and religion, towards an entirely new direction. Writers on the cultural front line and at the economic peak naturally felt the greatest impact, and even the classical aesthetics that had been handed down, sometimes hidden and sometimes plain, gradually slipped away. We will take a brief look at two men of this age of the low-hanging sun. Dazai Osamu: best known for No Longer Human. He was the sixth son of a village assemblyman's family; his father, who had married into the family, gained noble status only at the start of the twentieth century, but the kazoku system soon disappeared. In his decadent works the protagonists often feel so inferior that they can barely exist, yet they also often disparage the world as "vulgar". At thirty-eight, on his fifth suicide attempt, he finally succeeded, leaving behind the unfinished comedy Goodbye. Mishima Yukio: made his name with Confessions of a Mask. He styled himself Dazai's archrival and could not stand Dazai's "country-bumpkin, adolescent ambition". His grandmother had a distant blood tie to the Tokugawa family and had learned etiquette at the household of an imperial prince; as the eldest son, Mishima was kept under her close watch, and at her insistence he attended the Gakushūin, the Peers' School, from childhood. His sexual orientation is still debated, but his fanatical devotion to his ideal of a strong, beautiful body is plain for all to see. Before attending, we hope you will read this short Zhihu answer by an old friend: What is the difference between wabi-sabi, yūgen and mono no aware in Japanese culture? https://www.zhihu.com/question/24982618/answer/120953016