Japanese writer Yukio Mishima (pseudonym of Kimitake Hiraoka) was born in 1925, in Tokyo.

During World War II he worked in an airplane factory and after the war, Mishima studied law. His first semi-autobiographical novel, “Confessions of a Mask” (1949), told about the discovery of own homosexuality. It was widely accepted and let the author wholly devote himself to writing.

Mishima's works include 40 novels, poetry, essays, and modern Kabuki and Noh dramas. Three times, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature. Among his masterpieces is “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” (1956). The tetralogy, “The Sea of Fertility” (1965-1970) is regarded by many as Mishima's most lasting achievement. Critics call him Hemingway.

The central theme of his books is the tension between traditional Japanese values and the spiritual emptiness of contemporary life. The author himself was an exceedingly controversial figure. Although an imperial Japanese patriot and admirer of the samurai spirit, Mishima did not deny the novelty of Western world. Being an admirer of the body and obsessed with images of beauty and degeneration, Mishima wished to create a perfect body for himself that age could not tarnish. He was engaged in the martial arts of karate and kendo and attempting to revive the Bushido code and he founded the Shield Society. On November 25th 1970, he seized control of a military district’s headquarters in Tokyo in an attempt to rouse the pre-war Japanese patriotic movement. However, anticipating this failure and to protest against the so-called weaknesses of modern Japan, Mishima retreated inside the headquarters and committed “seppuku” – ritual samurai suicide.

In 2004, the publishing house “Versus aureus” published the novel by Y. Mishima “Confessions of a Mask” (Kaukės išpažintis).