re until he did for The Old Capitol in 1968 (Keene 786). Kawabata found prosperity by bounding the scope of his writing mainly to females, and the feminine qualities of everything (Kato 243). On April 16, 1972 he committed suicide by inhaling gas for unknown reasons. Even though he wrote several notable works, his most prestigious distinction may not be the winning of the Noble Prize. It may be the talents he found and refined in a young Mishima Yukio (Keene 839).It was best said by Professor Donald Keene, “Mishima was the most gifted and achieved the most of all the writers who appeared after the war. If we feel on surveying the massive literary production he left behind that he still did not attain the ranks of the undisputed masters of the century, he probably came as close as any Japanese” (Keene 1216). He gained much knowledge from his mentor Kawabata Yasunari, and in the eyes of many even surpassed Kawabata’s talents. Among his novels are Confessions of a Mask (1949) and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956). His four-volume epic The Sea of Fertility (1970) is about the transformation of Japan into a modern but sterile society. However, much of the attention left his writing on November 25, 1970 with his sensational death. After he led a group of armed radicals into the commanding general’s headquarters; he publicly committed a classical Japanese style suicide. His death was regarded as his final protest against modern Japanese weakness (Keene 1171-1178).Japanese Literature was looked upon with mainly with ignorance by most of the world until the suicides of the nation’s two leading writers brought it interest. This merely opened the door for the overlooked writers of this neglected nation. Japanese literature today is enjoying an increasing number of readers outside of Japan, not merely for its exotic charm, but because of its universal merits. The writers of Japan have contributed and...
