Yukio Mishima (1925–1970)

Three-time winner of the Yomiuri Prize (1956 in literature, 1958 and 1961 in drama), winner of the Shinchosha Prize (1954), the Kunio Kishida Award (1956), the Mainichi Art Award (1964), and the Ministry of Education's Arts Festival Award (1965), "Mishima Yukio was probably the most prodigiously endowed Japanese writer of the twentieth century. Although he was only forty-five when he died, under spectacular circumstances that brought him worldwide fame, he had already completed a more voluminous oeuvre than most writers who live twice that long. His writings extended to every genre. Although he was best known as a novelist, he excelled also as a short-story writer. His works of fiction ranged from the philosophic to the farcical; he could write in whatever style was appropriate to each. He published numerous essays on literary, political, cultural and purely journalistic topics. He was also the most successful playwright of his generation." (Donald Keene. “Forward: Mishima’s Kabuki Plays” in “Mishima on Stage.” Ed. Laurence Kominz. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies 2007, viii–x.)