10 Authors Who Died In Mysterious Or Strange Ways

Yukio Mishima was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, film director; you name it, he did it. He was one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century and was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968. His most famous novels were Confessions of a Mask, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, and the autobiographical Sun and Steel.

It was Yukio’s political life that finally led to his dramatic and violent death. In 1968, Yukio Mishima created the Tatenokai, a private right-wing militia.

On 25th November 1970 Yukio and four members of the Tatenokai went to the Tokyo offices of the Japanese Self-Defence Forces, barricaded the building, and tied the commandant to his chair. Yukio Mishima went out onto the balcony with a manifesto and a list of demands and addressed the gathered soldiers below with the intention of inspiring a coup d’état to restore power to the emperor.

The gathered soldiers mocked Yukio and jeered at him. Yukio went back into the office and performed seppuku (a ritual suicide) by cutting open his belly and disembowelling himself. It was then down to fellow member, Masakatsu Morita, to decapitate Yukio Mishima. Morita, after several attempts, failed to sever Yukio’s head and handed the duty to another member. Morito then knelt down and stabbed himself in the abdomen.