Death of a Man
An Exploration of Beauty, Demise and Masculinity
Introduction
As an introduction to this thesis, I would like to begin by explaining the personal reasons that made me choose this topic for such an important and personal project. While a multitude of works by Yukio Mishima serves as an inspiration for this project, the focus of it lies on his breakout, semi-autobiographical novel Confessions of a Mask. I first came across Mishima and this novel around five to six years ago, during my late adolescence and was intrigued by the morbid sounding premise of the book. When reading it I was not only enamored with the sheer beauty of Mishima's writing and his extensive vocabulary, but found myself relating to the protagonist quite a lot more than I initially would have guessed. While this statement might seem a little off putting to anyone who is aware of a rough plot summary but has not actually read the book themselves, I feel like I should put into words what exactly it is that fascinates me so much about Mishima, as a teenager and also now, before diving into further analysis. I think that this approach will give the reader of this paper not only a much deeper understanding of the novel, but also my project overall and the many creative decisions I've had to make during the last few months.
Confessions of a Mask tells the story of the childhood and adolescence of a Japanese boy born in the 1920s and is understood by most people to be a sort of unofficial autobiography because of the many parallels with what is known about Mishima's own life. While the novel deals with a protagonist struggling with his early sexuality, unusual violent fantasies and the perceived otherness from society caused by the two, it is , at its core, a story about struggles that a lot of children and young adults have to deal with at some point in their life, especially with regards to queer youths. While I personally grew up in far more liberal surroundings than what a young Mishima would have experienced in imperial Japan, the feelings of otherness, doubt and insecurity about how peers would perceive him are feelings that I also knew from my own childhood and youth, as many other people also will.
This inherent, easy to understand, relatability present in Mishima's work is one of the main reasons why I decided to focus on this project. In my mind, having this concept at the core makes it easier for the onlooker, who will most likely be less well informed about the context of the novel and the many nuances of the author's life, to relate to the collection. By still understanding the struggle of someone's true feelings, or self, and "the mask”, at least a basic appreciation or understanding from most people can be achieved. This way of approaching the work provides the perfect access for different groups of people to dive into understanding the collection at different levels.
Confessions of a Mask - Analysis Chapter One and Two
The following part of this thesis will serve as an explanation of the most important aspects of my source material. In the interest of keeping this paper from becoming too long, I will try to focus on the parts of the book, which I consider most relevant to the collection and project as a whole. During the process of analyzing the novel, I came to divide relevant portions of the text into one or sometimes multiple categories, out of seven, which I will now proceed to list and briefly explain. For my personal research I decided to color-code the text portions, but I have decided against that for this writing and will instead just mention my categorisation when necessary. The categories can also be seen as themes that are prevalent, across the course of the novel, with their changing rates of appearances being important for my analysis and interpretation. The first theme is that of Predestination and Death. This is closely linked with the second theme of attraction towards the primitive and violence. These first two themes make up most of the first two chapters, which I decided to condense into one part of the analysis, precisely because they mostly read as one in terms of the themes contained in the writing. The next important themes are those of the titular “mask” and the process of acting and upholding said mask or facade as well as the theme of the protagonist's obsession with normality and the perceived embodiment of this normality with his relationship to Sonoko from the third chapter onwards. This obsession brings the fifth theme of intense guilt and regret, aimed at what the protagonist sees as his unnatural character. As the story unfolds the protagonist gets wrapped up increasingly in his feelings of guilt and shame, which leads to the last two themes which are consequences and part of the constantly worsening self destructive cycle by the end of the book, delusion and excessive self hatred and critique. I will elaborate on each of these themes, at the point, where they are the most relevant to the story and my analysis.
Chapters One and Two deal largely with what I will refer to as the “inner core” of the protagonist. The temporal focus is on early childhood and adolescence, and the thematic focus is primarily on the protagonist's attraction to the primitive and his tendency to fetishise violence. This core describes a kind of primal state of the young protagonist, though it is not entirely representative of the characteristics of the protagonist throughout the course of the novel. The interior, or character, changes over the course of the novel, mainly indebted to the protagonist's numerous attempts to escape his nature and strive for normalcy and social recognition. In addition to the protagonist's sexual proclivities and philosophical attitudes, which he describes as abnormal, foreshadowing his later problems with his identity, the core is also characterized by traits that will make more significant appearances at a later point in the novel, like naiveté, general immaturity as well as childlike and early obsessive behavior patterns. The first two chapters see the protagonist recount his early influences and the discovery of his sexual desires, like the earliest example, where he describes seeing a “night soil man”( Confessions of a Mask, Page 7) coming from work.
“There is no doubt that the image of what I saw then has taken on meaning anew each of the countless times it has been reviewed, intensified, focused upon. Because within the hazy perimeter of the scene nothing but the figure of that 'someone coming down the slope' stands out with disproportionate clarity. And not without reason: this very image is the earliest of those that have kept tormenting and frightening me all my life.“(Confessions of a Mask, Page 7) The significance with which the author describes these events, as well as others following, shows the immense impact on the personal aesthetic as well as, even more importantly, the intensity of the inner conflict later in the book. The “night soil man” serves as a great first example because he is the personification of one of the core themes I have identified, namely the attraction towards the primitive. This attraction towards, especially lower class, working men is contrasted harshly, not only by the protagonist's usual acquaintances in school, which can at least be counted as middle class, but also his later pursuit of Sonoko, which he often described as pure.
Another early example of great importance is that of the knight in the picture book. This example is provided, like in this paper, directly after the night soil man story. The author's intention here is, no doubt, the same as mine, namely to set up the second basis for the protagonists sexual preferences, death and violence.
“The picture showed a knight mounted on a white horse, holding a sword aloft. The horse, nostrils flaring, was pawing the ground with powerful forelegs. There was a beautiful coat of arms on the silver armor the knight was wearing. The knight's beautiful face peeped through the visor, and he brandished his drawn sword awesomely in the blue sky, confronting either Death or, at the very least, some hurtling object full of evil power. I believed he would be killed the next instant: if I turn the page quickly, surely I can see him being killed. Surely there is some arrangement whereby, before one knows it, the pictures in a picture book can be changed into the next instant’...“( Confessions of a Mask, Page 9-10)
An important theme to pick up here is also that of predestination. An important part of the protagonist's early memories is the thought of a lack of choice or even escape. Interesting to note is, that in the case of the predestination, the theme applies to both the protagonist and his personal life, as well as the subjects of his fantasies. Every time the protagonist imagines a young man dying, it is because he was destined to be slain. This predestination seems to be a constant in all facets of the author's life. This will also be even more important when applied to the struggle between the strive for normalcy and these, seemingly unconquerable urges.
Especially worth mentioning are also two stories that the protagonist tells in the second chapter. The first is the "White Glove Story", which deals with the protagonist's first love, Omi, which is set during festivities of some sort during the winter. The protagonists first love Omi, who the protagonist is mainly attracted to, because he is older and far stronger than his other schoolmates, is situated on top of a rope suspended log and is fighting with the other boys. The protagonist does not interact with Omi more than the others would, during his regular school time and the following interaction is his first described, clearly sexual, interaction with another person.
“For an instant he and I looked each other in the eye. It was truly only an instant. The clownish look had vanished, and, instead, his face was suffused with a strangely candid expression. An immaculate, fierce something, neither hostility nor hatred, was vibrating there like a bowstring.[...] I knew intuitively and certainly that Omi had seen the way I looked at him in that instant, had felt the pulsating force that flowed like lightning between our fingertips, and had guessed my secret - that I was in love with him, with no one in the world but him.”( Confessions of a Mask, Page 7)
This first story is especially relevant, because it serves as an early example of the obsessive tendencies of the protagonist, as he fixates not only on his fellow student, but also transfers that fixation to an object, in this case, the white gloves worn by the boys during festivities. This sort of fixation is something that will not only be a large part of how the protagonist later deals with the main love interest of the story, Sonoko, but also an important part of how his sexuality keeps developing. Furthermore, I do believe that this obsessive characteristic is indicative of the author's inclination towards strict concepts, like his understanding of beauty, as well as his fascination with certain historical aspects of Japan and of course his later political agenda.
In addition to these anecdotes, the first two chapters are also filled with expressive imagery and dissolute aphorisms from the mind of the protagonist himself. The "Secret Banquet", is about one of the most violent fantasies of the young protagonist. This story is presented as a daydream, experienced during his school time. Generally most passages of extreme fantasy and violence are described over multiple pages, with the protagonist seemingly becoming more and more obsessive and agitated while recounting the stories to the reader. This is also the case with this passage and works well to, again, showcase the importance of these inclinations.
“Heave ho!" the two cooks said in unison, lifting the unconscious boy and laying him face-up on the platter. Then, whistling merrily, they passed a cord through the holes on both sides of the dish, lashing the boy's body down securely. Their nimble hands moved expertly at the task. They arranged some large salad leaves prettily around the naked body and placed an unusually large steel carving knife and fork on the platter.
Heave ho' they said again, lifting the platter onto their shoulders. I opened the door into the dining room for them. We were greeted by a welcoming silence. The platter was put
down, filling that blank space on the table, which had been glittering blankly in the light. Returning to my seat, I lifted the large knife and fork from the platter and said: “Where shall I begin?” There was no answer. One could sense rather than see many faces craning forward toward the platter. "This is probably a good spot to begin on. I thrust the fork upright into the heart. A fountain of blood struck me full in the face. Holding the knife in my right hand, I began carving the flesh of the breast, gently, thinly at first..”( Confessions of a Mask, Page 65)
The text excerpts I have presented here, along with their respective commentary summarize the crux of the first two chapters. They showcase the bloodlust, obsession, and early beginnings of the remorse and desire for normalcy associated with these premises.
Analysis Chapter Three
The third chapter is longer than the previous two and is increasingly less concerned with the protagonist's fantasies and sexual desires and more with his increasingly desperate attempts to lead what he sees as a normal life. It starts out right away with a sort of description of the protagonist's thoughts on the act of masking his true self to perform a role in society. This immediately sets a contrast after the indulgence of the first two chapters.
“Everyone says that life is a stage. But most people do not seem to become obsessed with the idea, at any rate not as early as I did. By the end of childhood I was already firmly convinced that it was so and that I was to play my part on the stage without once ever revealing my true self. Since my conviction was accompanied by an extremely naive lack of experience, even though there was a lingering suspicion somewhere in my mind that I might be mistaken, I was still practically certain that all men embarked on life in just this way. I believed optimistically that once the performance was finished the curtain would fall and the audience would never see the actor without his make-up. My assumption that I would die young was also a factor in this belief. In the course of time, however, this optimism or, better said, this daydream was to suffer a cruel disillusionment.”(Confessions of a Mask, Page 68)
The third chapter takes up the largest portion of the book and deals most extensively with the themes of masking the protagonist's true intentions, as well as his obsession with perceived normality. Another theme introduced early in this chapter is that of delusion.
“One part of my feeling of superiority became conceit, became the intoxication of considering myself a step ahead of mankind.[...]Thus I had succeeded in hypnotizing myself. And from that time on, ninety per cent of my life came to be governed by this autohypnosis, this irrational, idiotic, counterfeit hypnosis, which even I definitely knew to be counterfeit. It may well be wondered if there has ever been a person more given to credulity.”( Confessions of a Mask, Page 71)
The protagonist's chronic insecurity leads to various forms of self-deception, which already manifests itself at the beginning of the chapter in the form of the later frequently recurring arrogance. This also represents the beginning of a kind of cyclical behavior in which the protagonist is caught between his insecurity, the arrogance caused by his multitude of thoughts about the nature of himself, as well as his environment, a striving for normality caused by the arrogance, and finally a devastating burst of self-criticism. This cycle, which can already be seen in its early form in the quote above, repeats itself in this way or in a modified form, usually worse the more the novel proceeds, until the end. Since the author writes this novel retrospectively, this cycle is also described in the form of a Möbius strip.
The desire for normalcy also takes on a concrete face in this chapter in the form of the character of Sonoko, the sister of a close friend with whom the protagonist tries to get close. The importance of Sonoko’s character is immediately made apparent by the passage of text introducing her.
“The more I listened the more I could hear that it was indeed the sound of a piano played by a seventeen-year-old girl, full of dreams and still unaware of her own beauty, whose fingertips still retained traces of childhood. I prayed that her practice would continue
forever. My prayer was answered. In my heart the sound of that piano still continues today, five years later. How many times have I tried to convince myself it is only a hallucination! How many times has my reason ridiculed this delusion! How many times has my weak will laughed at my capacity for self-deception? And for all that the fact remains that the sound of that piano took possession of me, and that for me it was - if the dark connotations can be omitted from the word - veritably a thing of ‘destiny’.”( Confessions of a Mask, Page 86)
The portion of text introducing her already foreshadows a lot about her role in the life of the protagonist. While barely older than her, he already infantilizes her and fails to see her as anything other than a solution to his perceived problems, something to obsess over. While the protagonist does go to great lengths to describe how earnest his feelings for the young woman are, his feelings can hardly be interpreted as love. Rather the inconsistent nature with which he treats her feels more like someone who is deeply troubled and desperately looking for rescue. In its own way this mirrors a lot of the characteristics described earlier about how the protagonist falls in love. With Omi or other obsessions, which are important earlier, he is more infatuated with the idea or the person he himself makes up, rather than the actual character of the person.
This relationship now takes on the main focus of the cycle, ranging from Sonoko's designation as the protagonist's “coat of mail”( Confessions of a Mask, Page 105) to the euphoric relief at the war-related spatial separation that temporarily suspends the responsibility of being “normal." “Absence has emboldened me. Distance had given me a claim to normality'. I had, so to speak, accepted 'normality' as a temporary employee in the corporation of my body. A person who is separated from one by time and space takes on an abstract quality. Perhaps this was the reason why the blind devotion I felt for Sonoko and my ever-present unnatural desires of the flesh had now been fused within me into a single homogenous mass and had pinned me immobile to each succeeding instant of time as a human being without any self-contradictions. I was free. Everyday life has become a thing of unspeakable happiness. There was a rumor that the enemy would probably make a landing soon in S Bay and that the region in which the arsenal stood would be overwhelmed. And again, even more than before, I found myself deeply immersed in a desire for death. It was in death that I had discovered my real life's aim’.“ (Confessions of a Mask, Page 121)
The desire to die, which the protagonist mentions in the quote above is distinct in context to all earlier mentions, in that it does not mention a clear sexualised reason for the longing for death. The association that is most apparent here is that with freedom. Thus the longing for death remains tied to the core and nature of the protagonist, beyond his longing for normalcy, even if not strictly related to sexual pleasure. Additionally an interesting observation in this particular portion of the text is that of the author's delusion regarding Sonoko. Since the novel is written by the main character five years after the events portrayed in it, there is a degree of awareness present about his treatment of Sonoko. But I think that the reason stated, namely time and space making a person take on an abstract quality, shows the protagonist's lack of awareness of his own self destructive behavior. The protagonist's insecurity is thus the reason for both the delusional admiration of Sonoko and the relief that follows the various separations.
The protagonist becomes more and more panicked in pursuit of his supposed salvation as the chapter progresses, falling deeper into his delusions both toward himself and others. As the arrogance increases, so does the level of exaggerated self-criticism, until the protagonist is forced to realize that he cannot feel any sexual affection for his supposed partner.
“I swore to play my role faithfully. It had nothing to do with either love or desire... Sonoko was actually in my arms. Breathing quickly, she blushed red as fire and closed her eyes. Her lips were childishly beautiful. But they aroused no desire in me. And yet I kept hoping that something would happen within me at any moment - surely when I actually kiss her, surely then I will discover my normality, my unfeigned love.
The machine was rushing onward. No one could stop it. I covered her lips with mine. A second passed. There is not the slightest sensation of pleasure. Two seconds. It is just the same.
Three seconds... I understood everything.“( Confessions of a Mask, Page 131)
After this realization, as well as a detailed description of sexual fantasies which have, up until this point, been largely unmentioned in the third chapter, the protagonist makes the decision to end the relationship by letter.
“That night I wrote a letter of indirect refusal, which sounded artificial even to me. I wrote that it was a very sudden thing and that as yet my feelings had not gone quite that far. On my way back to the arsenal the next morning, I stopped by the post office to mail the letter. The woman at the special-delivery window looked suspiciously at my trembling hands. I stared at my letter as she took it up in her rough, dirty hands and stamped it swiftly. I found comfort in seeing my unhappiness handled in such an efficient, businesslike manner.“( Confessions of a Mask, Page 143-144)
Again this should not be read as the protagonist making a selfless choice, rather as soon as his constant cyclical behavior reaches a point where Sonoko is not willing to put up with the wait any longer, he chooses the easiest option, and just sends her a letter. While hehimself admits to the artificiality of the letter, his emotions after handing it in are not of remorse but rather relief. The chapter then ends with the announcement of the end of the war via pamphlets dropped from planes.
“I took the copy into my hands, but even before I had had time to read it I had already grasped the reality of the news. It was not the reality of defeat. Instead, for me - for me alone - it meant that fearful days were beginning. It meant that, whether I would or not, and despite everything that had deceived me into believing such a day would never come, the very next day I must begin that ‘everyday life' of a member of human society. How the mere words made me tremble!“( Confessions of a Mask, Page 145)
This last event, takes away the opportunity of a sudden violent death, which had up until this point been the supposed salvation, from the burden of having to lead a normal life. With this happening shortly after the protagonist is finally forced to make a decision regarding Sonoko, his main coping mechanisms for dealing with his perceived abnormality and the resulting feeling of being unfit for, or isolated from, society are gone, leaving him to have to face integrating into society.
Analysis Chapter Four
The last chapter takes place mostly a few years after the previous one and finds the protagonist absorbed in his cycle. The creation of the mask is treated as a conscious project, which by the end of the third chapter, as well as in the fourth, is often referred to as “self-steeling”. His outbursts of arrogance become more extreme and also express themselves more in the manipulation of others. The protagonist reflects on his ability, acquired over many years, to interpret all strokes of fate in his life as a victory of his will or his reason.
“I had long insisted upon interpreting the things that Fate forced me to do as victories of my own will and intelligence, and now this bad habit had grown into a sort of frenzied arrogance. In the nature of what I was calling my intelligence there was a touch of something illegitimate, a touch of the sham pretender who has been placed on the throne by some freak chance.“( Confessions of a Mask, Page 146)
In this chapter, the protagonist is confronted for the first time with suspicion that a friend suspects something of his secret nature. The expression of immense grief described thereupon for the first time is emblematic of the protagonist's despair at this point.
“I’ll say it's interesting. Proust was a sodomite' - he used the foreign word. He had affairs with footmen.’
What's a sodomite?' I asked. I realized that by feigning ignorance I was desperately pawing the air, clutching at this little question for support and trying to find some clue to their thoughts, some indication that they did not suspect my disgrace.
'A sodomite is a sodomite. Didn't you know? It's a danshoku.'
Oh... but I never heard Proust was that way.'
I could tell that my voice was quivering. To have looked offended would have been the same as giving my companions proof positive. I was ashamed of being able to maintain such a disgraceful outward show of equanimity. It was obvious that my friend had smelled out my secret. Somehow it seemed to me that he was doing all he could to avoid looking at my face. My cursed visitors finally left at eleven o'clock, and I shut myself up for a sleepless night in my room. I cried sobbingly until at last those visions reeking with blood came to comfort me. And then I surrendered myself to them, to those deplorably brutal visions, my most intimate friends.”( Confessions of a Mask, Page 151-152)
Together with the description of “visions reeking with blood“ as a consolation, this event reveals the deeply divided mental state at a new height not seen in the previous chapters.
The protagonist accidentally meets Sonoko, who is already married at this point, and starts to fall back into his old behavioral patterns with her.
“Then we parted, and for the first time I noticed an important thing - today it seemed as though she had forgiven me. Why had she forgiven me? Could there be any greater insult than such magnanimity? But maybe, I told myself, my pain might be healed if I were to be clearly insulted by her just once more.“( Confessions of a Mask, Page 156)
His insult is a product of his lack of empathy towards his former partner and, yet again shows his inability to see her for anything other than his made up savior image. This idea is reinforced when he meets with Kusano, Sonoko’s brother, shortly after meeting her, with the intention of seeing her again.
“I was depressed by the fact that, out of his goodwill for me, Kusano had never said a word about my indirect refusal of Sonoko.
I wanted some proof that she had been at least slightly hurt at that time; I wanted to discover some unhappiness in her corresponding to my own. But once again 'time' had intervened, growing as rank as weeds between Kusano and Sonoko and myself, and any frank expression of feelings, uncoloured by pride or vanity or prudence, had become impossible for us.“( Confessions of a Mask, Page 165-167)
His problem with Kusano not mentioning his refusal at all does not necessarily seem to be an issue shared by Kusano or Sonoko, further showing how far the protagonist is wrapped up in his own cycle at this point.
He manipulates his old acquaintance and gets her to meet with him regularly as platonic friends. While Sonoko finds these meetings increasingly uncomfortable, the protagonist clings to her embodiment of normality. The previously mentioned lack of self-awareness is less present in this last chapter, as the attempts to come closer to Sonoko take on more and more of a desperate character. At this point the direct nature of his manipulation is even directly acknowledged by him.
"Then what would be the use of meeting? And anyway, if we met once, wouldn't you just say let's meet again? At my house my mother-in-law is strict and every time I go out she even asks where I'm going and when I'll be back. To meet with such uncomfortable feelings- but if-' Her speech faltered an instant. Well, there's something called the human heart, and no one knows what makes it beat.'
'That's right. But you're as much a Miss Dainty as ever, aren’t you? Why can't you think about things more cheerfully and casually?' (What lies I was telling!)“( Confessions of a Mask, Page 159)
The novel ends with the urges of the protagonist and his attempts to manipulate Sonoko, colliding, making him feel like he has been found out. The last scene takes place in a dance club, with both of them feeling uncomfortable in the situation. There, the protagonist sees a young man and is taken over by his sexual fantasies in the presence of his embodiment of normality.
“I had forgotten Sonoko's existence. I was thinking of but one thing: Of his going out onto the streets of high summer just as he was, half-naked, and getting into a fight with a rival gang. Of a sharp dagger cutting through that belly-band, piercing that torso.
Of that soiled belly-band beautifully dyed with blood. Of his gory corpse being put on an improvised stretcher, made of a window shutter, and brought back here....“( Confessions of a Mask, Page 168)
“‘It's a funny thing to ask, but you already have, haven't you? Of course you've already done that, haven't you?' I was completely exhausted. And yet some hair trigger was still set in my mind, making me give a plausible answer quicker than thought.
Umm... I already have, I'm sorry to say.’
"When?'
'Last spring.'
With whom?'
I was amazed at the mixture of naïveté and sophistication in her question. She was incapable of imagining me in connection with a girl whose name she would not know.
I can't tell you her name.
Come, who was she?'
Please don't ask me.'
Perhaps because she heard the too-naked tone of entreaty behind my words, she instantly fell silent, as though frightened. I was making every possible effort to keep her from noticing how the blood was draining from my face.
“( Confessions of a Mask, Page 169)
While it is never explicitly stated whether or not his secret has actually been found out, this interaction is the closest the protagonist has come to revealing himself with Sonoko. From the reader's perspective the ending marks the first point where the implication, that his mask has been broken down, actually seems to have substantial evidence. His increasingly erratic and unstable interactions with Sonoko have made her distrust him and noticeably uncomfortable during her meetings with him. In addition to this the protagonist's mention of shedding tears after fearing that he has been found out, shows how deeply his paranoia affects him by the end of the story, since this is the only mention of him crying alongside the death of his sister. With the previous mention also receiving a remark from the protagonist about how unusual crying is for him. The final sentences of the novel see the situation beautifully summarized, as the two are leaving the establishment.
“It was time. As I got up, I stole one more glance toward those chairs in the sun. The group had apparently gone to dance, and the chairs stood empty in the blazing sunshine. Some sort of beverage had been spilled on the tabletop and was throwing back glittering, threatening reflections.“( Confessions of a Mask, Page 170)
With the situation over, the source of the protagonist's erotic attraction is gone and what remains is his spilled, formerly hidden, true face, glittering in the sun.
Interpretation to Collection
When It came to the conception of this collection, I had to work differently from my usual process. I wanted to challenge myself with a more conceptual topic, since I usually work with a design first approach, mostly focusing on the clothing and then building concepts around what I create. Since this topic is of such great personal importance to me, I thought it essential that I take my time with the creation of the collection. A lot of my early research, which I conducted in addition to my resources about Mishima as well as his own works, was related to garments and techniques surrounding the era of the interwar years and second world war, especially with a focus on Japan. It was important to me to be able to contextualize the young protagonists struggle within the field of material and clothing research. The first important piece of writing here was “Propaganda on the Homefront in the second World War”.
“The propaganda textiles produced by Japan functioned as classic integration propaganda, even when the images were overt. They were presented within the context or a soft and nonthreatening medium that is seldom recognised as a propaganda vehicle and so works on the consciousness or the wearer/viewer in a subtle manner (Fig. 2-2). In Japan most adult garments such as juban (underwear) and the linings of haori (jackets worn over kimono) were not publicly visible and were worn for the personal enjoyment of the wearer and his intimates[...]. For Britain and the United States, propaganda textiles were proactive, worn to be seen and recognised as a political/patriotic/militaristic statement or the moment.“( Propaganda on the Home Fronts, Page 52)
The quote seen above shows one of the main important connections between my early research and my main topic. The way that textile Propaganda during that time was treated in Japan, especially when directly compared to how it was practiced in the west, showed an opportunity for comparison between the development of the protagonist and the repressive practise of only showing propaganda textiles on the inside of garments. The nature of these important political statements only being really apparent to oneself directly mirrors how the protagonist is only really aware himself, of what he thinks of as his true nature. An interesting aspect to consider here is also that during the course of the story, the mask becomes increasingly important. During his childhood and early youth, or the first two chapters, descriptions that relate to his inner world are far more prevalent, and take up large amounts of the narrative. Propaganda on the Homefront states the following about the use of these kinds of textiles in children clothing.:
“When used for children's clothing, the designs in these textiles were intended to be visible to anyone, but they had both educational and talismanic aspects and thus were very much integrative in intent.“( Propaganda on the Home Fronts, Page 52)
While the protagonist, of course, does not have any opportunities to live out his fantasies at a young age, this quote, to me, was still reminiscent of how the first two chapters of the novel feature his interaction with this part of his personality much more prominently. While this could, in part, also be attributed to his circumstances in life, which would allow for a significantly less responsible way of life, the obsession with the process of masking does grow over the course of the story, without a significant increase in social responsibility.
Additionally an important aspect of my research was that of uniforms. Since I did not want to make this project about Japan, the country, but the man who inspired it, I did not limit myself to uniforms that were present in Mishima’s vicinity growing up. To further prove the lack of necessity of limiting a lot of the aesthetic choices to Japan I would like to refer to the following quote from The life and death of Yukio Mishima by Henry Scott Stokes.:
“In Confessions of a Mask Mishima says that he took his idea of the "murder theater" from the descriptions of the Colosseum in Quo Vadis. Mishima sought to incarnate a similar vision and found himself on a path that could lead only to death: to save himself, he would have had to abandon his romantic notion of beauty.“(The life and Death of Yukio Mishima, Page 47)
While the way he expressed his personal ideology and politics was often linked directly to traditional Japanese values, Mishimas personal concept of beauty was directly linked to western art and culture. Which is why I decided to pull a lot of my visual design decisions from western uniforms.
These additional factors, together with the analysis lead me to conceive the collection as a whole. I decided to mirror the development of the character throughout the book in the collection, specifically the amount with which he would mask himself, and how stable and successful that masking would be. Starting out with two looks, based on one of Mishimas early memories, that of the night soil man. The soft Judo pants in indigo and the exposed upper body also reference the vulnerability of the character at the beginning of the book, as well as the lack of a conscious effort to mask his nature. The third and fourth look are the mask in the beginning of the conscious effort of concealment, which takes place mostly during the third chapter. Look three features a cropped Blouson with hand stitched details, based on French uniforms from the second world war. The broad shoulders and overturned cuffs as well as the Donegal tweed give a distinct military character, while the significant crop still provides a sense of vulnerability. Long straight cut trousers in Ventile with pleats at the knees give the look a more austere character as well. Look four sees the mask even further along. A large, green trench coat with exaggerated details, like a separate skirt layer added onto the belt gives an increasingly enveloped silhouette. This is paired with cropped trousers, with scissor pleats and adjustable waist details. These trousers are reminiscent of officer or cavalry trousers and allow the wearer to style them with high boots, further adding to the increasingly masked look. The last two looks show the mask at its most artificial point, like in the fourth chapter. The fifth look features the “coat coat” which is a cape, constructed to look like two coats worn together, each on one shoulder. This is my interpretation of the protagonists masking at its most artificial. The panicked efforts to manipulate Sonoko and uphold his mirage are symbolized by the ridiculousness of wearing two coats at a time, with which I tried to emulate the logic of the protagonists speaking desperation. This coat is also constructed in Ventile, but this time an even heavier canvas variant, with a fur collar and full lining. Another pair of cropped pants with a knee dart construction is worn underneath, to be styled with boots. The looks featuring outerwear are also styled with different knitted sweaters and accessories, to provide a contrast with the heavily constructed outerwear. Direct skin contact with the soft cupro linings or cashmere knit juxtaposes the ever increasing mask with the delicate inner. The last look features a caban coat in herringbone Donegal tweed, with the largest amount of added ornamentation. This ornamentation is supposed to signify the “spill” happening on the last few pages, with the mask unraveling itself. This is paired with officer trousers with a velvet side stripe, which is still supposed to reference a military look, but also show a more colorful side with the soft red velvet. These trousers are also constructed from the same light ventile as the trousers from look three, showing the mask losing its power.