Yukio Mishima's Real Name: Kimitake Hiraoka

Quick answer: The writer is known by the pen name Yukio Mishima. Britannica gives the original name in Japanese order as Hiraoka Kimitake and dates his birth to January 14, 1925, in Tokyo, and his death to November 25, 1970, in Tokyo. The BBC independently says his real name was Kimitake Hiraoka and dates the death to 25 November 1970, in Tokyo (Britannica; BBC).

Real name and early life

Independent publishers support the documented birth name Kimitake Hiraoka, also written Hiraoka Kimitake in Japanese name order. Britannica says he was the son of a high civil servant, attended the aristocratic Peers School in Tokyo, worked in a Tokyo factory during World War II after failing to qualify physically for military service, later studied law at the University of Tokyo, and in 1948-49 worked in the banking division of the Japanese Ministry of Finance. The BBC does not independently give the January 14 birth date, so that exact day is recorded here as Britannica's wording; both the BBC account and Encyclopedia.com place the life in Tokyo and, in Encyclopedia.com's fact box, the birth year as 1925.

Career highlights

Britannica says his first novel, Kamen no kokuhaku (1949; Confessions of a Mask), gained him immediate acclaim, and later names Shiosai (1954; The Sound of Waves), Kinkaku-ji (1956; The Temple of the Golden Pavilion), and the four-volume Hōjō no umi (1965-70; The Sea of Fertility). The BBC independently identifies Confessions of a Mask as the 1949 book that made him famous in his early twenties, names Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956), and says that on the day of his death he posted the final book of The Sea of Fertility to his publisher. Britannica also notes that he wrote plays in the form of Japanese Nō drama.

Death

Britannica dates his death to November 25, 1970, in Tokyo. The BBC independently says that on 25 November 1970, after a failed attempt at a Tokyo army base to incite an uprising, Japan's then most famous living novelist died. This page records that historical outcome without describing the manner of the death.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Yukio Mishima, Kimitake Hiraoka, or Hiraoka Kimitake are looking for the same Japanese writer. Yukio Mishima is the pen name; the documented birth name is used in the title.