RICK CASTRO BY THE DAY

RICK CASTRO- JAPANESE BONDAGE BUDDIES 1997

BIO

MISHIMA TEA CEREMONY- JAN 16TH, 2019

PRESENTS

 MISHIMA TEA CEREMONY

 the seppuku of yukio mishima 

 TEA CEREMONY DEDICATED TO YUKIO MISHIMA

JANUARY 16TH

  5PM

           $15 COVER  PREPAY RESERVATION   

    $20 CASH DAY OF THE SALON   

 TEA & TIDBITS WILL BE SERVED

        HOSTED BY RICK CASTRO    

           TOM OF FINLAND HOUSE     

   1421 LAVETA TERRACE   

     ECHO PARK, CA 90026    

    INFO-ANTEBELLUM@EARTHLINK.NET 

Yukio Mishima

January 14, 1925 – November 25, 1970),

 a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, film director, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai. 
Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. 

 His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, 

and the autobiographical essay Sun and Steel. His avant-garde work displayed a blending of modern and traditional aesthetics that broke cultural boundaries, with a focus on sexuality, death,

 and political change.

 Mishima was active as a nationalist and founded his own right-wing militia, the Tatenokai.

 In 1970, he and four other members of his militia attempted a coup d'état when they seized control of a Japanese military base and took the commander hostage, then tried and failed to inspire a coup to restore the Emperor's pre-war powers, in accordance with Mishima's conceptualization of the Kokutai. Mishima then committed ritual suicide by seppuku. 

The coup attempt became known as the "Mishima Incident".

JAPAN SUPERMARKET

YUKIO MISHIMA

Yukio Mishima 

is the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka (January 14, 1925 – November 25, 1970),

 a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, and film director. 

Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. 

He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968 but the award went to his countryman Yasunari Kawabata. His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, and the autobiographical essay Sun and Steel. 

His avant-garde work displayed a blending of modern and traditional aesthetics that broke cultural boundaries, with a focus on sexuality, death, and political change. 

He was active as a nationalist and founded his own right-wing militia. 

He is remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état attempt,

 known as the "Mishima Incident".

YUKIO MISHIMA : "YOUNG SAMURAI BODYBUILDERS"

Yukio Mishima became tortured by his bisexuality/homosexuality and shyness around people as a young man. Both of these played a role in his work as did many other eventful occurrences throughout his life. Mishima had an admirable dedication to the forgotten samurai way of life and ideals, which later turned into an unhealthy obsession, culminating in the storming of a general's garrison on November 25, 1970. It was Mishima's way of combining beauty, art, and action; ultimately the garrison forced to assemble 

and listen to his speech on that day rejected him.

photo: Tamotsu Yato
Yukio Mishima "Young Samurai Bodybuilders"

I WOULD'VE SAID~ "HELL NO!"

Post by 開心快活人.

PIE FACE

Post by Nova 919.

NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS & POPPO

ANATOMY OF DESTROY ALL MONSTERS

This diagram showing a medical cross-section of Godzilla was created in 1967 by Shogo Endo for a book called An Anatomical Guide to Monsters. Apart from Godzilla it contains a variety of anatomical drawings of many other kaijus, including Mothra, Gamera and Agurius.

GODZILLA THROUGHOUT THE YEARS

 

AURALYNNS TRAVELS TO JAPAN

antebellum intern~ AURALYNN WHEN~ is touring japan at the moment.

she has been posting the most beautiful photos of her travels.

i thought i would share them with you~ my dear readers....

 Kameido Tenjin is celebrating the annual blooming of the wisteria that happens on the garden grounds. It occurs around this time. Festival goes until May 5th (Boys' Day)

- You can take a hike up 200m to see the best view of the Kyoto area. There is a snow monkey park at the top as an incentive. They are wild and are not in cages, yet some were very sweet and gentle. Others seemed manic and dangerous. 

- it's Kinkakuji, the Temple of the Gold Pavilion.
The same one that inspired Yukio Mishima.

- My arrangement today at Sogetsu. Book 3-(9): Contrasting colors in flowers.

This vase was very hard to work with because it is so heavy visually, and has different holes for different angles. I seem to have chosen the most complex side. I feel good about it now, though. — at Sogetsu Ikebana.  

all photos courtesy ~ auralynn when~  antebellum intern & highland park/antebellum correspondent 

NEVER SAY NO TO A PANDA

YOU'RE A WILD GIRL

YUKIO MISHIMA

( photo courtesy~ Tamotsu Yato:)

Yukio Mishima, January 14, 1925 – November 25, 1970), a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, and film director. Nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. His avant-garde work displayed a blending of modern and traditional aesthetics that broke cultural boundaries, with a focus on sexuality, death, and political change.
He is also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état.

In 1955, Mishima took up weight training and his workout regimen of three sessions per week was not disrupted for the final 15 years of his life. 

Although it is known that he visited gay bars in Japan, Mishima's sexual orientation annoyed his widow: she wanted that part of his life downplayed after his death.  However, the writer Jiro Fukushima published a revealing homosexual correspondence between himself and the famed novelist. Soon after publication, Mishima's children successfully sued Fukushima for violating Mishima's privacy. 

In 1967, Mishima enlisted in the Ground Self Defense Force (GSDF) and underwent basic training. A year later, he formed theTatenokai (Shield Society), a private army composed primarily of young students who studied martial principles and physical discipline, and swore to protect the Emperor. Mishima trained them himself. However, under Mishima's ideology, the emperor was not necessarily the reigning Emperor, but rather the abstract essence of Japan. In Eirei no Koe (Voices of the Heroic Dead), Mishima actually denounces Emperor Hirohito for renouncing his claim of divinity at the end of World War II.

Mishima espoused a very individual brand of nationalism towards the end of his life. He was hated by leftists, in particular for his outspoken and anachronistic commitment tobushido (the code of the samurai).

On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of the Tatenokai, under pretext, visited the commandant of the Ichigaya Camp — the Tokyo headquarters of the Eastern Command of Japan's Self-Defense Forces.

Inside, they barricaded the office and tied the commandant to his chair. With a prepared manifesto and banner listing their demands, Mishima stepped onto the balcony to address the soldiers gathered below. His speech was intended to inspire a coup d'état restoring the powers of the emperor. He succeeded only in irritating them, and was mocked and jeered. He finished his planned speech after a few minutes, returned to the commandant's office and committed seppuku. The customary kaishakunin duty at the end of this ritual had been assigned to Tatenokai member Masakatsu Morita, but Morita was unable to properly perform the task. After several failed attempts, he allowed another Tatenokai member, Hiroyasu Koga, to behead Mishima. Morita then knelt and stabbed himself in the abdomen; Koga once again performed the kaishakunin duty.

Another traditional element of the suicide ritual was the composition of jisei no ku (death poems) before their entry into the headquarters. Mishima planned his suicide meticulously for at least a year and no one outside the group of hand-picked Tatenokai members had any indication of what he was planning. His biographer, translator John Nathan, suggests that the coup attempt was only a pretext for the ritual suicide of which Mishima had long dreamed.

 Mishima made sure his affairs were in order and left money for the legal defense of the three surviving Tatenokai members.

ANTEBELLUM'S FETISH BOOK CLUB is reading mishima's cult classic~

CONFESSIONS OF THE MASK.. read it, (available @ most libraries & amazon) and join us for a discussion debate on march 10th~ 1pm

$10