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    • Mishima

    Japan’s most notorious author Yukio Mishima translated and adapted children’s books including children’s editions of Shakespeare[UPDATED: 9-3-2026]

    Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), one of Japan’s most famous authors and probably the nation’s most notorious, wrote 40 novels, 18 plays, 20 books of short stories, books of essays, hundreds of poems, as well as plays and film scripts before he died at the age of 45.

    He also translated and adapted several children’s books that were published as illustrated books including Lewis Carroll’s (1832-1898) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and several of William Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) plays including: Hamlet (1951) with illustrations by Goro Kurosawa; and A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream (1952) with illustrations by Kazuo Ikeda.

    Mishima’s translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published in 1952 with illustrations by Goro Kumada under the title Fushiginokuni Arisu. 

    Mishima also adapted and translated Don Quiote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605-1615), which was published in 1955, also as a children’s book by the Tokyo based children’s publisher Akane Shobo, which also published the other books mentioned above.

    Japan’s most notorious author Yukio Mishima translated and adapted children’s books including children’s editions of Shakespeare Posted by Richard Nathan
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    • Mishima

    Yukio Mishima penned a series of essays titled ‘Lessons in Immorality’ in 1958[UPDATED: 4-18-2025]

    Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) is notorious for a variety of things including killing himself; being nominated multiple-times for the Nobel Prize in Literature and never winning; as well as being one of David Bowie’s (1947-2016) favourite authors.

    In his short writing life (around 21 years), Mishima was prolific – publishing 40 novels, and also translations including a translation of Lewis Carroll’s (1832-1898) Alice in Wonderland.

    Mishima wrote for both highbrow and popular audiences and even had a novel serialised in Weekly Playboy, a Japanese adult magazine.

    Always the consummate provocateur, in 1958 Mishima penned a series of satirical essays for the weekly Japanese magazine, Shyukan Myojo, under the heading Lessons in Immorality. These essays were later adapted for film, television and the stage.

    The essays were inspired by Twenty Cases of Unfilial Children by Ihawa Saikaku (1642-1693) published in 1686, which was also a parody, in its case of a famous Chinese Confucian text. Saikaku is probably best known today as the poet who created the floating world publishing genre.

    Mishima’s essays amongst other things ridicule the series Great Learning for Women, a widely read educational text for women circulated and published in Tokugawa Japan (1603-1868) when Japan was ruled by its Shoguns.

    With great wit and his usual eloquent prose, Mishima challenges readers to disrespect teachers, ignore so-called etiquette experts, be rebellious, and much more besides.

    Examples of the titles of Mishima’s series of essays on immorality, described as masterpecieces of humor and satire, include:

    You Should Go Drinking, Even with Men You Don’t Know

    You Should Tell Lies as Often as Possible

    You Should Slurp Your Soup

    You Should Abuse Women

    You Should be as Conceited as Possible

    Boys: Lose Your Virginity While You’re Young

    Yukio Mishima penned a series of essays titled ‘Lessons in Immorality’ in 1958 Posted by Richard Nathan