Mishima is considered one of the most important postwar stylists of the Japanese language. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times in the sβincluding in , but that year the award went to his countryman and benefactor Yasunari Kawabata. Mishima's work is characterized by "its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles, and its obsessive assertions of the unity of beauty, eroticism and death", [ 11 ] according to author Andrew Rankin.
Mishima's political activities made him a controversial figure to the present day. In , Mishima formed the Tatenokai "Shield Society" , a private militia, for the purpose of protecting the dignity of the Emperor as a symbol of Japan's national identity.
Mishima's childhood home was a rented house, though a fairly large two-floor house that was the largest in the neighborhood.
He lived with his parents, siblings and paternal grandparents, as well as six maids, a houseboy, and a manservant. Mishima's early childhood was dominated by the presence of his grandmother, Natsuko, who took the boy and separated him from his immediate family for several years.
He spent much of his time either alone or with female cousins and their dolls. Mishima's father, Azusa, had a taste for military discipline, and worried Natsuko's style of childrearing was too soft. When Mishima was returned to his immediate family at the age of 12, Azusa employed extreme parenting tactics, such as holding young Mishima up close to the side of a speeding steam locomotive.
