SOURCE: Lingis, Alphonso. “Seppuku.” In Literature as Philosophy, Philosophy as Literature, edited by Donald G. Marshall, pp. 277-94. Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 1987.

In the following essay, Lingis explores the significance of Mishima's ritual suicide in his writing and overall system of thought.

Yukio Mishima found himself in words. Consumed by words.

“Any art that relies on words makes use of their ability to eat away—of their corrosive function—just as etching depends on the corrosive power of nitric acid. … It might be more appropriate, in fact, to liken their action to that of excess stomach fluids that digest and gradually eat away the stomach itself” (Sun and Steel, trans. John Bester [Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1970], pp. 8-9).

If words can be the medium of artistry—and Mishima was a master of words at a prodigiously early age, publishing his first novel at the age of...