Kamen no Kokuhaku [Confessions of a Mask (1949)] by Yukio Mishima. A widely acclaimed autobiographical novel exploring Mishima's adolescent development and young adulthood. Explores themes of homosexuality, obsession with death, interest in the male physicality of military training, and the eroticism of violence, themes which are only touched upon here but are treated at length and in detail in later works.

Kinkakuji [Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956)] by Yukio Mishima. The exploration of nihilist philosophies through the story of a physically and emotionally handicapped Buddhist monk. The Temple is the central symbol of the degradation of beauty in the rapidly modernizing and western-influenced post-World War II Japan. Rather than see the Temple survive in antagonism to the crass modern world, the protagonist burns the Temple to the ground.

"Yukoku" ["Patriotism" (1966)] by Yukio Mishima. A fictionalized account of the NiNi Roku Incident...