Yukio Mishima Yukio Mishima 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". The Mishima Prize was established in 1988 to honor his life and works. Mishima was born in the
Yukio Ninagawa Yukio Ninagawa Although most famous abroad for his touring productions of European classics, Ninagawa also directed works based on contemporary writing from Japan, including the Modern Noh plays of Yukio Mishima (which toured to New York's Lincoln Center in early summer 2005) and several other plays by Japanese dramatists, including Shūji Terayama and Kunio Shimizu. His production of "Titus Andronicus" was performed in England in June 2006, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford and the Theatre Royal in Plymouth. In 2007 his company participated in the Barbican International Theatre Event (BITE) series at the Barbican Arts Centre in London,