Go Mishima sexuality. The two men drew artistic nudes together as a pastime; Go Mishima began to pursue a career in homoerotic art in earnest with Yukio Mishima's encouragement, and adopted Mishima's last name to use as his pen name in tribute. After Yukio Mishima's death by ritual suicide, Go Mishima began to depict more violent material and themes in his art, including bondage, masochism, and torture. In 1964, Mishima was published in and "Bara", two of the first magazines in Japan to publish gay and gay pornographic content. He was an early contributor to "Barazoku", which in 1971 became the first
Yukio Mishima in the snow for one of Tamotsu Yato's photoshoots. In 1955, Mishima took up weight training and his workout regimen of three sessions per week was not disrupted for the final 15 years of his life. In his 1968 essay "Sun and Steel", Mishima deplored the emphasis given by intellectuals to the mind over the body. Mishima later also became very skilled at kendo, traditional Japanese swordsmanship. After briefly considering a marital alliance with Michiko Shōda (who later married Crown Prince Akihito and is now Empress Michiko), Mishima married Yoko Sugiyama on June 11, 1958. The couple had two children: