ROGER T. AMES

Bushidō, "the way of the, warrior, "a term known, but often mis-
understood, in the West, is defined and explained in this descriptive
essay by Roger Ames, who uses the life and death (by seppuku) of
Yukio Mishima as the context for his discussion of the importance
of seppuku in bushidō. In his desire to understand and explain
Mishima's suicide, Ames provides us with insight into bushidō as
"mode" rather than "ethic".

O n November 25, 1970, Yukio Mishima, undoubtedly the most widely
read Japanese author ever, killed himself in the traditionally Japanese way,
by committing harakiri (

The sheer profusion of "explanations" that followed upon Mishima's
death show how much misunderstanding there has been. Theories have been
advanced to explain it as the final, desperate act of a political extremist, the
dramatic exit of an author of exhausted resources, the "Chinese revenge" of a
homosexual lover embroiled in an unmanageable passion, the administration
of euthanasia for an invalid suffering from a terminal illness, and quite sim-
ply, an inexplicable deed performed by a man bereft of his sanity. The only

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