Yasunari Kawabata, memorial service for Yukio Mishima
Nov. 11, 1970 - Tokyo Memorial Rites For Mishima: Japan's topmost writers, theatrical people, friends and admirers of Novelist Yukio Mishima, whose dramatic Hara Kiri suicide caused a worldwide sensation last November 25, gathered at Honganji Temple in Tokyo to play their last tribute to the internationally known writer, and leader of the society of the Shield who killed himself with his First lieutenant in a double act of Hara Kiri, after an abortive attempt to incite an uprising of Japan's Self Defence forces at their Tokyo Barracks. Amongst the 8, 000 who attended the memorial service were a number of young men who formed Mishima's private army in their uniforms, and who will now disband, and Nobel Literary Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata who was the Chairman at the rites. Nobel Literary Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata, speaking at the memorial service, he was the late Mishima's teacher. Next to Kawabata is Mrs Mishima, widow of the late author
