> it's fairly clear that Mishima did not "die for his cause", or in fact have any expectation that his thoroughly half-assed coup would succeed... Political? No

> it's fairly clear that Mishima did not "die for his cause", or in fact have any expectation that his thoroughly half-assed coup would succeed... Political? Not really. These are two separate things. I agree Mishima did not have any expectation his coup would succeed (at least not in any immediate sense), and was not in any sense an effective militia commander. But that doesn't mean he didn't die for his cause, nor that his cause wasn't political. Mishima's aesthetic program is to attempt to fuse all these sometimes-conflicting things - anti-colonialism, conservative politics, "the Japanese spirit", homeroticism, his artistic method and particular output - into a singularity. "Perfect purity is possible if you turn your life into a line of poetry written with a splash of blood." Fetishistic? Absolutely. Political? Also absolutely.