by axxxm
99th Birthday & Suicide may be selfish
14/January/2024 in Kyoto
Today would be the 99th birthday,
if he was still alive today
If Mishima Yukio hadn't committed Harakiri suicide in 1970,
he would be 99 years old today
99 years old.......
Certainly very old age
But it's not difficult to imagine 99-year-old person nowadays
Most of suicide, probably 99.9% of suicide, is something I do not view positively
But there is a few, extremely rare cases that suicide seemed necessary for the person who died
It was not the suicide that escaping oneself
It was the suicide that establishes oneself
I still believe suicide was necessary for Mishima
in order to "complete his life"
Suicide let him reach the point where he couldn't reach if he was just alive & just died
Reason why I have such an approving view on suicide must be;
Firstly, my personal disposition/character
And secondly, my culture background, called "Japanese culture" where suicide can be considered something "positive", or even "honourable"
But October last year
Perhaps it was the first time in my life that this notion crossed my mind;
"Suicide may be very selfish act"
Last October, I got to know Sakurai Atsushi, a Japanese singer, passed away
As I got to know about the last moments of his life,
I couldn't help thinking suicide "may be" quite selfish
In his creative works,
Sakurai often expressed his likings & familiarity with sorrow, sadness, pain & death
And in a sense,
it often looked he might've committed suicide at any moment, especially when he was younger
But what actually happened was,
he was on the stage a few hours before his death
On the stage,
he suddenly got unwell & passed away later
Knowing he was in front of his fans just before his departure,
Knowing his death was NOT something he consciously chose, like suicide,
And seeing how people were upset by his death, at the same time, how people were grateful for Sakurai
somehow this notice came up in my mind very naturally;
All types of suicide can be extremely selfish
