Mr Shintaro Ishihara was the Goethe of Japan. I was his pupil, a person in the same profession, and his escort runner. Here in Chapter 1.3, I have woven together my private recollections, which span as long as twenty-plus years, and "my unfulfilled promise" to him. ー Shin Ushijima
Chapter 1.3 What Is 'Unmanly'
Read other chapters in My Mentor, Shintaro Ishihara
When I heard the news of Mr Ishihara's death, I wasn't as devastated as if being pulled down to the bowels of the earth. All along, I had realized that someday the news of his death would make its way to me.
He was 17 years older than I, and coincidentally, we shared the same birthday.
We had been on friendly terms for some time, although our relationship had faded some time back. Since then, I followed news of Mr Ishihara one-sidedly through the media. The thought had always been in my mind that if I outlived him, inevitably, someday I would hear reports of his death.
Even so, I couldn't help pondering what it was that made Mr Ishihara such an intensely popular figure. I even still remember the photograph featured on his candidate's poster when he ran for the Lower House of the Diet for the first time.
Generally, a campaign poster features the candidate wearing a suit and a tie. But Mr Ishihara had on a cream-colored polo shirt, which really stood out among all the other candidates.
In those days, I had a friend who lived in Tokyo's Ota Ward. We had known each other since we lived in the same dormitory while preparing for our second try at university exams. On my way to visit him one day, I must have seen Mr Ishihara's poster. It was in 1972, when Mr Ishihara was forty years old.
His Own Style
Actually, I was a little taken aback by the poster. How far could Ishihara go with such a casual attitude? I found myself wondering. After all, it was an election for members of the Lower House of the Diet, normally considered the first step toward competing for the position of prime minister.
Come to think of it, Mr Ishihara was a man who did not like neckties. When I visited him at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, he was dressed in a suit with a tie, but his shirt was unbuttoned at the collar to give him some slack around the neck.
Speaking of shirts, when I first met him in 1998, I was wearing a cleric shirt, which I thought was very stylish at the time. Ishihara noticed it and said, "You, what's with your shirt?"
"Well, this?" I said. "I thought this was the best choice for the occasion."
"Well, young man, that's the kind of shirt worn by band members and the like," he criticized.
"Then, what kind of shirt should I have worn?" I honestly asked.
"White," he said in a calm tone.
"But white is run-of-the-mill."
"You make a difference and splurge by designing your own cuff links. That's exactly what you call stylish, isn't it?" he answered. "Look," he said, showing me his own cuff links, which he designed, featuring a slightly diagonal slit.
Finding My Style
As soon as I returned home, I stowed away a number of my custom-made high-neck shirts in the back of my closet.
Now I only wear blue shirts.
That I learned from my former client. He was the second-richest man in France. When I met him, he was dressed in a blue shirt, which made him look very neat and refined. Contrary to Mr Ishihara's advice, I do not wear white shirts because, unlike Mr Ishihara ー who could pull off anything with style ー I would simply fade into the background in a white shirt.
Let me go back to the election poster.
Yujiro's Brother
Of course, history tells us that my supposition was wrong. In the Lower House election, Mr Ishihara achieved a landslide victory, securing the top spot. There was not a shadow of a doubt that Mr Ishihara was very popular and well-accepted.
But was he more popular than Yujiro?
At the opening of the press conference for the Tokyo Governor's election, he introduced himself as "I'm the big brother of Yujiro Ishihara." It is a very well-known episode.
Years earlier, in his book, Sea of Men (Otoko no Umi, Shuesha, 1973), he wrote ー with a touch of self-deprecation ー about the experience of sailing to Miyakejima Island with Yujiro and others:
"I had gone to the old house to call a Tokyo newspaper to correct my manuscript and was sitting alone on the edge of the veranda when one of the bystanders nevertheless seemed to know who I was. She called out to others, 'Hey, Shintaro's here. You're all looking at Yujiro, but nobody's paying attention to Shintaro. What a shame ー he deserves your attention too.'
"I could return nothing for her favor except a wry smile in embarrassment. Gee, I was moved to tears by the thoughtfulness of people in Miyakejima." (P 111)
Mishima's Advice
On a different note, I understand how intensely Yukio Mishima must have envied Ishihara.
Ishihara ran for the Upper House of the Diet at the age of 35 and was elected. Mishima would have liked to run in the election, too. This is something I mentioned previously when referring to Ishihara's book, The Solar Eclipse of Yukio Mishima (1991).
Immediately after the quote, Ishihara recounted Mishima's remarks: "After I won the seat, I ran into him somewhere. And on that occasion, he told me, 'I don't think I can freely socialize with you anymore, so let me give you my last piece of advice. Suppose you go campaigning somewhere in the future, and you pass by a beach on your way back. You see the sun sinking beyond the waves, painting the sky in a marvelous sunset. Then you have your secretary pull the car over so you can stop and stare at the sunset for a while. If you're such a person, you will never become a real politician,' he said, giving me the cold shoulder.
"What do you say that?"
"I'm sure of it. You should never write political novels or engage in artistic politics. If you do it, you will be ruined."
"Of course, I'm well aware of it. I would never take an interest in writing novels based on political affairs, and artistic politics isn't my thing. But, you know, I'll sometimes stop the car on my way home from official duties and enjoy a beautiful sunset. Such a sensibility is not unnecessary for politics, In my view."
Mishima replied, "Okay, if you insist." And those were the last words he uttered." (Pp 103 – 104)
Frozen in Time
Speaking of which, recently, I bought a paperback titled The Complete Dialogues Between Yukio Mishima and Shintaro Ishihara. On its cover is the photo of Mishima and Ishihara on the rooftop terrace that I mentioned earlier. It was after their talks. As seen in the photo, Mishima is wearing gloves and leaning forward, intentionally attempting to make his short height ー 163 cm ー less noticeable against Mr Ishihara's 181 cm. It's understandable. Men tend to be sensitive about their height.
That was more than half a century ago. In the photo, there was a bonnet-type bus with its front protruding, running on the street below. What struck me the most, though, was how few cars there were on the street.
Manly in Death
When he was close to his death, Mr Ishihara told his son, "I'll struggle to the bitter end and end up dying in the most thoroughly unmanly manner imaginable." Father Held Fast to 'His Ego' until the Very End (Bungeishunju, 2020, P 101)
When I read this passage, I was convinced that Mr Ishihara had always been preoccupied with how Mishima died. As I wrote earlier, I had told Ishihara that Yukio Mishima got the better of him by the way he ended his life. He replied that, if the spirit moved him, he would "douse himself in kerosene" and go. Looking back now, I realize he never imagined that death would come to him, and naturally so. He was still a vigorous 66 at that time.
He wouldn't have thought that death would ever come his way or that he would douse himself in kerosene. And I figured that he had just uttered those offhand words on a whim. At the very least, he would never admit that Yukio Mishima had got the better of him in the way he died. Somehow, still, he could not get Mishima out of his mind.
Even so, as he came close to death, Mr Ishihara used the phrase, "in as unmanly a manner as possible." Many readers might understand that this was simply out of character for Mr Ishihara. They would believe he was the last person on earth to be unmanly.
Yet, I found myself contemplating his words. Perhaps, after all, he may have been unmanly in some respects.
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(To read the book in Japanese, please visit the publisher's website.)
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Author: Shin Ushijima
