Keiichiro Hirano’s awakening to literature, as well as his biggest influence as a writer, that is Yukio Mishima. In his new book “Theory on Yukio Mishima”, Keiichiro Hirano exposes the life and literature of Mishima through his own unique point of view. The book is to be published on April 26th, by Shinchosha in Japan.

There is around 1200 pages of manuscript paper, and the book is close to 650 pages. 23 years since starting the writing until completion! Of course, I have been writing on and off, but I’ve still been reading Mishima’s work all this time, and the final product is a concentrate of the fruits of my reflection. The Yukio Mishima complete works published by Shinchosha in the early 2000s has especially been holding a very important place in this process, and to me this book is the product of a very long conversation that has been happening between me and Mishima through books.

Keiichiro Hirano, in his official mail letter on the Japanese version of the website.

It took nothing short of 23 years (!) for the book to come to completion after first starting to write it; the real work of a lifetime. It is a revolutionary essay about the person that is Yukio Mishima, which still gathers interest from all around the world, even a half a century after his death.