Mishima wrote:
“The body is the physical basis of pride, and it is only when we have attained pride that we can speak of the body as beautiful.”
Mishima, Aesthetics, and the Philosophy of Training
Yukio Mishima was more than a writer. He was an aesthete, a philosopher, and a man obsessed with the idea that the body itself is a canvas — a work of art to be cultivated. His training methodology wasn’t just about lifting weights or building strength. It was about discipline, beauty, and meaning.
Mishima and the world of words and the physical
Mishima took up weight training in his 30s, seemingly driven by an innate inability, that he was too indulged in the “words” or language. That he had abandoned the physical until late
“I came into the world as words. Before I knew the existence of flesh, I had already surrendered myself to the world of words. It was only later that I discovered the flesh, and the discovery was something unexpected, like the discovery of a fraud.”
He treated training as a counterweight to the cerebral, an answer to the isolation of language.
He once wrote:
“What I wanted was not a perfect body, but a body in which words would be resorbed, and from which words would spring forth again in new form.”
Mishima’s Philosophy of the Body
Mishima believed the body was not something to be ignored in the pursuit of intellectual greatness.
He saw the body and the mind as inseparable, each demanding cultivation. To him, developing the physique was an act of rebellion against decadence and decay.
“I cultivated the orchard with words. What I harvested were symbols, metaphors, the fruits of language. The cultivation of the body, the orchard of flesh, came to me only much later.”
His training was not simply about hypertrophy or strength. It was about aesthetic form — the harmony of muscle, proportion, and symmetry that spoke to classical ideals of beauty. Mishima chased an image of the Greek ideal: strong, yes, but above all, beautiful.
“One day, when I was still a boy, I came across a picture of St. Sebastian pierced with arrows. I was struck to the heart. Never had I seen a more beautiful death. I gazed at it with an indescribable intoxication, a mixture of lust and terror. It was in that instant, I think, that flesh and spirit first came together in my mind.”
How Mishima has influenced me and my training
When I was younger and I first started lifting weights at 14, I was immersed in the idea of beauty, to be art, I had not yet discovered Mishima, but in a weird potentially hyper autistic manner I find myself relating to him without knowing him even then. I chased the lean look, constantly, if I bulked it was quick and I HATED IT, I hated food, I hated feeling sluggish, it was grotesque.
I later chased modelling when I was 17, still lifting and here I found my ideals of beauty were not normal - this was at the peak of fat positivity mania. I found myself questioning it, I later denied my beauty for some years chasing bigger numbers in powerlifting, but I had been introduced to Mishima at 18; the seed had been planted. It would be a few years, 3 to be exact before it grew from the soil…
I cut for my first wrestling comp, and I saw it, strength is imperative but beauty is powerful. People treat you differently, the world seems a little kinder.
By this point I had read Sun & Steel a number of times, even bought an original paperback when they were like $400. I had rediscovered it, beauty.
Even if built for combat, you can still be beautiful, really it comes down to athleticism and proportions with a lower bodyfat percentage.
Nowadays I dont really “lift” I mainly focus on calithenics, removed from heavy weights in my powerlifting days and I find myself more confident, clearer in thought, more motivated, more approachable. You really start to live once you get lean.
I had always admired the ancient physiques, the Spearman (got to see that in the MET in NYC) and the old Hercules statues were what motivated me when I was younger and what drive me today.
Mishima’s Discipline
Mishima trained with consistency and intensity, blending physical exertion with his artistic life.
For him, lifting was a statement: that beauty and power are not mutually exclusive.
And that the body, like the mind, could be sculpted into a form of resistance against mediocrity.
This discipline is what inspires me. Training becomes more than reps and sets — it becomes a philosophical practice, a way of aligning body and spirit.
As being a former Wrestler I was intrigued by Mishimas words when revisiting them on combat sports
“In sports like kendo or boxing, the body is not trained for beauty, but for the instant of decision between life and death. They are exercises in which the body learns death’s proximity.”
“A combat sport is not concerned with the symmetry of the muscles but with their instant utility. Its beauty lies not in form but in the flash of action. Yet this too is a path of cultivation, a path that words cannot touch.”
I found this intriguing given his desire for the Heroic Death
My Perspective
Obviously Mishimas approach to the body isn’t going to be for everyone DUH. BUT for those essentric enough I do thing it offers alot beyond the personified means of the physique. The cultivation of one as a person is a collective of all things that make you, you - your body is the ultimate, immediate teller of WHO YOU ARE, and how you take yourself. My advice? The gym is the perfect space to find out who you are; a coward, a struggler, someone who overcomes - its worth knowing you.