Forbidden Colors (禁色, Kinjiki) was published by Shinchosha in two volumes (1951 and 1953). Shunsuke Hinoki, a celebrated elderly novelist, is dying and bitter — three marriages have ended in humiliation because the women he loved found him physically repulsive. He encounters Yuichi Minami, a young man of extraordinary physical beauty who is homosexual but has married a woman to satisfy social expectations.
Shunsuke proposes a Mephistophelian bargain: he will fund Yuichi’s lifestyle if Yuichi will seduce and destroy the women who rejected Shunsuke. Yuichi agrees — not from malice but from indifference; women mean nothing to him emotionally, and seduction is merely performance. The novel follows Yuichi through Tokyo’s postwar gay underground (bath houses, bars, private parties) and through his simultaneous manipulation of three women.
The novel’s central opposition — Shunsuke’s brilliant, ugly mind versus Yuichi’s beautiful, empty body — explores Mishima’s recurring theme of the war between intellect and physical beauty. Shunsuke can think but cannot be desired; Yuichi is desired but cannot think. Neither is complete. The novel’s resolution is death — Shunsuke’s suicide, which liberates Yuichi from his contract but leaves him unchanged.
Collecting Forbidden Colors
First edition (Shinchosha, Tokyo, 1953): Japanese text, two volumes.
First English edition (Knopf, New York, 1968): Translated by Alfred H. Marks.
Market values:
- Knopf first English edition, fine in jacket: $80–$200
- Japanese first edition, both volumes: $200–$500
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
Beauty as Weapon
Forbidden Colors (禁色, 1951–53) is Mishima’s longest early novel, published in two volumes. An aging novelist, Shunsuke, discovers the extraordinarily beautiful young Yuichi and uses him as an instrument of revenge against women who have wronged him — exploiting Yuichi’s homosexuality to seduce and destroy their marriages. The novel is a bitter, elaborate exploration of beauty, manipulation, and the gap between physical perfection and inner emptiness. It is Mishima’s most openly homoerotic major work and a key text in Japanese queer literature, though its misogyny has drawn criticism.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does this relate to Confessions of a Mask? Both deal with homosexuality, but where Confessions is introspective and anguished, Forbidden Colors is theatrical and vengeful. The two novels together form Mishima’s fullest early exploration of desire and concealment.