about the quoted person:japanese novelist and poet. he was born in Tokyo, Japan. His real name was Hiraoka Kimitake. He was the son of a government official and was primarily reared by his grandmother. He served in a factory during World War II. After the war he was educated at Tokyo University where he studied law. He worked briefly as a civil servant before become a full-time writer. Mishima published his first book, HANASAKARI NO MORI, when he was 19. His second work, KAMEN NO KOKUHAKU (CONFESSIONS OF A MASK), is one of his best known. After seizing control of a military headquarters in Tokyo in an attempt to create pre-war nationalist ideals, Mishima committed a ritual disembowelment with his sword in 1970. This practice is known as SEPPUKU in Japan. his work includes 40 novels, poets and essays.the cover of gold against the soul, a torso with its head replaced by three roses, was based on mishima's ‘Barakei', English for ‘killed by roses' or ‘ordeal by roses', a photography collection of Yukio Mishima by famous Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe (1933), in which the male body and white roses play a central role.