In 1970, author and poet Yukio Mishima tied up the commandant of a Tokyo military base and stepped onto the balcony.

He read his prepared speech to the bewildered soldiers below, confused by the short buff man draped in traditional imperial army uniform shouting polemics down at them. “Where has the spirit of the samurai gone?” he asked. The soldiers laughed and began to heckle him, his words further drowned out by helicopters hovering above the base.

He retreated inside, proceeding to disembowel himself. For a samurai, it is death of the highest honour. But by 1970, honour was a concept left rather undefined in Japan’s changing landscape.

The 1960s was a state of transition and change around the world. The tension that pairs with such rapid change revealed distinct political and cultural strands fighting to become dominant. Japan was no different, moving its national direction towards American influence and intervention due to a post-war treaty that ended its role as an imperial power.

Now it's Scotland's turn to put Haruki Murakami on the stage

Mishima was dismayed at where his country was heading. Post-war American influence went against everything he believed in, everything he had come to define as home. It eroded and Westernised Japan's national identity and sense of state, with far-left and far-right factions........

© Herald Scotland