Author Yukio Mishima, Suicide, and Aestheticism

I'm guessing a lot of non-Japanese people don't know too much about contemporary Japanese authors.  One writer I find most fascinating--as do most Japanese people, I'm presuming--is Yukio Mishima 三島 由紀夫 (1925-1970).  Mishima was famous for his revolutionary literary works and style--and infamous for his traditional political ideologies.  Several of Mishima's works, such as The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea 午後の曳航 or Patriotism 憂國, exhibit a peculiar preoccupation with the philosophical and political implications of death, or more particularly suicide.  Mishima often represents death as an honorable act of duty and as a social, political, and/or philosophical statement--a way for the protagonist to come to terms with some sort of significant internal dilemma.

In Patriotism, a 1960 novella mentioned above, Mishima plays with the idea of seppuku, or ritualized suicide (see previous post for picture and definition).  The story focuses on the last night of a young soldier, Shinji, and his beautiful wife, Reiko, both of whom plan to end their lives via ritualized suicide, a decision that stems from Shinji's traumatic inability to decide between vowing loyalty to the imperial army and backing his friends.

If we are to analyze Mishima's descriptive suicide in accordance with my previous post, the type of suicide in Patriotism seems to fall under all three categories.  Shinji's decision to commit seppuku is both a traditional show of duty as well as an acceptable escape from an impossible situation--in this case, his inability to choose between his obligations as a soldier and his commitment to his friends.  However, his choice to die alongside his wife, who slits her own neck, is a startlingly provocative depiction of the power of love in the spiritual and physical bond between husband and wife.

Mishima transcends these three categories by adding an aesthetic element.  Suicide is depicted in seamless juxtaposition with sex, love, and honor.  It is an act of courage and almost pleasure for Shinji and Reiko.  This idea of aestheticism in suicide is prevalent in another 1960 Japanese work entitled Tower of Waves, or Nami no Tou, by Seichou Matsumoto.  In her review of the novel, Roxanne Russell describes suicide as a serene and natural departure for the heroine.

Mishima's and Matsumoto's works differ greatly in their material and even in the setting and reasoning behind their protagonists' suicides.  But there is still a fundamentally aesthetic aspect to suicide in both of their writings.

What do you think?  Is it okay to depict suicide as something beautiful?  Or does this simply perpetuate the idea that suicide isn't a "big deal"?