Yukio Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask and Fumiko Enchi’s Masks both use the concept of masks and masking to explore themes related to identity and self-expression or lack thereof.
Mishima’s autobiographical account of adolescence and early adulthood in Confessions of a Mask provide insight into the difficulties of the narrator being himself in light of his homosexuality. Kochan goes through life concealing his true self behind a series of superficial masks of personality. He never confronts situations directly, but instead he is prone to daydream and imagine sadistic fantasies. Kochan becomes caught in unhappiness and lack of fulfillment, because even though he has been drawn toward men from an early age he represses his real self. We see his early longings in the motive he anxiously awaited the returning soldiers, “...it was simply their sweaty odor that fascinated me, forming a stimulus that lay concealed beneath my hope of receiving cartridges from them” (Mishima 14).
Kochan will continue to repress his longings and desires. He is shamed by his unabated adulation and desire for Omi, the school stud whose physical powers are untainted by anything intellectual. Kochan begins to realize that most people are presenting a mask to the world. He discovers that even his idol Omi’s smile is a mask for his intense loneliness. Such masks conceal real feeling and lead to repression of identity. Kochan becomes all mixed up with respect to his emotions and feelings. He longs for years to see Omi naked. He misses a variety of opportunities but once he gets to see the awesome power of Omi’s naked flesh his reaction is unanticipated, “Here I was, looking upon the naked body I had so longed to see, and the shock of seeing it had unexpectedly unleashed an emotion within me that was the opposite of joy. It was jealousy...” (Mishima 79). Kochan voluntarily forswears hi
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