Book dossier

Kinjiki

by 三島由紀夫, Noriko Thunman

Forbidden Colors (禁色, Kinjiki) is a 1951 novel (禁色 Part 2 秘楽 (Higyō) "Secret Pleasure" was published in 1953) by the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima, translated into English in 1968. The name kinjiki is a euphemism for homosexuality. The kanji 禁 means "forbidden" and 色 in this case means "erotic love", although it can also mean "color". The word "kinjiki" also means colors that were forbidden to be worn by people of various ranks in the Japanese court. It describes a marriage of a gay man to a young woman. Like Mishima's earlier novel Confessions of a Mask, it is generally considered somewhat autobiographical.