M

The choreography “M“, originally created by Maurice Béjart for The Tokyo Ballet in 1993, vividly portrays the life of Yukio Mishima—one of the most renowned Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was poet, playwriter, actor, and model as well. Mishima remains a controversial figure even fifty-five years after his death, and this ballet captures the intensity of his legacy. From its opening moments, M seizes the audience’s attention and never relinquishes it. Like Mishima’s novels, frequently referenced throughout, the work fuses Japanese and modern Western styles into a rich tapestry of movement. The choreography brims with lush vocabulary and bold metaphors, exploring the inseparable ties between beauty, eroticism, and death.  Seamlessly shifting from classical ballet to modern dance, with evocative gestures drawn from Noh and Kabuki, M is perfectly attuned to the artistry of the Japanese company for which it was conceived.

Yukio Mishima remains one of Japan’s most fascinating and controversial postwar novelists after more than 50 years since his ritual suicide. When Maurice Béjart set about choreographing a new ballet for The Tokyo Ballet in 1993, he chose Mishima as a motif.

However, he did not create a biography nor use ballet to illustrate Mishima’s work of literature whose importance was not yet fully recognized at that time. It was Béjart’s bold experimentation to “simply suggest, and above all, love ―without ever judging”.

The ballet opens with the sea, an important symbol in Mishima’s works. From the sea roars, appear a schoolboy, Mishima, and four other selves who develop imagery of the themes of Mishima’s masterpieces including Kyoko’s House, Forbidden Colors, Rokumeikan, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and his lifetime aesthetic motif, Saint Sebastian.

M stands for la Mer (the sea in French), la Métamorphose, la Mort (death in French), la Mythologie, and of course, Mishima. It is also the initial of Maurice Béjart and Mayuzumi Toshiro who created the music.

The Tokyo Ballet has performed M not only in Japan but also internationally at prestigious theaters including the Palais Garnier, Teatro alla Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Hamburgische Staatsoper where it received huge critical and public acclaim. The Tokyo Ballet revives M in September 2025, celebrating the centenary of Mishima’s birth. Maurice Béjart’s 100th birth anniversary will follow in two years.

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