The Paris AtlasCharting the artists, works, and places worth returning to.
Illustrated portrait of Kusano

A character in Confessions of a Mask

Kusano

Kochan's school friend and Sonoko's brother, who brings the narrator into her family circle.

The book

Cover of Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima
Confessions of a MaskYukio Mishima, 1949

A young man performs the life expected of him and hopes the performance will eventually become real.

View the book

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Kusano participates in ordinary friendship and family life without understanding the full conflict Kochan carries.

Through him, Kochan meets Sonoko and begins the courtship that becomes central to the novel.

How the book draws them

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • RoleHe is Kochan's school friend and Sonoko's brother.
  • MannerHis approachable practicality contrasts with Kochan's self-consciousness.
  • DressWartime-era student clothing anchors him in the period.
  • ImportanceHe links school friendship to Sonoko's family world.
Kusano's place in the storyHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

He remains a supporting figure rather than receiving a separate dramatic ending.

If you like Confessions of a Mask

Four books that share themes, tone, or setting with this one.

If you like Yukio Mishima

Explore authors with a similar voice, perspective, and influence.

  • Illustrated portrait of Charles Bukowski

    Charles Bukowski

    American poet and novelist of Los Angeles rooming houses, racetracks and the post office, who quit his job to write when a publisher offered him a hundred dollars a month. He came to Paris once, in September 1978, drank his way through a live television book programme and walked off the set — and French television has been replaying it ever since.

    View author
  • Illustrated portrait of Ernest Hemingway

    Ernest Hemingway

    Author of The Sun Also Rises and A Moveable Feast; his pared-down style, developed in 1920s Paris, became the most imitated in American prose.

    View author
  • Illustrated portrait of Louis-Ferdinand Céline

    Louis-Ferdinand Céline

    The doctor of the Paris slums who wrote the century's blackest, funniest novel — and changed the sound of French prose.

    View author
Back to Confessions of a Mask