"Live fast and leave a beautiful corpse" James Dean used to say -- and he famously followed his own advice by dying in a car crash at the age of 24. Writer Yukio Mishima took it one step further: He not only committed seppuku (ritual suicide) just as he was about to enter middle age, but worked for years to buff a once scrawny body to the appropriate state of perfection for the ultimate legend-making act.
A few Dead Legends, though, are genuine -- not self-made -- tragic figures, who died just as they were about to realize their greatest potential.
One, Kamachi Yamada, may not be as well known as Dean abroad, but his flame burns brightly for the thousands of fans here who still read his poems and view his paintings, more than a quarter century after his death at the age of 17.
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