The Sea of Fertility

The Sea of Fertility #1-4

by Yukio Mishima, Michael Gallagher (Translator), E. Dale Saunders (Translator)

A tetralogy containing "Spring Snow", a love story, "Runaway Horses", with a protagonist a right-wing terrorist, "The Temple of Dawn", where a Thai princess is mystically linked with the heroes of the preceding works and, written under the shadow of the author's death, "The Decay of the Angel".

Genres: Fiction, Japanese Literature, Japan, Classics, Literature, Historical Fiction, Novels

824 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫) was born in Tokyo in 1925. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University’s School of Jurisprudence in 1947. His first published book, The Forest in Full Bloom, appeared in 1944 and he established himself as a major author with Confessions of a Mask (1949). From then until his death he continued to publish novels, short stories, and plays each year. His crowning achievement, the Sea of Fertility tetralogy—which contains the novels Spring Snow (1969), Runaway Horses (1969), The Temple of Dawn (1970), and The Decay of the Angel (1971)—is considered one of the definitive works of twentieth-century Japanese fiction. In 1970, at the age of forty-five and the day after completing the last novel in the Fertility series, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide)—a spectacular death that attracted worldwide attention.

Reviews

[Smiley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazingly, I had come across this tetralogy by Yukio Mishima some weeks ago at the DASA Book Cafe in Bangkok. I tried to contact someone there to find and reserve it for me but in vain. Thus, I finally saw this paperback wait for me on its shelf on May 5, 2010 when I went there again. I'm sorry I don't know Japanese, therefore, I have to be content with its translated version in English. Indeed, I recall vaguely when I sometime visited my favorite Asia Books bookstore on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok during my college years in the late 60's, once in a while I saw this novel on display and I couldn't help picking it up to browse a few pages because I didn't know Yukio Mishima or have any motive to read it, it's simply beyond my reading capability then.

Surprisingly, he wrote some parts based on Thailand's background and some interesting Thai characters. I presume he might have visited Thailand till he felt familiar with our culture. It's simply astonishing for such a brilliant Japanese writer.

On May 15, 2010, I was reading Chapter 52 (10 pages to go); I hoped to finish reading his "Spring Snow" (Book I), so that I gained familiarity regarding his writing style and ways of looking at things. All I can say now is that his style is unique and brilliant compared with other Japanese authors since I've never read him before.

On June 4, 2010 I finished reading "Runaway Horses" (Book II). I found its 40 Chapters still enjoyable since the key characters have been interestingly enmeshed in the rightist movement, radicalism and patriotism.

After putting this book aside for a year, on May 5, 2011 I finished reading "The Temple of Dawn" (Book III). Honda, it seems to me, is the hero whose fate has dictated himself to meet Ying Chan (Kiyoaki, his friend, believed to be reborn) in Thailand and later in Japan till her passing at 20.

Therefore, "The Decay of the Angel" (Book IV) would be the last one for me to read as soon as I can find motivation.

On May 21, 2011, I finished reading this tetralogy and found Book IV a three-star one (like Book III) while Books I & II, I think, should deserve their 4-star ratings. Therefore, the rating above should be 3.5, not 4.

In brief, this novel is surprisingly, enjoyably readable if you have time and don't mind trying reading Yukio Mishima and thus you'd know why he has long been regarded as one of the great Japanese authors; I myself couldn't help being grief-stricken when he passed away so soon (like the daffodils in a Wordsworth's poem I read in an English literature course).

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yukio Mishima is not an easy read at any time. In the four books that make up the collection, or pehaps series, (mishima didn't seem to like the idea that these were a chronological series, from what I've managed to read of the critical commentary at the time, he seems to think of them as something like facets) he explores issues that are not easy either. He was advocate of the Imperial Japan that had carried out atrocities; a student of sado-masochism; a modernist in dress but a traditionalist in aesthetics - a complex and clearly tormented man, who lays out aspects of himself like dissected specimens in the stories he tells, but who also confronts what we now call political correctness, with a combination of head-on aggression and strange, painful, sardonic commentary.

There is an involuted beauty in his work, a form of nostalgia for what is past, combined with a barely-restrained fury at the losses that modern day Japan will choose to accept, to gain rewards that he finds risible.

Perhaps the most difficult part of the tetralogy to understand is the way that the main character (but anti-hero) Honda, experiences what he believes to be the fourfold reincarnation of his schoolfriend Matsugae - and the way he fails in each book to 'save' his dearest friend from early death. Mishima did not believe in reincarnation, and it may be that this is an allegorical exploration of the 'deaths' of Japan.

The texts as a whole are definitely pessimistic in outlook, regressive in nature and elegaic for a Japan he knows can never be rebuilt; they are violent and sadistic and painful and bleak. And yet, despite all that negativity, the beauty of his descriptions and the way he explores issues of loyalty and sacrifice are quite superb.

[Matthew Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the 800 or so pages of Mishima's tetralogy between 2020-2022, on and off. Though the second half of the tetralogy is weaker, I think the work as a whole deserves 4 for its insight into Japan, reincarnation, the self, and for Mishima's writing. In 1970, when the final two installments were published, Mishima was running out of time. The same month he published the final volume, he committed seppuku at aged 45. As a whole the volumes chart many things and I remember them through primary themes/focuses: Spring Snow is the most beautiful to read and explores Japanese culture the most interestingly, Runaway Horses presents some of Mishima's radical political views as they grew more and more extreme, The Temple of Dawn explores reincarnation and religion and the final volume explores Honda's Self. Mishima was a fascinating, flawed and troubled man and though I wouldn't agree that this is one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century (as I've seen it described), it is worth reading for its scope. All that said, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion remains undefeated as my favourite Mishima book.

Reviews of each volume linked below:
Spring Snow
Runaway Horses
The Temple of Dawn
The Decay of the Angel

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 1 "Spring Snow" by by Yukio Mishima - 389 pages
Book 2 "Runaway Horses" by by Yukio Mishima - 432 pages

The second book in the ”Sea of Fertility” series is titled Runaway Horses “ published the year following “Sprng Snow”. In” ‘Runaway Horses,” we jump 19 years after the death of Kiyoaki, the protagonist's best friend, to discover what happens when Honda thinks he meets his dead friend. The main protagonist of the story and best friend of Kiyoaki, is now a judge. Honda is married although he has no children. Honda's mundane life shows no sign of picking up until a colleague asks him to attend a kendo match outside of Tokyo. It is here that Honda has what is to be a fateful encounter. A young man, named Isao, exudes virile power as he easily defeats his opponents during the tournament.

In the Buddhist doctrine, rebirth provides the underlying structure of the first half of Yukio Mishima's tetralogy, "The Sea of Fertility." the second volume, "Runaway Horses," is the reincarnation of the first, "Spring Snow." To the Buddhist, reincarnation does not mean the continued existence of the same old soul in the new skin but rather the taking up of a previously unrelieved moral burden. And so the second book is the consequence, not the repetition, of the first.

As fate would have it, Isao shows up once again when Honda and his colleague are taking a walk. Bathing under a waterfall, Isao is exposed long enough for Honda to notice a peculiar set of moles on Isao's underarm. Honda becomes instantly transfixed because the moles are identical in location to those of his deceased friend, Kiyoaki. Honda's internal struggle to reconcile coincidence with fate is again put to the test when Honda finds out that Isao is the son of Kiyoaki's instructor.

The book excels in descriptions of nature, including a section in which a white camellia is personified, accompanying the developing action, and some nature scenes of obvious symbolism add to the dilemma faced by Honda as he remembers dream symbolism.

Though the book is sometimes propagandist and deals almost exclusively with men, Mishima is a novelist who is in complete control of his subject matter, and his thematic transition between the 1912 and the 1932 periods is flawless. Readers interested in Japan will not want to miss this series of novels.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve said most of what I wanted to say about these books in my reviews of each separate volume (indulgently linked below). The short take is that I think they ultimately add up to an uneven piece of storytelling – one that is, a lot of the time, brilliantly strange and entirely unique, but one which can also be a source of frustration (perhaps only because it doesn’t always operate at its otherwise well-demonstrated high potential). The first two volumes are straight-up great, and I was particularly fond of the resolution to Runaway Horses (which I still think of as peak Mishima – a very high bar). However, the second two volumes don’t quite work as well as they could have.

The good news is that the early volumes could stand on their own if you’d like them to, and so you are free to take or leave the less compelling later writing as you wish. I, personally, feel as though I’d have been completely satisfied had I not read one more word after the final line of Runaway Horses.

The Temple of Dawn and The Decay of the Angel are by no means abject disasters, I just read them feeling a bit like I had an incipient puncture in one of the tyres of my high-speed Mishimamobile.

Volume I: Spring Snow – 4.5/5
Volume II: Runaway Horses – 5/5
Volume III: The Temple of Dawn – 2/5
Volume IV: The Decay of the Angel – 3/5

I’ve now also seen the unfairly neglected (and very hard to get hold of in the UK) 1985 Paul Schrader movie, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, which I highly recommend. Great Philip Glass soundtrack, too.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Her voice came echoing gaily out of another era, one of upheavals, a violent era forgotten by this generation, in which fear of imprisonment and death held no one in check, an era in which the threat of both was part of the texture of everyday life. She belonged to a generation of women who had thought nothing of washing their dinner plates in a river while corpses went floating past.

If there is a book in my current library that I better remember the details of my purchasing of than I do this one, it doesn't come to mind. It was during a rare visit to the kind of book sale I tend to disdain these days for the inordinate amount of effort that must be spent in order to acquire barely a handful of barely interesting books, and in this sale's case, its location in the nearest major metropolis gave me as many fond memories of a newly come across coffee shop as it did major anxieties over the hazards of driving and parking that are the absolute worst for me in any cityscape. My fetish for the large and in charge when it came to potential reads had not yet undergone years of increasing scrutiny, but I had come to enough of a critical awareness to appreciate that, for once, I was buying an author I knew who wasn't yet another peer lauded white boy. Add in the fact that the author was Mishima, someone who I've regularly returned in an irregular capacity ever since I read his The Sound of Waves for a high school assignment involving banned books, and you had a situation where, during the purchase, past me gloried over the experience that future me would have when I finally found the time and the opportunity to work this piece in. Expectations, then, were rather high, and coming across a particularly unusual example of used book artifacts (in this case, the empty ticket book and itinerary for a Mediterranean cruise that occurred sometime during the late 1970s, early 1980s. The ship has since been destroyed) conjured memories almost aggressive in their potency of both what the world and myself had been a mere few years ago. Such may have proved the case with other authors, but in this case, the experience was peculiarly fitting for the kind of attraction Mishima has for me as a writer, and after a little more than 800 pages of him, nearly 1400 if I had taken on the tetralogy as separate editions, I won't say that he is perfect, but lord, does he deliver on his promises.

Those who lack imagination have no choice but to base their conclusions on the reality they see around them. But on the other hand, those who are imaginative have a tendency to build fortified castles they have designed themselves, and to seal off every window in them.

He gave himself over to an examination of the shadows in the various nooks and crannies of the room, such as the intricate patterns beneath the bookcases and the ones beside the wicker wastepaper basket — those elusive little shadows that crept into Honda's plain and functional study night after night, insidious as human emotions, to lurk wherever they could find cover.

Seven years after my auspicious purchase, I find myself glad that I read two more works of Mishima's before committing to this, rather than setting off immediately with little more than vague positivities regarding TSOW and the high of The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea to power me. Of course, preparing oneself with four works rather than two doesn't seem like much when the author at hand has to his name 34 novels, about 50 plays, 25 books of short stories, at least 35 books of essays, one libretto, and one film, making for 146 distinctive examples of holistic Mishima outputs, of which I have now increased my bibliographic completion levels from less than three percent to about five and a half. In any case, what to say about a work such as this, something that may have been published one a piecemeal basis but was about as meant to remain that way as any of the serial novels churned out on the Anglo side of the world during that period known as the Victorian age. It takes the sum total of Mishima's strengths, his sensuality, his historical grounding, his international grasp on the dominant cultures and their aesthetics, both hereditary and foreign, of his day, his roiling intercourse between the status quo of his honor bound homeland and the perfection of his own individual self in the face of society sanctioned dehumanization, and his weaknesses, his prolix pontification, his intense narrowmindedness, his repetitiveness, his love affair with fascism that revels in excision of the degenerates so long as he can prove why his own degeneracy is not so, and thrusts it into a quartet that only gets away with what it does due to the decades of immense talent and prodigious output that had preceded them. A borderline mess of razor thin control and and the tightest turn of erotic prose style barely keeping together an immense chaos of self-indulgence and no small amount of egotistical egging on, the last extrapolated from the fact that date marking the end of this edition's manuscript is the day when Mishima attempted to jumpstart a military coup for the sake of the emperor of Japan and committed seppuku upon its failure.

He felt that taking naps was much more beneficial than confronting catastrophes.

It was the kind of transformation Honda had already witnessed in Japan. Just as wine slowly turns to vinegar or milk to curd, matters long neglected slowly change in response to the various forces of nature. People have long lives in fear of too much freedom, too much carnal desire. The freshness of the morning after an evening when one has abstained from drinking wine. The pride one feels on realizing that water alone is essential. Such refreshing, new pleasures were beginning to seduce people. Honda had a vague idea where such fanatical ideas would lead. [...] Single-mindedness often gives rise to viciousness.

In terms of my overall thoughts, let me put it like this: had I not acquired this set in a single fell swoop, there would have been major uncertainty whether I would finish the entire thing. And yet, after having done so, I can't imagine how anyone would be able to accurately reflect on any single piece without having wrestled with the text in its entirety. The first entry, Spring Snow is certainly the strongest, as many an initial entry into a longer series, whether holistically conjectured or endlessly sequeled and prequeled, tends to be, and I was reminded of the work of Park Chan-wook and other works where the simplest of human interactions conceal the deepest of conspiracies as the old feed upon the young. Next came Runaway Horses, and if the main young character with his insurrectionary screeds and violent commitment to returning society to an artificially dichotomous, and thus completely nonexistent, venerated past (see 'alt-right', 'tradwives' and other 'trad' pop culture for modern examples of such) isn't a Mishima self insert, complete with a (propaganda) novel within a novel that takes up ten percent of the original piece, I'll eat my hat. From there on out, come The Temple of Dawn (which I hope to not confuse as much with The Temple of the Golden Pavillion so much from here on out), Mishima barely bothers to ground his thoughts on Buddhism, Hinduism, and associated major systems of faith in any sort of credible narrative context, and his extremely predictable unwillingness, unlike was the case with the previous two installments, to delve into the psyche of the third piece's main young character, made for a rather disjointed and disappointing ride, and his complete lack of acknowledgement of the incontrovertible impact that British imperialism had his conjured up view of India jarred so much with his treatment of the shifts in Japan (imagine if he had encountered 'Memoirs of a Geisha'!) was a moment when he really dropped the ball. Thankfully, I'm not the type to quit, else I may have been tempted to commit to a path that would have forced me to reread a good 800 pages worth of reasonably typefaced text sometime in the future, and there's nothing I like less than wasted time.

It was outrageous that his pleasure might disgust others and thereby subject him to their everlasting repugnance and further that such disgust might one day grow to be an indispensable element of pleasure.

Jack's posterior encased in his Army uniform was capacious, and the guests would compare it with Keiko's majestic buttocks, arguing which was the larger.

Fortunately, with the third novel comes the character of Keiko Hisamatsu, who grows in narrative splendor, for better or worse, as the main viewpoint who had kept a steady hand on the tiller during the first half of the tetralogy gradually transforms into the desperate claw that so tied into knots the machinations of the first entry. It is she who wonderfully complicates, enculturates, and eroticizes the second half of the tetralogy, and it is her keen thrusts (in more ways than one) during the climaxes of both the third and fourth entries that does much to save the work as a whole in my estimation. By the time she plays the major role of the denouement of the fourth and final entry, The Decay of the Angel, she had become the gloriously queer queen of my heart, a much needed respite whenever the older figurehead whose life bound the entirety of the tetralogy or his latest embodiment of a walking talking ideology became overly tedious in their borderline psychic mousetrap social intercourse. It allowed me to continue reading until the final, monumentally stirring conclusion where a much delayed trip is finally embarked upon (metaphors of the Greek variety, perhaps?), and then the work was done, and all I had left was to wonder what I would say about a 'War & Peace' sized text telling the eighty-year-long tale of the grappling over the soul of a nation. All I knew was that objectivity was the opposite of Mishima's efforts, so there was little point in me letting such be the focus of mine.

There are no virtues more highly prized in Japan than indifference to politics and devotion to the team.

Why should decay take the color of dawn?

This was a work that, upon finishing, I contemplated the idea of being done with Mishima entirely before practically rejecting that as a possibility within a short span of time. Not only do I still have a work of Yourcenar's that treats with Mishima as subject to be analyzed (if there were every a conversation between two people that I would love to be a fly in the room during...) on my TBR, but there's just far too many unread works drifting out there on the back of one book sale or another, and now that this work's seven year stint of haunting me has been ended, there won't be any of that tinge of guilt that tends to plague my acquiring more works by an author while others of theirs continue to languish on my shelves for years on end. Besides, much as I would never blame the ice cream for the sickness I feel after eating a full carton, I have to recognize that decreasing the font size and increasing the page area doesn't make the resulting 600-700 words per page any more digestible, and squeezing a text that rightfully should have taken me two months into one was going to have its share of more nauseating side effects. In any case, I would hope that this treatise convinces folks that Spring Snow is not at all a good fit when it comes an introductory work to Mishima, as the delightful packaging it has received in individual forms does not at all refute its place at the head of what could easily be termed to be a comprehensive history of 20th c. Japan as seen by someone who enjoys both some of the greatest of its privileges and suffers some of the deepest of its humiliations. What it isn't is a work that is evenhanded about Japan, or even one written outside of the feudalism that certain types are so keen on using ethnic cleansing in order to 'return to', and there will be amongst the work's audience certain types who were drawn solely for this reason, and this reason alone. All in all, when this work does well, it does to the height of Mishima's inimitable style of ultimate prowess, and when it doesn't do well, it does so magnificently. When it comes to a piece like this, you can't ask for more than that.

How strange man is! His touch defiles and yet he contains the source of miracles.

I don't know when I'm next going to return to the world of Yukio Mishima, and I don't know through which work this return to take place. All I know is that, it will happen.

The Suruga Bay I have known is compressed into a frame five inches square, it has become a lyrical miniature forced on me by a girl. But small that it is, the coral has its own grand, cold cruelty, my inviolable awareness at the heart of her lyric.

[Дмитрий · Rating 5 out of 5]

物の哀れ, моно-но аварэ, пожалуй, является подходящим описанием для всей тетралогии. Любовь Киёакэ, слепота Тору, цикл реинкарнации, которым Хонда пытался объяснить смысл и своей жизни, последние строки романа, которые вызывают ни с чем не сравнимое чувство одиночества, - все подчинено идее преходящности бытия. Но какая красивая у книги обложка!

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My love affair with Japanese literature knows no bounds. In fact I've often said that when I am old I will learn Japanese just to read Mishima in his own language. This is an amazing group of books -- I've read them over again thru the years and each time I get something more. Love, betrayal, reincarnation... Amazing stuff.

[Heba Al-salti · Rating 4 out of 5]

رباعية بحر الخصب . عمل أدبي لا يستهان به ..رغم اغراق الكاتب أحيانا في شرح تعاليم البوذية والشنتو والهندوسية بشكل ممل .. وما أظن أنه ضياع للكثير من المعاني علي بسبب جهلي بالثقافة اليابانية .. لكني أحببت الرباعية بمعظمها .. خصوصا الجزء الاول (ثلج الربيع)..ه

[Jake Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sea of Fertility series is a master work. Yukio Mishima is one of my favorite authors. I find this series to be his Life of Pablo (for the Kanye Fans out there). It has pieces and elements of all of his other works. It is a pretext hits yet completely new and fresh from the other stories. And the characters, all the characters not just Honda and our 3 or 4 angels are incredibly written. Chapter 27 of Decay of Angel hits me to my core. Phenomenal!

[George Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read each of the four books in the series, which enthralled me by the concept of the reincarnation of a character in a previous book reappearing in a different form in the following book. Also I found it quite rivetting to read the books with the macabre foreknowledge that the author planned and actually committed seppuku after completing book four.

[Andrew Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind blowing epic. Rich and complex. Didn't manage to understand it all. But I like that. Loved the reincarnation stuff and passages on different faiths.

[olishmou · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5.

Il est difficile de considérer La Mer de la fertilité sans reconnaître à quel point elle constitue une clé pour élucider Mishima: il s’agit là de son testament littéraire, œuvre qui réunit les thèmes de patriotisme, de beauté et de décadence qui lui étaient si chers, un livre imposant achevé quelques heures seulement avant que l’auteur ne se donne la mort. Le concept de l’œuvre, à travers laquelle on observe, grâce aux réincarnations successives du personnage principal du premier tome, l’évolution (et la déchéance) du Japon (et de la mémoire) est superbe. J’ai adoré les fins des tomes 2, 3 et 4, et les deux premiers tiers du premier tome. Tout le reste m’a aussi beaucoup plu: la plume de Mishima est toujours un plaisir à lire, et les trames narratives très efficaces. J’ai eu le sentiment qu’il y avait parfois quelques longueurs, mais les réflexions sur la beauté, le rôle de l’individu dans l’histoire et la nature de l’existence m’ont touché.

[David Antonelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this novel in its entirety maybe three or four times in my life. It is a great work that deserves to be considered amongst the greatest literary achievements of the 20th century, and like Proust it explores in depth the different phases of a man's life along with his obsessions, eccentricities, and eventual decay. Like Proust it doesn't shy away from the scandalous, but instead illuminates it as evidence of human frailty. The final book "Decay of an Angel" was a big influence on my novel The Frozen Ocean as the main character Toru, a detached and troubled youth who sometimes imagines he is "an atomic bomb", was a model for some aspects of the main character in my novel. What amazes me about Mishima is that you hear so many stories about his life that make you think he was a fanatic or eccentric, but in his writing he has such penetrating insight into all types of characters from banks and businessmen to young schoolboys, gay monarchs and drug addicts, that he can sum up a person in just a sentence or two. Even as I describe it I am getting the urge to pick it up again! And isn't that the very essence of a great novel?

[Mike Mcconnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having previously read Mishima's THE SAILOR WHO FELL FROM GRACE WITH THE SEA I was keen to read this book, commonly considered his opus. Telling a story over sixty years and eight hundred pages is a delicate thing and Mishima does it well. Dealing with themes of reincarnation, perception, political upheaval and the human condition it was a powerful story told by a masterful storyteller. While at times it became a bit SOPHIE'S WORLD with passages on Buddhist philosophy and theories of reincarnation these were often framed in a way that elucidated the main character's thoughts and feelings at different points in his life. Also the word vermilion pops up a bit to often but that may be down to the translator rather than the author.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mishima saved the best for last, the Sea of Fertility ties everything together in a way that, in the end, turns out to mean nothing at all. The book is divided into four parts, most people prefer either Spring Snow or Runaway Horses, probably because they get stuck in part 3, The Temple of Dawn, where Mishima kind of drones on a bit about Buddhist theology, and as a result never read part 4, The Decay of the Angel, which is one of the best things I've ever read. The Buddhist exposition didn't bother me so much, but if it does bother you just bear with it because, man alive, the last part is good.

He finished his just before his theatrical suicide, and if you've ever wondered what a person feels before doing such a thing, this book will tell you.

[Sim Written (lacryptelitteraire) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Make no mistake, if you are a literature junkie(even more if jap lit is among you like best), you need to read the sea of fertility, it might be not only one of the best books ever written in Japan but also worldwide.

Unlike other Mishima works, this tetralogy tastes more like a literary trip into past over almost a century, you will certainly appreciate the journey.

It is a true river of words but you shall not drown because of words but more probably because of literary beauty.

[Peter Spaulding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devastating and perfect. There are parts in the middle two books that are difficult to push through, but the tapestry it paints in the end is so beautiful and all the more so given the circumstances in which it is finished.

[Luís · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute Masterpiece!

[Dennis Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was honestly unsure going into this series - I'd tried the first two books years ago, and thought they were interesting but largely went over my head. I'd read them with a long gap between, and heard from somewhere (don't remember where) that this series works best if it's read all at once, like one enormous tome. It's a LOT, but having decided to go back and do so (rereading the first two and then finishing out the series) over the course of this summer, I'd say it's absolutely worth it.

These books are individually tremendous, and exponentially moreso altogether. They have such an insanely complex psychology befitting Mishima's own complexity. I think that for anyone to declare they could "understand" what was going through Mishima's head at any point, especially in his last years, is absolutely pretentious. The man had so many contradictory views, many abhorrent, but such a beautiful sense of expression and deep self-awareness that I don't think anyone - including (maybe especially) himself - could ever truly "understand" what was happening in his head. That being said, I will say this series gave a lot of insight into particular parts of the turmoil that he went through. His view of beauty as something that can only be fleeting, his view of the inevitable degradation of all things, his mixed glorification of youth and of the past. It's clear that the man was terrified of aging. The way that the four focus characters of each book seem to represent different facets of his internal self - his yearning for excellence, his desire to be a "man of action", his sexuality and his calculating psychology - all balanced with the viewpoint character, Honda, who seems to encapsulate his deepest insecurities about his actual self and his perceived lack of action. The whole series feels like a narrative of his own internal battle between a search for brilliant meaning and a plunge into utter nihilism, which really paints a vivid picture of the struggle he was going through leading up to his end.

That's not even to go into the way that the books depict the changes in Japan - he truly immerses the reader into every era that he depicts, from the early 1900s to 1970 Japan, with each major character representing many of each era's failings while still never fully being "in step" with the times enough to be a 1:1 allegory.

The one missed opportunity of this series, I think, is Book #3 lacking the same interior focus on Ying Chan that the rest of the books have on their successive reincarnations. I think there are genuine literary/character reasons for this, but it also probably largely stems from Mishima's unfortunate lack of interest in engaging with the perspective of a Thai woman as opposed to a Japanese man. Beautiful at expression as he was, there's no doubt Mishima was narrow-minded in that regard. It's a shame; it would have been interesting to see him dig into her psychology for several reasons that would probably count as spoilers to go into detail on.

With that being the only caveat, I'd say that I can absolutely see why people call this tetralogy Mishima's masterpiece. To pick a single book as the "best" feels wrong to me because it's all such a cohesive whole. It definitely shouldn't be anyone's first Mishima at all. I have this weird habit of comparing Mishima's writing to Russian literature, because he's always reminded me a lot of Dostoevsky. This reminds me very much of a deeply psychological Dostoevsky work, but with all four books put together it hits that War and Peace level of deep historical scope as well. Definitely an intimidating combo, but a really illuminating and beautiful work of art that paints an insanely detailed picture of an impossibly complex, often terrible, but utterly compelling and tragic man, along with his complicated, sardonic view of the world he lived in.

[Arvind Radhakrishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally managed to finish Yukio Mishima's tetralogy!It was a wonderful experience.Mishima is such a creative and gifted writer.Honda's amazing spiritual and intellectual journey from the tender age of 18 till the ripe age of 81 is now complete.:-)

[Barack Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

141-The Sea of Fertility-Yukio Mishima-Novel-1965
Barack
2017/10/ 15
2020/06/01


—— Ask the world, what is love, and teach life and death? Flying from the north to the south, the old wings are back in the cold and heat. If you have fun and parting, you will be more idiots. The king should have a word, thousands of miles of clouds, thousands of mountains and snow, who is the only shadow to?

"The Sea of Plenty" was serialized in Japan in 1965. It consists of four volumes: "Spring Snow", "Running Horse", "Dawn Temple" and "Five Decays of Heaven and Man". The novel combines the four rebirths of the whole book from the perspective of aristocrats.

Yukio Mishima was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1925 and died in 1970. In 1968, he organized his own private militia-"Shield Society", aimed at preserving Japan's Bushido spirit and defending the Emperor. In 1970, after he delivered the last part of "The Sea of Plenty", he led four members of the Shield Society to launch a mutiny. After the mutiny failed, Yukio Mishima committed suicide by cutting his belly, but the first three cases of wrongdoing (referring to the beheading of those who committed suicide during the abdominal incision ceremony in Japan) failed until the fourth time. Representative works: "Golden Pavilion", "Sea of Plenty", etc.

Part of the catalog
1. Spring Snow
2. Running horse
3. Dawn Temple
4. The Five Decays of Heaven and Man

The first time I came into contact with the novels of a Japanese writer was reading Kawabata Yasunari's works. At the first impression, I felt a beauty of imperfection, tenderness, pain and struggle.

Kawabata Yasunari's pen is always flowing with irresistible sadness of world-weariness. From the beginning of the story, it seems to be destined to be a tragedy. The inexplicable death of Ye Zi in "Snow Country", the suggestive ending of the Chinese character and Juzhi in "A Thousand Cranes", and the decisive departure of Miaozi in "The Ancient Capital" are all immersed in a deep sadness like fate.

"The Sea of Plenty" gave me a similar feeling. Although Japanese culture is an important part of Eastern culture, Japanese aesthetics seems to have a strong uniqueness, always appearing more gloomy and regrettable.

From my current perspective, the cause of the tragedy is mainly clear weakness and hesitation, while Congzi appears resolute and decisive.

Qingxian knew from the beginning that Congzi loved him, but he maintained a certain aversion to her maturity and composure. He disliked the feeling of Congzi as if he had seen through himself and he was like a childish child in front of her. This mood seems particularly vulnerable in the male sex who appeared for those who glance as if seen through their own women, always difficult to produce the love.

On the one hand, Satoshi refused to propose marriages, on the other hand, he created opportunities for Qing Xian, either openly or secretly. In the end, because of Qing Xian's naive revenge and fragile self-esteem, Qing Xian refused to answer the phone calls from Satoshi, and even the letter from Satoshi was destroyed without opening. The pain of Congzi can be imagined, and she finally accepted the imperial proposal. It seems that hard-hearted love always occurs at an age of ignorance, and naivety and pride always make people blind to their true feelings.

Until the marriage contract was a foregone conclusion, Qingxian suddenly felt that she was crazy in love with Satoko. He willfully wanted to meet Satoko and tasted the forbidden fruit for the first time in this meeting. Does Qingxian really love Satoko? Do you want to get it because you can't get it? Obviously knowing that Congzi loves herself and waiting for herself but sneers and ridicules arrogantly, knowing that Congzi is already the royal fiancée but willfully violate the rules. From today's point of view, is it about the so-called "work"?

The two secretly rendezvous like drinking poison to quench their thirst, indulging in each other's flesh. Finally, Satoshi became pregnant and the incident was revealed, both parents knew. After having a miscarriage, Satoko insisted on cutting her hair into a nun. The marriage contract ended on the grounds that Congzi had a brain disease, Congzi became a laughingstock, and Qingxian was not affected. At the cost of his innocence, reputation and life, Satoko dedicated himself to the love he pursued. Qingxian went to the temple to see Satoko in the heavy snow, but was repeatedly rejected by the host. Eventually contracting pneumonia, he refused to seek medical treatment and died.

Everyone is a mixture of sensibility and rationality, but the two are of different degrees. Both Satoshi and Qingxian are quite emotional. In order to pursue love, Satoko almost sacrificed everything, bravely and decisively. In the end, although Qing Xian died of illness, he appeared cowardly and indecisive. From the beginning to the end, he appeared childish, lacking the courage and determination to assume responsibility, and disgusted with Congzi's courage and "old accomplishment".

What is love? Even if you can't understand your own mind, how can you understand its answer?

"The concubine's hair is jet-black, lustrous and shiny, knotted on the top of the head, but there are still a few strands of blue silk hanging down, from the plump and white neck to the bare shoulders in a topless dress. She has a dignified posture and steady steps. Qing Xian, who is holding the skirt behind, cannot feel the shaking of her body. However, in Qing Xian's eyes, the beautiful whiteness of the spacious skirt is like snow on the top of a mountain covered by erratic clouds. Faintly and appearing. This is the first time in his life that he has discovered the dazzling and elegant nature of the beauty of women. 　　

The concubine Suzumiya's dresses were sprinkled with French perfume, the rich fragrance completely overshadowed the quaint musk. When walking on the corridor, it was clear that he had stumbled, and the skirt he was holding pulled back. The concubine didn't mean to blame, and turned her head back at the young man with a kind smile. 　　

The concubine's turning back did not make others notice, she was still upright, but turned half of her face to the side slightly, showing a little smile. A few strands of hair were flicked on the straight white cheeks, the corners of the slender eyes flashed with a black-eyed smile, and the pretty bridge of the nose looked delicate and beautiful... At that moment, the concubine concubine's appearance-I am afraid that I can't even tell the side-the face was like a cross section of icy crystals, and the moment it was obliquely visible, he seemed to feel a shaking rainbow. "

Japanese writer to describe the delicate feelings known . The best among them can often describe the classical beauty of Eastern women vividly. The readers can imagine the woman's demure and dignified smile just by relying on the words .

" Qingxian regards his reason for survival as a kind of exquisite poison. This feeling is closely related to the eighteen-year-old arrogant psychology. He is determined not to stain his white and beautiful hands for the rest of his life, or even to grind out one. Blood bubbles. He wants to be like a banner, living only for the wind. He lives only for the only real thing that he thinks is "feeling". This kind of "feeling" has no end and meaninglessness, like death and life. If it is declining, there is no direction, no end... "

Probably, only rich children who have good families and don't need to worry about the economy are qualified to pursue and enjoy a purely spiritual life. Material is the foundation of the spirit. After all, people who endure starvation for a long time to pursue a spiritual life are few.

" "Who? "Songzi." Remember to show you her picture. "Qingxian's contempt for this name can even be felt in his tone of voice. Congzi is indeed beautiful, but Qingxian just closed his eyes and refused to admit it. Because he understands very well: Congzi loves him. Qingxian is not only contemptuous. He even treats people who admire him coldly. I am afraid that no one has been aware of his despicable personality like Bendo. Bendo estimates that Qingxian started when he was thirteen years old when he knew his beauty was widely applauded. Haughtiness, like mold, quietly multiplies and spreads in my heart, and finally becomes my own emotion. The silvery white mold flower, like a silver bell, seems to make a noise when you touch it. "

Teenager emotions tend to be sensitive have exceeded the limits of necessity. This sensitivity can sometimes become a kind of arrogance. This makes it easy to hold a contemptuous attitude towards people who admire themselves , regardless of whether they are boys or girls . At that time they did not know , you can get other people sincerely love, is how difficult things. Boys and girls are more likely to have love without reservation. But it is also easy to spare no room for contempt for love from others.

" Congzi picked a few gentian flowers and stood up suddenly, blocking Qing Xian, who was absent-mindedly looking at other places and followed. Qing Xian's beautiful eyes, clear eyebrows, bright eyes and white teeth, who didn't dare to face it. Hazy as a phantom appeared before his eyes. "Qing, if suddenly one day I am gone, what will happen to you? "Congzi lowered his voice and spoke quickly. "

I think that when a woman says this to the man she loves, she might be willing to hear a response like this : If we are separated by physical distance , then no matter what is separated by thousands of mountains and rivers, I will find you. . If human factors separate us , no matter how powerful he is, I will declare war on him. If a death sure to separate us, then you will live in my heart and I together , until death do you see with me.

[Kanaria · Rating 5 out of 5]

If a black tea ritual could be a book, it would be this one. This book has some of the classiest writing you will ever read, especially when it comes to describing things like kimonos, traditional hair styles, festivals, gardens, and the white marbled lion heads that resemble sunflowers on a Thai palace.

Read this. It's long but very worth it. (Spoilers from all 4 books ahead)

These books have you first follow Kiyoaki and his life with a lost love but devotion to an immature passion as he chases his later lost love Satoko. His friend, Honda, who is very serious and emphasised to not even be that close to Kiyoaki becomes very intertwined upon his death though. After his death he reincarnates not once, but twice.

Then spotlight is on Honda and his journey not only to find and bring the reincarnated Kiyoaki into his life but also to transcend into Buddhist philosophy over time while he does it. By the time the third book hits, it takes another meaning where Mishima starts discussing the philosophy of bauty and how it must be upheld unto death for the God's. A beauty that is born beautiful must hold it. Ying Chan is the embodiment of this through reincarnation. And thus the fourth book is the decay of not only beauty but time through falsehoods and the angry adopted Taru for Honda. The contrast between these books and the imagery is truly poetic.

Oh yeah, speaking of poems. Mishima's setting descriptions are flawless and are written like masterpieces throughout. In addition one of my favorite lines from the book was how he discussed how discourse is like poetry. The book has one of the most elegant writing styles i have ever read. In one scene where Honda angered a woman he stated "It was then i broke the poetry" and it just to me showed how Mishima not only treated the characters and their lives like a poem but also it just shows how human discourse and our passive joy of it is like poetry. So when we mess up, we break the poetry.

Another thing to note about this is how the books also have a huge continuation symbolism throughout. Where you have a character who is always dying at age 20 and reincarnating, to Honda who is living these many lives through each reincarnation, to the poem that cannot break, and even the presentation of life as a series of stranded together beads.

Read this elegant masterpiece. It is one i will reread soon.

Oh yeah, the ending has a twist that undoes it all.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this more than thirty years ago, but the opening scene, as the main character is looking out at the sea from somewhere on the Izu Peninsula is still with me. It is interesting that this, his last novel, takes him back to the place where he started, staring out across the sea at the island of Oshima, where his first hit, The Sound of the Waves, was set. And of course, who can forget the role of the sea in A Death in Midsummer. That sea, that vast, dissolving ocean, is the challenge to his search for meaning which he finds within his nationalism, the wish to be a part of something greater than oneself.

[Elisala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quelle lecture, mazette, quel pavé, quelle aventure.
On ne peut pas dire que j'ai adoré, mais il y a définitivement un rythme, un style qui accrochent, qui donnent envie de continuer.
Les 4 tomes sont étrangement si proches et si différents, ça fait partie du plaisir, bien que certains thèmes, dans certains tomes, m'ont moins intéressée que d'autres, voire m'ont larguée à l'occasion (les réflexions hautement théoriques sur le bouddhisme, l'âme, le tout, le rien, très intéressantes, mais trop abstraites pour un pavé pareil, qu'il me fallait lire dans le temps imparti, merci la bibli!).

Quelle aventure, mazette, quel pavé, quelle lecture.

[Trevor Kew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've given myself 5 books on Goodreads for reading this tetralogy...reckon I earned it! It's a pretty big undertaking...not just in terms of page count but in terms of the density of the work (I also read it from an ancient edition that disintegrated page by page as I read it...kind of fitting for this work!). If I'm honest...I drifted through some of the pages on Buddhism and Thai History. Mishima said that finishing The Sea of Fertility felt like the end of the world...reading it is not quite on that level but it was sure quite the epic journey through 20th century Japan!

[Deanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant book with reincarnation as it's theme, at times I liked Honda and at times I wasn't sure.
Underneath it all there is an element of sadness and wonder if Mishima, who committed suicide a month after finishing the book did this consiously.

[Suzue · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite book ever.

[Joyce Kotze · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was hard reading. I did not finish it.

[Wayne Tripton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cinematic and critical story of east meats west.