The World's Literature in Europe discussion

Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima

Spring Snow, the first book of The Sea of Fertility tetralogy, is set in Tokyo around 1912. The story involves two families, the rich, provincial Matsugaes (Marquis and Marquise) and the urban, aristocratic Ayakuras (Count and Countess). Kiyoaki Matsugae, a Peers high-school student and a keeper of a dream journal, falls in love with Satoko Ayakura, but she and a royal prince are engaged. Some characters are: Kiyoaki's friend Shigekuni Hondo, the Siamese princes of the Toinnomiyas, the household retainers, the Abbess, among others.

The beginning of chapter 52 alludes to the title.

It was a morning when light flakes of snow danced in the brisk wind that swept over the plain of Yamato. They seemed too fragile even for spring snow, but were rather more reminiscent of a swarm of summer insects. When the sky remained overcast, they disappeared against the clouds. Only when the sun shone through did one become aware of the powdery, swirling snow. The cold in the air was worse than it would have been on a day of heavy snow.

The novel's author page says that Yukio Mishima lived according to the samurai code, exercising self-control and loyalty, and rose to kendo master fifth rank in martial arts.

AsmahH wrote: "The novel's author page says that Yukio Mishima lived according to the samurai code, exercising self-control and loyalty"

Well ... that's one way to put it. I'm really looking forward to the new biography of Mishima that's coming later this year and hope it does a better job of explaining his views than Nathan's.

In my generalizing from the bio, the wording/meaning became inexact, but here is the quote.

Yukio Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor--the same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen.

That forthcoming biography of him looks interesting.

FURTHER PRE-READING.

High-school-student Kiyoaki, eighteen-years-old, serves in the capacity of a page at the Ayakuras'(?). His tutor is Ilinuma, and students are preparing for pre-graduation exams throughout the story.

New vocabulary and concepts:

Siam and Japan tie;
Baiko (actor Onoe Baikō VI?) and Kojiro (actor Matsumoto Kōshirō VII?) in the context of Kabuki;
Taishō era (1912-26).

Events leaping out:

(view spoiler)[The Cherry Blossom Festival, April 6, 1913;
Omiyasama festival;
Prince Pattanadid's lost emerald ring;
Satoko's broken engagement/betrothal ceremony;
Imperial Poetry Recitation; and
Kiyoaki's disappearance. (hide spoiler)]

I look forward to reading both biographies. I'm reading Death in Midsummer & Other Stories and a story called "Patriotism" details the ritual of seppuku. The stories show Mishima's writing in a very strong light.

Mishima's short stories are highly rated. Your comment "The stories show Mishima's writing in a very strong light" makes me wonder what you noticed about his writing.

FURTHER PRE-READING

I wonder why Mishima adopts the Siamese-Japanese connection in the story? (view spoiler)[The Princes arrive to study in Japan. Another Prince is to wed Satoko. By the end, he doesn't. The main character Kiyoaki dreams about Siam.The Matsugaes' villa and estate is the scene of formal and informal hospitality. The grand Cherry Blossom Festival happens on a specifically named date. (hide spoiler)] Is there an historical parallel?

The very evident westernizing of the Meiji era continues into the Taishsō era of the story.

There's also secrecy or plotting afoot. (view spoiler)[Kiyoaki, Tadeshina (Satoko's maid), Satoko, Honda, and even Kiyoaki's mother Marquise Matsugae are involved in one or more mysterious threads from this vantage. The Princes' family also withholds meetings with Satoko. (hide spoiler)] Kiyoaki's or Honda's comment--to show excessive friendship is discouraged--might be a key to understanding at this stage of pre-reading.

AsmahH wrote: "Mishima's short stories are highly rated. Your comment "The stories show Mishima's writing in a very strong light" makes me wonder what you noticed about his writing."

His writing is very subtle, and with patience, those subtleties reveal their psychological impact. It seems the stories are very carefully constructed to ensure whatever message Mishima wishes to convey is done in a precise and effective manner. Mishima is also very knowledgeable about his own culture.

Motheaten wrote: "...Mishima is also very knowledgeable about his own culture..."

I was just reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Snow and http://www.wdog.com/rider/writings/sp... . At the second site, its writer sees Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities in Spring Snow.

"It is Dickens' great work of cultural upheaval, A Tale of Two Cities, that really pertains to Spring Snow.

That applies to the plot's era (1912-1914, westernization and restructured Constitution) and to Mishima's time of writing (first pub. 1969, Japan's economic growth and world presence). The Matsugaes traded in their traditional ideals and samurai heritage to exercise their ambitions because they can do so now. The first site says,

"The novel's themes centre on the conflicts in Japanese society caused by westernization in the early twentieth century."

The Abbess is said to worry about a plot against the Emperor. Her comment possibly refers to the Taishō Political Crisis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taisho_P... . Those three sites support your comment, which noted Mishima's knowing his own society.

The third Wiki site also mentions philosophical/religious ideas which pertain to the story: Hosso Buddhism (consciousness-only theory; parable of Yuan Hsiao), divination ritual, reincarnation, and superstitious interpretation of events (mole, etc). Kiyo's (Kiyoaki's) dream journal of predictive dreams is interesting.

PRE-READING

Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era; Fiction (A History of Japanese Literature - Volume 3) includes a chapter about Yukio Mishima. Its last pages show the continuity in the novels of The Sea of Fertility tetralogy. Spring Snow introduces Kiyoaki. His being is reincarnated in various forms in the later three novels. The reincarnations bear the characteristic birthmarks under his/her arm and, except for the last, die at twenty years old. The series also continues the character of Honda as well as Satoko, who have aged by the very end.

Mishima's last books before his death, this series provides glimpses into his mature philosophy of life--our quests ultimately meaningless and illusory, our deaths an opportunity for gazing upon the earth's living beings, and our world constantly-in-flux, corruptible, and disgusting. He idealized the pre-Meiji past but also admired Western literature. The beginning and middle of this chapter 27 might add further understanding to his life and his earlier writings.

PRE-READING

After my foray in message 10 into Yukio Mishima's The Sea of Fertility [the arid place on the moon] tetralogy in Chapter 27 (end) of Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era; Fiction (A History of Japanese Literature - Volume 3),
the next, not-to-be-missed opportunity was to learn more from the beginning of that chapter about Yukio Mishima (a penname).

Frail youth belying his later intest in restoring the tradition of martial arts;

Early poetry and Seeking beauty;

Rich metaphorical language with which to analyze his observations of life;

The ah-ha moment of experience;

Theatre: Kabuki, Jōruri, Nō

Memory and Ancestors;

Attachment to Western literature (Oscar Wilde) and to Japanese classic literature.

Cont'd notes about Mishima from message 11.

Themes:

Psychological significance;
Symbolism of 'sea' and 'death';
Treatment of love in high society, as in 'Spring Snow';
Aphorisms=General truths.

Beliefs

Not left-wing nor communist;
Unconcerned with social issues;
An infallible Emperor who is Japan.

His contrast to fellow writer Yasunari Kawabata (pp 1182-1183, "Dawn...")

Kawabata's interests lay in the history of Japanese arts, in old temple gardens and architecture, in Zen master's religious teachings, in natural beauty, and in feminine aspects of Japanese culture.

Mishima revered the beauties of the West and of classical Greece, the polish of refinement, the masculine tradition of the warrior in samurai teachings and dying warriors.

Both writers appreciated "The Tale of Genji" and its poetry.

Interesting to note that Kawabata was Mishima's literary mentor and served as the intermediary who arranged Mishima's marriage. Kawabata winning the Nobel Prize was probably a factor in Mishima's decision to commit suicide since he figured the prize committee wouldn't award another Japanese writer for decades to come (which turned out to be true); Kawabata in turn committed suicide as a result of the shock of Mishima's death.

Those are interesting connections between Kawabata and Mishima, Sean.

Having begun Spring Snow, I've also begun to look for examples of Keene's characteristics about Mishima and his works (message 11-12). The story opens with the Russo-Japanese war (that's probably 1904-05) with the extensively described sepia photographs of it. There's also the autobiographical aspect between Mishima's and Kiyoaki's youth--frailty, emotional sensibility, aristocratic and samurai relations.

"For now, in the person of his own son, the Marquis had seen the ultimate fusion of the aristocratic and the samurai traditions, a perfect congruence between the old court nobles and the new nobility."

There are also the Matsugae's western-style house on the property, the elegant and refined coiffures, the aesthetic appreciation of perfect flowers instead of those becoming or decaying.

Coming back to the autobiographical aspect, I'm taking a wild guess that in this instance Ilinuma, Kiyoaki's personal tutor, resembles adult Mishima because of his expecting Kiyoaki's taking "enthusiastic oaths of loyalty to the Emperor." Whether the adult Mishima also lived like Ilinuma, puritanically and without loquaciousness, I am without a clue.

About the Matsugaes' park-like property, described further into the story, I'm thinking that it should be more cultivated rather than naturalistic.

It's probably time to start a Chapter 1-2 thread.