The Order of Discontent The War against Banality in Yukio Mishima’s “The Sailor Who Fell from...

7/28/2019 The Order of Discontent The War against Banality in Yukio Mishimas The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

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Christopher Jan Benitez

CL242

Ms. Lily Rose Tope

June 3, 2013

The Order of Discontent:

The War against Banality in Yukio Mishimas The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the

Sea

Introduction

Considered as one of Japans most gifted writers, Yukio Mishima has become popular

with the darkness and depravity he conveys through his literature. In The Sailor Who Fell from

Grace with the Sea, Mishima weaves a blunt yet effective narrative about Ryuji, a man of the

sea, who was drawn back to the land by Fusako to a life of convention, much to the dismay of

people who admire, especially Noboru, Fusakos son.

Despite the title already suggesting the defeat of the male protagonist, the story is not

about the inevitable fall from grace. Rather, the story delves deep into the manner how Ryuji left

a life of freedom only to be encaged by marriage and the responsibilities attached with it.

In this tale of a mans downward spiral, this paper aims to relate certain events in the life

of Mishima before and during the writing ofThe Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea to the

characters in the book as representation of Mishimas discontent with Japan. In particular, this

paper will focus on the ideology espoused by Noboru and the gang as a counter-reaction to the

uselessness of lives in the characters of the novel. Using these tropes, this paper will use the

image of True Japan as discussed by Kano Tsutomu in relation with the ordinariness of

Japanese life in the novel that reinforces what the identity of Japan really is.


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The True Mishima

To see Mishima become the author of Japanese literary classics, one must look back to

his formative years as a romantic, where his admiration to the decadence featured in Raymond

Radiguet and Oscar Wildes works laid the foundation of things to come. The latters play

Salom is one of Mishimas favorite due to the portrayal of death (the passing away of a

handsome youth) and blood (St. John the Baptists decapitated head) as divine.

Hints of this beautiful decay that fascinated Mishima in the written text are shown in

his first published workHanazakari no Mori in 1941 as installments in a literary magazine. The

five-part series details the lives of ancestors of an aristocratic lineage in history. The beauty of

the novel, as Zenmei Hasuda (a vehement nationalist and a schoolteacher friend of Shimizu) puts

it, has something to do with the nostalgia of historical Japan as opposed to their current period.

The language used in the work, brimming with memories that were absolved of the crudeness

exhibited by current Japan, helped in getting his point across as a writer well above his

contemporaries. More importantly, the maturity of the series can be seen through the pessimism

of its characters (Stokes 89).

After the last installment ofHanazakari no Mori, Japan was forced to go to war, as

Mishima puts it (Stokes 90), when the American Fleet was attacked in Pearl Harbor by carrier-

borne aircraft, which sparked the Pacific War. It was a period of time that historian and

Mishimas friend Bunzo Hashikawa believed explains why the author decided to commit suicide

at his peak, again showing how Mishima views death as a beautiful thing.

During this period, Mishima associated himself with a group of literary nationalists called

the Bungei Bunka. The group was led by Zenmei Hasuda, a man 21 years the elder of Mishima

whom the latter truly respected. Hasuda was responsible in getting Mishima on board with the


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group to not only connect with like-minded people in the literary field, but also fed with the

beliefthat the war is holy. The elder also believe that, [O]ne should die young in this age. To die

young, I am sure, is the culture of my country. (Stokes 93) This statement was drawn from his

study of Otsu-no-Miko, a Japanese classic of a tragic prince in the seventh century. This

statement alone carries enough reason to believe that Mishima shares the same view with Hasuda

about death and destruction, that which is a part of Japan that makes it beautiful.

Mishimas involvement with the Bungei Bunka led to the formation of the Nippon

Roman-ha (Japanese Romanticists), which furthered their belief of the Sacred war. Led by

Yojiro Yasuda and his rhetorical gift, the group took the belief of holy war too far even for

Mishima. Said Jun Eto in one of his conversation with Henry Scott Stoker, author of The Life

and Death of Yukio Mishima,

They believed in the value of destruction and ultimately in self-destruction. They

valued purity of sentiment, though they never defined this; and they called for

preservation of the nation by purging selfish party politicians and zaibatsu

[business] leaders. They believed that self-destruction would be followed by

reincarnation, linked mysteriously with the benevolence of the Emperor. The

Japanese, they considered, were superior to all other peoples. (Stokes 94)

Nonetheless, Mishima was intrigued enough to collect Roman-ha works, in particular

Shizuo Itos, for the group. The works produced by the Nippon Roman-hawhich drew from

the 19th century Romantic movement, Marxism, and kokugaku (nationalism derived from the

thoughts of 18th

century thinker Norinaga Motoori)had great influence during the war and was

encouraged by the Japanese leaders.


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Yasuda continued to provide leadership for the group, whose ideas reaffirmed Mishimas

beliefs as to why he joined the group in the first place.

Yasuda held that historical reality was unimportant and that the emotion aroused

by events was more interesting than the events themselves. He argued that it

was irrelevant whether a hero was righteous or not. The enlightened man would

not commit himself. For such a being, there could be neither decisive defeat nor

complete victory; he would be both winner and loser in any game. (Stokes 95)

Mishima used all the knowledge acquired from his affiliations with such people that

shaped his thinking. Images of death and destruction have become staple parts of his work,

especially seen in the Sea of Fertility tetralogy. In The Sailor, Mishima focused more on using

these images to make way for life.

The True Japan

To fully understand the social commentary of Mishima in this novel, we need to delve

deeper into what it means to be Japanese. In his essay In Search of an Identity, Kano

Tsutomu discusses the disillusionment that postwar Japan experienced, which led to which stems

from how Japan has adopted western practices into their culture to mixed results.

Tsutomo mentioned United States, a country that Japan looks up to in terms of foreign

relations and areas of defense, and their weakening influence going into the 70s that culminated

in the Nixon shocks. Before that, America occupied Japanese soil after the war, leaving the

Japanese people enraged as they yearned for independence. As part of their turning against the

Americans, Japanese turned to indigenous values and culture as their source of nationalism and

identity in these confusing times. The increased attention toward Yanagita Kunio and his folklore


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studies using indigenous concepts and tools is testament to Japans need to call something their

own in these trying times.

The transformation of Japan into a westernized country in an Asian continent (a stranger

in a strange land of sorts) was made to look worse when compared to China, whose distinct

Eastern values and integrity has remained intact throughout this period in time. These factors

caused Japan to internalize and reevaluate what their real identity is.

Chinas resistance to Western civilization appeared in the eyes of Japanese

modernizers to be an act of stubborn backwardness. Later Japanese claims to

leadership in Asia were indeed based on the assumption of that superiority. In

other words, Japan rejected identification with backward Asia and sought the

strength of westernization entitled it to lead Asia. Modern Japan has been neither

fully Western nor fully Asian and yet it has aspired to be more than full

membership in both. (Tsutomo 9)

Tainted Japan

This is evident in The Sailorby the time the narrator introduces Rex, Ltd., the luxury

shop situated at the Yokohama district that was owned by Fusako, Ryujis object of affection.

The description of the place does not necessarily center in on American influences, but more of

how Fusako has forsaken the Japanese identity in place of multitude of design elements from

different corners of the globe.

The Moorish architecture of the small two-story building was distinctive; the

Mosque window set into the thick white wall at the front of the shop always

contained a tasteful display. Inside, an open mezzanine much like a veranda

overlooked a patio of imported Spanish tile. A small fountain bubbled in the


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center of the patio. A bronze Bacchus, some Vivax neckties carelessly draped

over its armsthese were priced so as to discourage any would-be buyer.

(Mishima 24)

Aside from the aesthetics of Rex, Ltd., the shop emphasized on fine quality for their

products that consist of gloves, bag, leather, and sweaters imported from Italy and France.

The affluent lifestyle that Fusako displayed in the novel is an example of post-WWII

Japan and its attempt to indigenize concepts outside their culture and make it their own.

Throughout the duration of the novel, the prominence of these western elements in Fusakos

home and shop takes away the elusive Japanese identity that Tsutomo was referring to.

To the Japanese romanticist the nation is not simply a collectivity of individuals;

it is an entity that transcends the people both in time and space. The emperor is

the symbol of that transcendence, that eternity, rather than of the people, no

matter what the postwar Constitution says. This concept of the nation as a

suprahistorical entity does not readily submit to logical analysis, but it is very real

to Japanese, nevertheless. This concept should not be regarded as exclusively

right-wing, but as something broadly Japanese. The True Japan has long been

lost, perhaps even before the end of the Second World War. It still exists,

however, somewhere in the depths of the Japanese mind, and every time the

pendulum swings inward, this image is called back into active service. (Tsutomo

4)

This True Japan, as mentioned by Mishima prior to his suicidal stage in life, happens to

be the dormant identity that the Japanese has long keep to itself as they adapt to the changes in

society. In this case, The True Japan within Fusako is well hidden and wont surface anytime


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soon. Even the company that she surrounds herself with in Yoriko displays the kind of ideals that

Tsutomo points out in his quote above. A struggling actress and Fusakos loyal customer, Yoriko

obsesses over wining an award for her thespian chops that she would offer her body to the jury if

it would help her case.

This kind of attitude and display in The Sailoris symbolic to turning their backs on

everything Japanese by holding on to these attachments.

True Japan, pure and unadulterated

True Japan is embodied byNoborus group led by a thirteen year-old boy they refer to

as chief and Ryuji, the main protagonist of the novel.

Raised in good homes, performs well in school, and eats packed lunches, what brings

the group together is their opinion of the uselessness of Mankind, the insignificance of Life.

(40) It is easy to dismiss their concerns as petty, especially when a member of the groups

complains about their mother not buying him an air rifle because it is dangerous, but the chief

offers profound insight about the definition of danger, thus blurring the lines to a rather dry-cut

problem.

Real danger is nothing more than just living. Of course, living is merely the chaos

of existence, but more than that its a crazy mixed-up business of dismantling

existence instant by instant to the point where the original chaos is restored, and

taking strength from the uncertainty and the fear that chaos brings to re-create

existence instant by instant. You wont find another job as dan gerous as that.

There isnt any fear in existence itself, or any uncertainty but living creates it.

And society is basically meaningless, a Roman mixed bath. And school, school is


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society in miniature: thats why were always being ordered around. A bunch of

blind men tell us what to do, tear our unlimited ability to shreds. (Mishima 51)

From this quote by the chief, we can draw how the current status quo has upset the group

and much of this disdain is caused by the use of fear as drive to control and suppress societys

natural inclinations. For the chief, its not merely the fact that the parents didnt buy their son an

air rifle, but the entire social structure promotes this kind of culture that casts fear on people to

the uncertain. Despite the certainty of death, everybody wants to delay it by taking precaution

and compromising to their situations for the sake longevity. This mindset espoused by society

upsets the group very much as their view death as beautiful glory.

One of the major points of discussion that stemmed from the ideology of a broken society

is how Noboru looks up to Ryuji, the sailor and the main protagonist of the novel, as his hero.

What made him become a seaman is his own disdain towards land. The unmoving landscapes

forced him to ride the ship and experience the exotic places. Regardless, his feelings towards the

sea changed as well.

He grew indifferent to the lure of exotic lands. He found himself in the strange

predicament all sailors share: he belonged neither to the land nor to the sea.

Possibly a man who hates the land should dwell on shore forever. Alienation and

the long voyages at sea will compel him once again to dream of it, torment him

with the absurdity of longing for something that he loathes.

Ryuji hated the immobility of the land, the eternally unchanging surfaces. But a

ship was another kind of prison. (Mishima 18)

The last sentence captures the essence of Ryuji as the reluctant hero, which plays a

significant role later as the novel progresses. There is nothing that land and sea can offer him


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expect the boredom and sameness that both locations pose. At face value, he has a desirable

occupation allowing them to navigate through different locations on his way to new experiences.

However, the experience of being an actual sailor made him realize that he is trapped in a bigger

unmoving landscape.

We can see this more in the lines of his favorite popular music song I Cant Give Up the

Sailors Life:

The whistle wails and steamers tear,

Our ship slips away from the pier.

Now the seas my home, I decided that.

But even I must shed a tear.

As I wave, boys, as I wave so sad

At the harbor town where my heart was glad. (Mishima 17-18)

Readers will see that based from his favorite song, Ryuji is not completely sold into

becoming a sailor because he still feels something towards the land. Throughout the entire novel,

Ryuji is torn between his two desires as he interplays his romance with the sea and exchanges it

with the fatalism of land.

Symbolically, his original desire to leave the land can be seen as a way of escape from

the post-WWII Japan that has glorified Western ideals and adopted them to their culture. But

once he was exposed to the boredom and ennui that the sea offered him, he began his

introspection on how the land and sea helped him find love through Fusako.

It was the sea that made begin thinking secretly about love more than anything

else; you know, a love worth dying for, or a love that consumes you. To a man

locked up in a steel ship all the time, the sea is too much like a woman. Things


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like her lulls and storms, or her caprice, or the beauty of her breast reflecting the

setting sun, are all obvious. More than that, youre in a ship that mounts the sea

and rides her and yet is constantly denied her. Nature surrounds a sailor with all

these elements so like a woman and yet he is kept as far as a man can be from her

warm, living body. (Mishima 41)

During the course of their relationship, Ryuji underwent a transformation that saw him

being part of the sea for a greater purpose to just having the sea as conduit to his realization that

there is no glory to be achieved in this vast freedom of raging waters. At first, he was hesitant to

release himself from the freedom he held dear while he was with Noboru:

What am I supposed to be doing here on a summer afternoon? Who am I, sitting

in a daze next to the son of a woman I made last night? Until yesterday I had my

song the seas my home, I decided that and the tears I cried for it, and two

million yen in my bank account as guarantees of my realitywhat have I got

now?(Mishima 69)

Part of this process is Ryuji getting acquainted with the elements of the landthe

newfound relationship he has built with Fusako and the residual responsibility of becoming a

paternal figure to Noboru were slowly but surely settling in his mind. All of these things are

foreign to him since he hasnt had this kind of opportunity in life before, for the sea is all he ever

known. But when the sea unraveled further empty thoughts and hopefulness despite the freedom

it offers, Ryuji was led to idea of parting ways with the sea and everything it represents:

Are you really going to give it up? The feeling of the sea, the dark, drunken

feeling that unearthly rolling always brings? The thrill of saying goodbye? The

sweet tears you weep for your song? Are you going to give up the life which has


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detached you from the world, kept you remote, impelled you toward the pinnacle

of manliness? The secret yearning for death. The glory beyond and the death

beyond. Everything was beyond, wrong or right, had always been beyond.

Are you going to give that up? His heart in spasm because he was always in

contact with the oceans dark swell and the lofty light from the edge of the clouds,

twisting, withering until clogged and then swelling up again, and he unable to

distinguish the exalted feelings from the meanest and that that not mattering really

since he could hold the sea responsibleare you going to give up that luminous

freedom?(Mishima 110-111)

The tug of war between his feelings towards the land and sea can be compared to how

Japan adapted to foreign concepts to survive globalization at the expense of their identity.

This is perhaps the True Japan that Mishima preached about and not the incorporation of

foreign cultures to adapt to the changing landscape of society brought by the changing of guard

in post-WWII. True Japan, therefore, is the idea of an uncompromised culture and the ability

to subsist despite the isolation. The sea allows Ryuji to feel the emptiness and, at the same time,

power of being able to overcome it once the ship sails away from land. However, as the story

progresses, Ryuji is bound to leave the sea for land.

This part explains the greatness that Noboru, Fusakos son, saw in Ryujihis ability for

independence and sustainability without having to change himself. For Noboru, he sees greatness

in the adventure of travelling from one place to another, the weathering of the rough tides, the

burning of the skin under the glaze of the sun. In other words, it is the isolation from the

insipidness of society to try and prolong their existence by living through the motions is makes

Ryuji special in the eyes of Noboru and the gang. His admiration to Ryuji as a sailor is prevalent


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with their conversations about theRayuko, Ryujis ship, and the main exports of different

countries Ryuji visited.

On the other hand, the hopelessness of everything, the lack of direction toward this

greatness found in death that Ryuji is talking about, is a belief shared by Noboru in the first

part of the book.

At thirteen, Noboru was convinced of his own genius (each of the others in the

gang felt the same way) and certain that life consisted of a few simple signals and

decisions; that death took root at the moment of birth and mans only recourse

thereafter was to water and tend it; that propagation was a fiction; consequently,

society was a fiction too; that fathers and teachers, were guilty of a grievous sin.

Therefore, his own fathers death, when he was eight, had been a happy incident,

something to be proud of. (Mishima 8)

Noboru and the gang made their belief towards all fathers more known later in the book:

They stand in the way of our progress while they try to burden us with their

inferiority complexes, and their unrealized aspirations, and their resentments, and

their ideals, and the weaknesses theyve sweeter-than-honey dreams, and the

maxims theyve never had the courage to live by theyd like to unload all that

silly crap on us, all of it! Even the most neglectful fathers, like mine, are no

different. (Mishima 137)

Once Ryuji drifted away from the sea as he returned to land before New Year to not only

celebrate the turn of the year with Fusako and Noboru, but also propose marriage to Fusako and

not return to the ship for a long time, his transformation into fatherhood took place. This is

evident by the way how Noboru updates the group about Ryuji the hero upon his return:


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Ryuji read the silly novels and art books Fusako recommended and he studied

English conversation, a class each night on television and a text empty on nautical

terms; he listened to Fusako lecture on problems of store management; he learned

to wear the smart English clothes she lavishes to him; he has suits tailored, and

vests, and overcoats; and thenhe began going in to the shop every day.

(Mishima 135)

Through these actions, Ryuji embraces everything we turned his back from not long ago.

He is trying to integrate himself into society by doing all these things, all that alienated and drove

him to the sea.

As Ryuji devotes his time to Fusako, he is transformed to something that the gang detests

just like Fusako. The western sensibilities that werent able to touch Ryujis face tanned by the

sun and the simple turtleneck he wore are taking hold of him now that hes settling down.

Charges against Ryuji according to Noboru

Just as Ryuji was integrating himself to Fusakos household for the first time by deciding

on unlocking Noborus doorat night to give him freedom to exercise his better judgment,

Noboru interprets it as something else, which also reveals more about the ideologies espoused in

their group.

His uneasiness at being in the unlocked room made him shiver even after he had

buttoned his pajamas to the neck. They were beginning his education, a terrific,

destructive education. Trying to force maturity on a thirteen-year-old boy.

Maturity or, as the chief would call it,perversion. Noborus feverish brain was

pursuing an impossibility:Is there no way that I can remain in the room and at

the same time be out in the hall locking the door? (Mishima 143)


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In some ways, Noboru being locked in his room run parallel with how Ryuji is marooned

at sea with his ship. There are able to escape how society dictates people to become. Despite

being confined in their prisons, both experience the same kind of freedom as they embrace

loneliness and rid themselves from the social structure in search of a greater glory.

This marks as one of the charges out of five that Ryuji has committed against Noboru

and the group. Earlier, he has already listed down two charges:

CHARGES AGAINST RJUYI TSUKAZAKI

One: smiling at me in a cowardly, ingratiate-

ing way when I met him this noon.

Two: wearing a dripping-wet shirt and ex-

plaining that he had taken a shower in

the fountain at the parkjust like an

old bum. Mishima (81)

Regarding the first two charges, Ryujis action was triggered by his recollection as a

child.

Closing the mouth of the fountain with his thumb, he squirted a fan of water at

the dahlias and white chrysanthemums languishing in the heat: leaves quivered, a

small rainbow arched, flowers recoiled. Ryuji reversed the pressure of his thumb

and doused his hair and face and throat. The water trickled from his throat to his

chest and belly, spinning a soft, cooling screen an indescribable delight.

(Mishima 46)


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This simple joy he experienced in the fountain shows that how Ryuji has attachments of

his own in the land, much to the chagrin of Noboru: Why how did your shirt get sopped like

that?

What, this? The artificial smile spread over his face again. I took a little shower at

the fountain up there in the park. (Mishima 47)

The artificial smile was an ominous sign, as far as Noboru is concerned. While he

admired Ryuji for what he represents as a sailor, there were hints with Ryujis character that was

not consistent with the image that Noboru and his group created for him.

There are two more charged added later after winter:

Three: answering, when I asked when he

would be sailing again: Im not sure yet.

Four: coming back here again in the first

place (Mishima 105)

This comes into fruition after Noboru was caught by Fusako peeping at Ryuji from the

hole in his room. Whereas most parents would be furious, disturbed, and even disgusted by what

Noboru has being doing, Ryuji took the high road. He talked to Noboru like an understanding

adult would talk to a teenager by explaining the curiosities involved in growing up, as well as the

changes of having Ryuji around all of a sudden to marry Fusako. There was no high drama as

Ryuji was able to diffuse the situation like a real adult. In other words, Ryuji is now a father.

Now Ryuji was obliged to reach a fathers decision, the first decision about shore

life had ever been forced to make. But his memory of the seass fury was

tempering his critical notons (sic) of land and the landsman with inordinate

mildness, and his instinctive approach to problems was therefore thwarted. To


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beat the boy would be easy enough, but a difficult future awaited himhe was

expected in some vague, general way to comprehend the incomprehensible

feelings of the mother and child and to become an infallible teacher, perceiving

the causes of a situation even as unconscionable as this one: he was dealing here

with no ocean squall but the gentle breeze that blows ceaselessly over the land.

(Mishima 156)

This was the final charge and the most devastating that Ryuji committed to Noboru and

the gang. He is satisfied.Noboru felt nauseous. Tomorrow Ryujis slavish hands, the hands of a

father puttering over carpentry of a Sunday afternoon, would close forever the narrow access to

that unearthly brilliance which he himself had once revealed. (158)

The glory of skinning a cat

Due to Ryujis plans of getting married to Fusako and settling down as a father, the gang

decided to do something drastic to save Ryuji from this meandering kind of lifeto achieve

glory through death.

They have practiced murder by first skinning a cat and gutting its innards. Barring the

gruesome details ahead, it is more important to focus on the product of their carnage, as Noboru

internalized after witnessing murder that is nonetheless a significant piece that brings their

ideology into flesh.

Now his half-dazed brain envisioned the warmth of the scattered viscera and the

pools of blood in the gutted belly finding wholeness and perfection in the rapture

of the dead kittens large languid soul. The liver, limp beside the corpse, became a

soft peninsula, the squashed heart a little sun, the reeled-out bowels a white atoll,


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and the blood in the belly the tepid waters of a tropical sea. Death had

transfigured the kitten into a perfect, autonomous world. (Mishima 61)

The imagery of tropics further the notion of Ryujis vision to glory in the sea, but the

bigger picture connotes that death is a way to salvation from a decaying world thats lost its

identity into paradise.

Moreover, the chief brought up the law that children less than 14 years of age are not

punishable by law. This law justifies their intention of murdering Ryuji as a testament to their

beliefs. If they let Ryuko pursue his plans of leaving the sea, then the gang will have failed.

The chief offers inspired words to the gang as they expressed skepticism in killing Ryuji:

If we dont act now we will never again be able to obey freedoms supreme

command, to perform the deed essential to filling the emptiness of the world,

unless we are prepared to sacrifice our lives. And you can see that its absurd for

the executioners to risk their own lives. If we dont act now well never be able to

steal again, or murder, or do any of the things that testify to mans freedom. Well

end up puking flattery and gossip, trembling our days away in submission and

compromise and fear, worrying about what the neighbors are doing, living like

squealing mice. And someday well get married, and have kids, and finally well

become fathers, the vilest things on earth! (167)

This part in the novel is essential in showing how True Japan is represented by kids on

the cusp of teenage life. By killing Ryuji, the gang is able to maintain the idea of glory that was

once lived by Ryuji as a seaman. Most importantly, unlike adults, who will be persecuted by

committing murder, the gang will be absolved for their actions. This is perfect opportunity for

them to take part in the fight against the emptiness the world has turned into.


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As their plan takes flight by taking Ryuji to an abandoned U.S. Forces Installation, they

forced some stories out of Ryuji about his adventures in the sea. As he recalled his experiences

with the sea, Ryuji realizes the glory he sacrificed for the sake of being on land with Fusako:

The dark passions of the tides, the shriek of a tidal wave, the avalanching break of

surf upon a shoal,an unknown glory calling for him endlessly from the dark

offing, glory merged in death and in a woman, glory to fashion of his destiny

something special, something rare. At twenty he had been passionately certain: in

the depths of the worlds darkness was a point of light which had been provided

for him alone and would raw near someday to irradiate him and no other. (180-

181)

The Japanese identity within Ryuji overcame his longing moments away from death just

after he sipped the tea that the chief gave him, Still immersed in his dream, he drank down the

tepid tea. It tasted bitter. Glory, as anyone knows, is bitter stuff. (181).

Conclusion

While the novel fails to reveal whether or not Ryuji was murdered and killed by the gang,

it becomes immaterial in the grander scheme of things. Ryuji returns to the point where he was

torn between having the life in the sea or land, it becomes apparent in the last few lines of the

novel that he may have done a mistake by leaving life in the sea. Despite the dark images that

depict the sea, Ryuji attaches fond memories with his experiences as a seaman. The isolation

providedby the sea, marooned from mans feeble attempts to make their lives worth something,

is the ultimate glorification of life that eventually leads to ones demise. This is what Ryuji

forgot along the way when he met Fusako and decided settling on land and letting his heart

dictate his actionsthe glory of death in this meaningless and meandering life.


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By way of art imitating life, it could be said that Mishima is pushing for a political

agenda in writing this novel, given the fact that he is a staunch supporter of True Japan and what

it means to be truly Japanese. Noboru and his gang represent the resistance to an unfulfilling life,

even if their means and ideology may be viewed as extreme or nihilistic. There is reason to

believe the way they did, especially considering the nature of what post-WWII has become.

Instead of clinging on to the countrys identity, Japan sought help from outside influences to

reinvent itself and subsist in a globalized society, much like how the father is seen in the novel as

dampening the spirit of individualism out of people.

The idea of a nihilistic existence as viewed by Noboru and his group is a tool to magnify

the problem that Japan is undergoing. It is not that life in general is useless, but, rather, the

ordinary life of a Japanese person as seen in the novel is useless. They have attachments on land,

afraid of living life to the fullest, and are bound by the rules and guidance of those who think

they know better.

Fathers, in particular, are depicted as those who insist on a life that reflects their vision

and that it is impossible to think otherwise. Theyre suspicious of anything creative, anxious to

whittle the world down into something puny they can handle. A father is a reality-concealing

machine, a machine for dishing up lies to kids, and that isnt even the worst of it: secretly he

believes that he represents reality. (Mishima 136)

What the ideology presented by Noboru and gang presupposes is that people fear the

alternative. Whereas fathers and society in general provide a clear-cut path on how to live their

lives, what if theres an alternative that debunks everything they believed in? What if, instead of

living meaningful life to the fullest, there is ultimately nothing but glorious death?


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Benitez 20

Mishima pushes simply for the banality of the ordinary life as represented by the father.

Their care and compassion is seen as a hindrance in ones becoming. Because of their guidance,

people started living in fear of the unknown and lived off to what people say on how one should

their lives.


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Benitez 21

Works Cited

Napier, Susan Jolliffe. "The Bitter Taste of Glory: The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the

Sea."Escape from the Wasteland: Romanticism and Realism in the Fiction of Mishima

Yukio and Oe Kenzaburo. Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard

University, 1991. 118-25. Print.

Nathan, John.Mishima: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1974. Print.

Scott-Stokes, Henry. The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima. New York: Farrar, Straus and

Giroux, 1974. Print.

Tsutomo, Kano. "Why the Search for Identity." Introduction. The Silent Power: Japan's Identity

and World Role : 10 Incisive Essays by Leading Japanese Social Scientists Selected from

the Japan Interpreter. Tokyo: Simul, 1976. N. pag. Print.


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Benitez 1

Christopher Jan Benitez

CL241

Ms. Lily Rose Tope

June 3, 2013

The Order of Discontent:

The War against Banality in Yukio Mishimas The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the

Sea

Introduction

Considered as one of Japans most gifted writers, Yukio Mishima has become popular

with the darkness and depravity he conveys through his literature. In The Sailor Who Fell from

Grace with the Sea, Mishima weaves a blunt yet effective narrative about Ryuji, a man of the

sea, who was drawn back to the land by Fusako to a life of convention, much to the dismay of

people who admire, especially Noboru, Fusakos son.

Despite the title already suggesting the defeat of the male protagonist, the story is not

about the inevitable fall from grace. Rather, the story delves deep into the manner how Ryuji left

a life of freedom only to be encaged by marriage and the responsibilities attached with it.

In this tale of a mans downward spiral, this paper aims to relate certain events in the life

of Mishima before and during the writing ofThe Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea to the

characters in the book as representation of Mishimas discontent with Japan. In particular, this

paper will focus on the ideology espoused by Noboru and the gang as a counter-reaction to the

uselessness of lives in the characters of the novel. Using these tropes, this paper will use the

image of True Japan as discussed by Kano Tsutomu in relation with the ordinariness of

Japanese life in the novel that reinforces what the identity of Japan really is.


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The True Mishima

To see Mishima become the author of Japanese literary classics, one must look back to

his formative years as a romantic, where his admiration to the decadence featured in Raymond

Radiguet and Oscar Wildes works laid the foundation of things to come. The latters play

Salom is one of Mishimas favorite due to the portrayal of death (the passing away of a

handsome youth) and blood (St. John the Baptists decapitated head) as divine.

Hints of this beautiful decay that fascinated Mishima in the written text are shown in

his first published workHanazakari no Mori in 1941 as installments in a literary magazine. The

five-part series details the lives of ancestors of an aristocratic lineage in history. The beauty of

the novel, as Zenmei Hasuda (a vehement nationalist and a schoolteacher friend of Shimizu) puts

it, has something to do with the nostalgia of historical Japan as opposed to their current period.

The language used in the work, brimming with memories that were absolved of the crudeness

exhibited by current Japan, helped in getting his point across as a writer well above his

contemporaries. More importantly, the maturity of the series can be seen through the pessimism

of its characters (Stokes 89).

After the last installment ofHanazakari no Mori, Japan was forced to go to war, as

Mishima puts it (Stokes 90), when the American Fleet was attacked in Pearl Harbor by carrier-

borne aircraft, which sparked the Pacific War. It was a period of time that historian and

Mishimas friend Bunzo Hashikawa believed explains why the author decided to commit suicide

at his peak, again showing how Mishima views death as a beautiful thing.

During this period, Mishima associated himself with a group of literary nationalists called

the Bungei Bunka. The group was led by Zenmei Hasuda, a man 21 years the elder of Mishima

whom the latter truly respected. Hasuda was responsible in getting Mishima on board with the


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Benitez 3

group to not only connect with like-minded people in the literary field, but also fed with the

belief that the war is holy. The elder also believe that, [O]ne should die young in this age. To die

young, I am sure, is the culture of my country. (Stokes 93) This statement was drawn from his

study of Otsu-no-Miko, a Japanese classic of a tragic prince in the seventh century. This

statement alone carries enough reason to believe that Mishima shares the same view with Hasuda

about death and destruction, that which is a part of Japan that makes it beautiful.

Mishimas involvement with the Bungei Bunka led to the formation of the Nippon

Roman-ha (Japanese Romanticists), which furthered their belief of the Sacred war. Led by

Yojiro Yasuda and his rhetorical gift, the group took the belief of holy war too far even for

Mishima. Said Jun Eto in one of his conversation with Henry Scott Stoker, author of The Life

and Death of Yukio Mishima,

They believed in the value of destruction and ultimately in self-destruction. They

valued purity of sentiment, though they never defined this; and they called for

preservation of the nation by purging selfish party politicians and zaibatsu

[business] leaders. They believed that self-destruction would be followed by

reincarnation, linked mysteriously with the benevolence of the Emperor. The

Japanese, they considered, were superior to all other peoples. (Stokes 94)

Nonetheless, Mishima was intrigued enough to collect Roman-ha works, in particular

Shizuo Itos, for the group. The works produced by the Nippon Roman-hawhich drew from

the 19th century Romantic movement, Marxism, and kokugaku (nationalism derived from the

thoughts of 18th

century thinker Norinaga Motoori)had great influence during the war and was

encouraged by the Japanese leaders.


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Benitez 4

Yasuda continued to provide leadership for the group, whose ideas reaffirmed Mishimas

beliefs as to why he joined the group in the first place.

Yasuda held that historical reality was unimportant and that the emotion aroused

by events was more interesting than the events themselves. He argued that it

was irrelevant whether a hero was righteous or not. The enlightened man would

not commit himself. For such a being, there could be neither decisive defeat nor

complete victory; he would be both winner and loser in any game. (Stokes 95)

Mishima used all the knowledge acquired from his affiliations with such people that

shaped his thinking. Images of death and destruction have become staple parts of his work,

especially seen in the Sea of Fertility tetralogy. In The Sailor, Mishima focused more on using

these images to make way for life.

The True Japan

To fully understand the social commentary of Mishima in this novel, we need to delve

deeper into what it means to be Japanese. In his essay In Search of an Identity, Kano

Tsutomu discusses the disillusionment that postwar Japan experienced, which led to which stems

from how Japan has adopted western practices into their culture to mixed results.

Tsutomo mentioned United States, a country that Japan looks up to in terms of foreign

relations and areas of defense, and their weakening influence going into the 70s that culminated

in the Nixon shocks. Before that, America occupied Japanese soil after the war, leaving the

Japanese people enraged as they yearned for independence. As part of their turning against the

Americans, Japanese turned to indigenous values and culture as their source of nationalism and

identity in these confusing times. The increased attention toward Yanagita Kunio and his folklore


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Benitez 5

studies using indigenous concepts and tools is testament to Japans need to call something their

own in these trying times.

The transformation of Japan into a westernized country in an Asian continent (a stranger

in a strange land of sorts) was made to look worse when compared to China, whose distinct

Eastern values and integrity has remained intact throughout this period in time. These factors

caused Japan to internalize and reevaluate what their real identity is.

Chinas resistance to Western civilization appeared in the eyes of Japanese

modernizers to be an act of stubborn backwardness. Later Japanese claims to

leadership in Asia were indeed based on the assumption of that superiority. In

other words, Japan rejected identification with backward Asia and sought the

strength of westernization entitled it to lead Asia. Modern Japan has been neither

fully Western nor fully Asian and yet it has aspired to be more than full

membership in both. (Tsutomo 9)

Tainted Japan

This is evident in The Sailorby the time the narrator introduces Rex, Ltd., the luxury

shop situated at the Yokohama district that was owned by Fusako, Ryujis object of affection.

The description of the place does not necessarily center in on American influences, but more of

how Fusako has forsaken the Japanese identity in place of multitude of design elements from

different corners of the globe.

The Moorish architecture of the small two-story building was distinctive; the

Mosque window set into the thick white wall at the front of the shop always

contained a tasteful display. Inside, an open mezzanine much like a veranda

overlooked a patio of imported Spanish tile. A small fountain bubbled in the


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Benitez 6

center of the patio. A bronze Bacchus, some Vivax neckties carelessly draped

over its armsthese were priced so as to discourage any would-be buyer.

(Mishima 24)

Aside from the aesthetics of Rex, Ltd., the shop emphasized on fine quality for their

products that consist of gloves, bag, leather, and sweaters imported from Italy and France.

The affluent lifestyle that Fusako displayed in the novel is an example of post-WWII

Japan and its attempt to indigenize concepts outside their culture and make it their own.

Throughout the duration of the novel, the prominence of these western elements in Fusakos

home and shop takes away the elusive Japanese identity that Tsutomo was referring to.

To the Japanese romanticist the nation is not simply a collectivity of individuals;

it is an entity that transcends the people both in time and space. The emperor is

the symbol of that transcendence, that eternity, rather than of the people, no

matter what the postwar Constitution says. This concept of the nation as a

suprahistorical entity does not readily submit to logical analysis, but it is very real

to Japanese, nevertheless. This concept should not be regarded as exclusively

right-wing, but as something broadly Japanese. The True Japan has long been

lost, perhaps even before the end of the Second World War. It still exists,

however, somewhere in the depths of the Japanese mind, and every time the

pendulum swings inward, this image is called back into active service. (Tsutomo

4)

This True Japan, as mentioned by Mishima prior to his suicidal stage in life, happens to

be the dormant identity that the Japanese has long keep to itself as they adapt to the changes in

society. In this case, The True Japan within Fusako is well hidden and wont surface anytime


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Benitez 7

soon. Even the company that she surrounds herself with in Yoriko displays the kind of ideals that

Tsutomo points out in his quote above. A struggling actress and Fusakos loyal customer, Yoriko

obsesses over wining an award for her thespian chops that she would offer her body to the jury if

it would help her case.

This kind of attitude and display in The Sailoris symbolic to turning their backs on

everything Japanese by holding on to these attachments.

True Japan, pure and unadulterated

True Japan is embodied byNoborus group led by a thirteen year-old boy they refer to

as chief and Ryuji, the main protagonist of the novel.

Raised in good homes, performs well in school, and eats packed lunches, what brings

the group together is their opinion of the uselessness of Mankind, the insignificance of Life.

(40) It is easy to dismiss their concerns as petty, especially when a member of the groups

complains about their mother not buying him an air rifle because it is dangerous, but the chief

offers profound insight about the definition of danger, thus blurring the lines to a rather dry-cut

problem.

Real danger is nothing more than just living. Of course, living is merely the chaos

of existence, but more than that its a crazy mixed-up business of dismantling

existence instant by instant to the point where the original chaos is restored, and

taking strength from the uncertainty and the fear that chaos brings to re-create

existence instant by instant. You wont find another job as dangerous as that.

There isnt any fear in existence itself, or any uncertainty but living creates it.

And society is basically meaningless, a Roman mixed bath. And school, school is


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Benitez 8

society in miniature: thats why were always being ordered around. A bunch of

blind men tell us what to do, tear our unlimited ability to shreds. (Mishima 51)

From this quote by the chief, we can draw how the current status quo has upset the group

and much of this disdain is caused by the use of fear as drive to control and suppress societys

natural inclinations. For the chief, its not merely the fact that the parents didnt buy their son an

air rifle, but the entire social structure promotes this kind of culture that casts fear on people to

the uncertain. Despite the certainty of death, everybody wants to delay it by taking precaution

and compromising to their situations for the sake longevity. This mindset espoused by society

upsets the group very much as their view death as beautiful glory.

One of the major points of discussion that stemmed from the ideology of a broken society

is how Noboru looks up to Ryuji, the sailor and the main protagonist of the novel, as his hero.

What made him become a seaman is his own disdain towards land. The unmoving landscapes

forced him to ride the ship and experience the exotic places. Regardless, his feelings towards the

sea changed as well.

He grew indifferent to the lure of exotic lands. He found himself in the strange

predicament all sailors share: he belonged neither to the land nor to the sea.

Possibly a man who hates the land should dwell on shore forever. Alienation and

the long voyages at sea will compel him once again to dream of it, torment him

with the absurdity of longing for something that he loathes.

Ryuji hated the immobility of the land, the eternally unchanging surfaces. But a

ship was another kind of prison. (Mishima 18)

The last sentence captures the essence of Ryuji as the reluctant hero, which plays a

significant role later as the novel progresses. There is nothing that land and sea can offer him


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Benitez 9

expect the boredom and sameness that both locations pose. At face value, he has a desirable

occupation allowing them to navigate through different locations on his way to new experiences.

However, the experience of being an actual sailor made him realize that he is trapped in a bigger

unmoving landscape.

We can see this more in the lines of his favorite popular music song I Cant Give Up the

Sailors Life:

The whistle wails and steamers tear,

Our ship slips away from the pier.

Now the seas my home, I decided that.

But even I must shed a tear.

As I wave, boys, as I wave so sad

At the harbor town where my heart was glad. (Mishima 17-18)

Readers will see that based from his favorite song, Ryuji is not completely sold into

becoming a sailor because he still feels something towards the land. Throughout the entire novel,

Ryuji is torn between his two desires as he interplays his romance with the sea and exchanges it

with the fatalism of land.

Symbolically, his original desire to leave the land can be seen as a way of escape from

the post-WWII Japan that has glorified Western ideals and adopted them to their culture. But

once he was exposed to the boredom and ennui that the sea offered him, he began his

introspection on how the land and sea helped him find love through Fusako.

It was the sea that made begin thinking secretly about love more than anything

else; you know, a love worth dying for, or a love that consumes you. To a man

locked up in a steel ship all the time, the sea is too much like a woman. Things


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Benitez 10

like her lulls and storms, or her caprice, or the beauty of her breast reflecting the

setting sun, are all obvious. More than that, youre in a ship that mounts the sea

and rides her and yet is constantly denied her. Nature surrounds a sailor with all

these elements so like a woman and yet he is kept as far as a man can be from her

warm, living body. (Mishima 41)

During the course of their relationship, Ryuji underwent a transformation that saw him

being part of the sea for a greater purpose to just having the sea as conduit to his realization that

there is no glory to be achieved in this vast freedom of raging waters. At first, he was hesitant to

release himself from the freedom he held dear while he was with Noboru:

What am I supposed to be doing here on a summer afternoon? Who am I, sitting

in a daze next to the son of a woman I made last night? Until yesterday I had my

song the seas my home, I decided that and the tears I cried for it, and two

million yen in my bank account as guarantees of my realitywhat have I got

now?(Mishima 69)

Part of this process is Ryuji getting acquainted with the elements of the landthe

newfound relationship he has built with Fusako and the residual responsibility of becoming a

paternal figure to Noboru were slowly but surely settling in his mind. All of these things are

foreign to him since he hasnt had this kind of opportunity in life before, for the sea is all he ever

known. But when the sea unraveled further empty thoughts and hopefulness despite the freedom

it offers, Ryuji was led to idea of parting ways with the sea and everything it represents:

Are you really going to give it up? The feeling of the sea, the dark, drunken

feeling that unearthly rolling always brings? The thrill of saying goodbye? The

sweet tears you weep for your song? Are you going to give up the life which has


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Benitez 11

detached you from the world, kept you remote, impelled you toward the pinnacle

of manliness? The secret yearning for death. The glory beyond and the death

beyond. Everything was beyond, wrong or right, had always been beyond.

Are you going to give that up? His heart in spasm because he was always in

contact with the oceans dark swell and the lofty light from the edge of the clouds,

twisting, withering until clogged and then swelling up again, and he unable to

distinguish the exalted feelings from the meanest and that that not mattering really

since he could hold the sea responsibleare you going to give up that luminous

freedom?(Mishima 110-111)

The tug of war between his feelings towards the land and sea can be compared to how

Japan adapted to foreign concepts to survive globalization at the expense of their identity.

This is perhaps the True Japan that Mishima preached about and not the incorporation of

foreign cultures to adapt to the changing landscape of society brought by the changing of guard

in post-WWII. True Japan, therefore, is the idea of an uncompromised culture and the ability

to subsist despite the isolation. The sea allows Ryuji to feel the emptiness and, at the same time,

power of being able to overcome it once the ship sails away from land. However, as the story

progresses, Ryuji is bound to leave the sea for land.

This part explains the greatness that Noboru, Fusakos son, saw in Ryujihis ability for

independence and sustainability without having to change himself. For Noboru, he sees greatness

in the adventure of travelling from one place to another, the weathering of the rough tides, the

burning of the skin under the glaze of the sun. In other words, it is the isolation from the

insipidness of society to try and prolong their existence by living through the motions is makes

Ryuji special in the eyes of Noboru and the gang. His admiration to Ryuji as a sailor is prevalent


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Benitez 12

with their conversations about theRayuko, Ryujis ship, and the main exports of different

countries Ryuji visited.

On the other hand, the hopelessness of everything, the lack of direction toward this

greatness found in death that Ryuji is talking about, is a belief shared by Noboru in the first

part of the book.

At thirteen, Noboru was convinced of his own genius (each of the others in the

gang felt the same way) and certain that life consisted of a few simple signals and

decisions; that death took root at the moment of birth and mans only recourse

thereafter was to water and tend it; that propagation was a fiction; consequently,

society was a fiction too; that fathers and teachers, were guilty of a grievous sin.

Therefore, his own fathers death, when he was eight, had been a happy incident,

something to be proud of. (Mishima 8)

Noboru and the gang made their belief towards all fathers more known later in the book:

They stand in the way of our progress while they try to burden us with their

inferiority complexes, and their unrealized aspirations, and their resentments, and

their ideals, and the weaknesses theyve sweeter-than-honey dreams, and the

maxims theyve never had the courage to live by theyd like to unload all that

silly crap on us, all of it! Even the most neglectful fathers, like mine, are no

different. (Mishima 137)

Once Ryuji drifted away from the sea as he returned to land before New Year to not only

celebrate the turn of the year with Fusako and Noboru, but also propose marriage to Fusako and

not return to the ship for a long time, his transformation into fatherhood took place. This is

evident by the way how Noboru updates the group about Ryuji the hero upon his return:


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Benitez 13

Ryuji read the silly novels and art books Fusako recommended and he studied

English conversation, a class each night on television and a text empty on nautical

terms; he listened to Fusako lecture on problems of store management; he learned

to wear the smart English clothes she lavishes to him; he has suits tailored, and

vests, and overcoats; and thenhe began going in to the shop every day.

(Mishima 135)

Through these actions, Ryuji embraces everything we turned his back from not long ago.

He is trying to integrate himself into society by doing all these things, all that alienated and drove

him to the sea.

As Ryuji devotes his time to Fusako, he is transformed to something that the gang detests

just like Fusako. The western sensibilities that werent able to touch Ryujis face tanned by the

sun and the simple turtleneck he wore are taking hold of him now that hes settling down.

Charges against Ryuji according to Noboru

Just as Ryuji was integrating himself to Fusakos household for the first time by deciding

on unlocking Noborus doorat night to give him freedom to exercise his better judgment,

Noboru interprets it as something else, which also reveals more about the ideologies espoused in

their group.

His uneasiness at being in the unlocked room made him shiver even after he had

buttoned his pajamas to the neck. They were beginning his education, a terrific,

destructive education. Trying to force maturity on a thirteen-year-old boy.

Maturity or, as the chief would call it,perversion. Noborus feverish brain was

pursuing an impossibility:Is there no way that I can remain in the room and at

the same time be out in the hall locking the door? (Mishima 143)


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Benitez 14

In some ways, Noboru being locked in his room run parallel with how Ryuji is marooned

at sea with his ship. There are able to escape how society dictates people to become. Despite

being confined in their prisons, both experience the same kind of freedom as they embrace

loneliness and rid themselves from the social structure in search of a greater glory.

This marks as one of the charges out of five that Ryuji has committed against Noboru

and the group. Earlier, he has already listed down two charges:

CHARGES AGAINST RJUYI TSUKAZAKI

One: smiling at me in a cowardly, ingratiate-

ing way when I met him this noon.

Two: wearing a dripping-wet shirt and ex-

plaining that he had taken a shower in

the fountain at the parkjust like an

old bum. Mishima (81)

Regarding the first two charges, Ryujis action was triggered by his recollection as a

child.

Closing the mouth of the fountain with his thumb, he squirted a fan of water at

the dahlias and white chrysanthemums languishing in the heat: leaves quivered, a

small rainbow arched, flowers recoiled. Ryuji reversed the pressure of his thumb

and doused his hair and face and throat. The water trickled from his throat to his

chest and belly, spinning a soft, cooling screen an indescribable delight.

(Mishima 46)


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Benitez 15

This simple joy he experienced in the fountain shows that how Ryuji has attachments of

his own in the land, much to the chagrin of Noboru: Why how did your shirt get sopped like

that?

What, this? The artificial smile spread over his face again. I took a little shower at

the fountain up there in the park. (Mishima 47)

The artificial smile was an ominous sign, as far as Noboru is concerned. While he

admired Ryuji for what he represents as a sailor, there were hints with Ryujis charac ter that was

not consistent with the image that Noboru and his group created for him.

There are two more charged added later after winter:

Three: answering, when I asked when he

would be sailing again: Im not sure yet.

Four: coming back here again in the first

place (Mishima 105)

This comes into fruition after Noboru was caught by Fusako peeping at Ryuji from the

hole in his room. Whereas most parents would be furious, disturbed, and even disgusted by what

Noboru has being doing, Ryuji took the high road. He talked to Noboru like an understanding

adult would talk to a teenager by explaining the curiosities involved in growing up, as well as the

changes of having Ryuji around all of a sudden to marry Fusako. There was no high drama as

Ryuji was able to diffuse the situation like a real adult. In other words, Ryuji is now a father.

Now Ryuji was obliged to reach a fathers decision, the first decision about shore

life had ever been forced to make. But his memory of the seass fury was

tempering his critical notons (sic) of land and the landsman with inordinate

mildness, and his instinctive approach to problems was therefore thwarted. To


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Benitez 16

beat the boy would be easy enough, but a difficult future awaited himhe was

expected in some vague, general way to comprehend the incomprehensible

feelings of the mother and child and to become an infallible teacher, perceiving

the causes of a situation even as unconscionable as this one: he was dealing here

with no ocean squall but the gentle breeze that blows ceaselessly over the land.

(Mishima 156)

This was the final charge and the most devastating that Ryuji committed to Noboru and

the gang. He is satisfied.Noboru felt nauseous. Tomorrow Ryujis slavish hands, the hands of a

father puttering over carpentry of a Sunday afternoon, would close forever the narrow access to

that unearthly brilliance which he himself had once revealed. (158)

The glory of skinning a cat

Due to Ryujis plans of getting married to Fusako and settling down as a father, the gang

decided to do something drastic to save Ryuji from this meandering kind of lifeto achieve

glory through death.

They have practiced murder by first skinning a cat and gutting its innards. Barring the

gruesome details ahead, it is more important to focus on the product of their carnage, as Noboru

internalized after witnessing murder that is nonetheless a significant piece that brings their

ideology into flesh.

Now his half-dazed brain envisioned the warmth of the scattered viscera and the

pools of blood in the gutted belly finding wholeness and perfection in the rapture

of the dead kittens large languid soul. The liver, limp beside the corpse, became a

soft peninsula, the squashed heart a little sun, the reeled-out bowels a white atoll,


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Benitez 17

and the blood in the belly the tepid waters of a tropical sea. Death had

transfigured the kitten into a perfect, autonomous world. (Mishima 61)

The imagery of tropics further the notion of Ryujis vision to glory in the sea, but the

bigger picture connotes that death is a way to salvation from a decaying world thats lost its

identity into paradise.

Moreover, the chief brought up the law that children less than 14 years of age are not

punishable by law. This law justifies their intention of murdering Ryuji as a testament to their

beliefs. If they let Ryuko pursue his plans of leaving the sea, then the gang will have failed.

The chief offers inspired words to the gang as they expressed skepticism in killing Ryuji:

If we dont act now we will never again be able to obey freedoms supreme

command, to perform the deed essential to filling the emptiness of the world,

unless we are prepared to sacrifice our lives. And you can see that its absurd for

the executioners to risk their own lives. If we dont act now well never be able to

steal again, or murder, or do any of the things that testify to mans freedom. Well

end up puking flattery and gossip, trembling our days away in submission and

compromise and fear, worrying about what the neighbors are doing, living like

squealing mice. And someday well get married, and have kids, and finally well

become fathers, the vilest things on earth! (167)

This part in the novel is essential in showing how True Japan is represented by kids on

the cusp of teenage life. By killing Ryuji, the gang is able to maintain the idea of glory that was

once lived by Ryuji as a seaman. Most importantly, unlike adults, who will be persecuted by

committing murder, the gang will be absolved for their actions. This is perfect opportunity for

them to take part in the fight against the emptiness the world has turned into.


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Benitez 18

As their plan takes flight by taking Ryuji to an abandoned U.S. Forces Installation, they

forced some stories out of Ryuji about his adventures in the sea. As he recalled his experiences

with the sea, Ryuji realizes the glory he sacrificed for the sake of being on land with Fusako:

The dark passions of the tides, the shriek of a tidal wave, the avalanching break of

surf upon a shoal,an unknown glory calling for him endlessly from the dark

offing, glory merged in death and in a woman, glory to fashion of his destiny

something special, something rare. At twenty he had been passionately certain: in

the depths of the worlds darkness was a point of light which had been provided

for him alone and would raw near someday to irradiate him and no other. (180-

181)

The Japanese identity within Ryuji overcame his longing moments away from death just

after he sipped the tea that the chief gave him, Still immersed in his dream, he drank down the

tepid tea. It tasted bitter. Glory, as anyone knows, is bitter stuff. (181).

Conclusion

While the novel fails to reveal whether or not Ryuji was murdered and killed by the gang,

it becomes immaterial in the grander scheme of things. Ryuji returns to the point where he was

torn between having the life in the sea or land, it becomes apparent in the last few lines of the

novel that he may have done a mistake by leaving life in the sea. Despite the dark images that

depict the sea, Ryuji attaches fond memories with his experiences as a seaman. The isolation

provided by the sea, marooned from mans feeble attempts to make their lives worth something,

is the ultimate glorification of life that eventually leads to ones demise. This is what Ryuji

forgot along the way when he met Fusako and decided settling on land and letting his heart

dictate his actionsthe glory of death in this meaningless and meandering life.


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By way of art imitating life, it could be said that Mishima is pushing for a political

agenda in writing this novel, given the fact that he is a staunch supporter of True Japan and what

it means to be truly Japanese. Noboru and his gang represent the resistance to an unfulfilling life,

even if their means and ideology may be viewed as extreme or nihilistic. There is reason to

believe the way they did, especially considering the nature of what post-WWII has become.

Instead of clinging on to the countrys identity, Japan sought help from outside influences to

reinvent itself and subsist in a globalized society, much like how the father is seen in the novel as

dampening the spirit of individualism out of people.

The idea of a nihilistic existence as viewed by Noboru and his group is a tool to magnify

the problem that Japan is undergoing. It is not that life in general is useless, but, rather, the

ordinary life of a Japanese person as seen in the novel is useless. They have attachments on land,

afraid of living life to the fullest, and are bound by the rules and guidance of those who think

they know better.

Fathers, in particular, are depicted as those who insist on a life that reflects their vision

and that it is impossible to think otherwise. Theyre suspicious of anything creative, anxious to

whittle the world down into something puny they can handle. A father is a reality-concealing

machine, a machine for dishing up lies to kids, and that isnt even the worst of it: secretly he

believes that he represents reality. (Mishima 136)

What the ideology presented by Noboru and gang presupposes is that people fear the

alternative. Whereas fathers and society in general provide a clear-cut path on how to live their

lives, what if theres an alternative that debunks everything they believed in? What if, instead of

living meaningful life to the fullest, there is ultimately nothing but glorious death?


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Mishima pushes simply for the banality of the ordinary life as represented by the father.

Their care and compassion is seen as a hindrance in ones becoming. Because of their guidance,

people started living in fear of the unknown and lived off to what people say on how one should

their lives.


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Works Cited

Napier, Susan Jolliffe. "The Bitter Taste of Glory: The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the

Sea."Escape from the Wasteland: Romanticism and Realism in the Fiction of Mishima

Yukio and Oe Kenzaburo. Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard

University, 1991. 118-25. Print.

Nathan, John.Mishima: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1974. Print.

Scott-Stokes, Henry. The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima. New York: Farrar, Straus and

Giroux, 1974. Print.

Tsutomo, Kano. "Why the Search for Identity." Introduction. The Silent Power: Japan's Identity

and World Role : 10 Incisive Essays by Leading Japanese Social Scientists Selected from

the Japan Interpreter. Tokyo: Simul, 1976. N. pag. Print.

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