Runaway Horses (Yukio Mishima)

----The Sea of Fertility #1: Spring Snow----


SETTING
Japan, early Showa Era (1932-1933)


CAST OF CHARACTERS
Isao Iinuma: A spirited young man seeking to cleanse Japan from degeneration by shedding his own blood and those he perceived as the personification of evil (e.g. financiers, westernized upper class). Isao was highly respected by his peers and elders, thanks to his strength of character and accomplishment in kendo. To fight for the cause, he founded the secret organization the League of the Divine Wind.

Shigekuni Honda: Presently a respectable thirty-eight year old judge, his unshakeable belief in logic and rationality began to crumble when he met Isao, suspecting the possibility that Isao was Kiyoaki Matsugae's reincarnation.

Shigeyuki Iinuma: Isao's father, headmaster of the Academy of Patriotism, former tutor/manservant of Kiyoaki Matsugae's. He's an intense person, but the type who had no trouble in living with himself despite glaring discrepancy between his conviction and action.


NOTABLE QUOTES (according to me anyway)
"Before the sun . . . at the top of a cliff at sunrise, while paying reverence to the sun . . . while looking down upon the sparkling sea, beneath a tall, noble pine . . . to kill myself." --Isao

When Honda reflected upon his own character, he had no choice but to conclude that he was a man possessed of a will. [H]owever, he could not avoid misgivings as to the ability of that will to change anything or to accomplish anything, even in contemporary society, let alone in the course of future history.

"Naturally, having a large number of unemployed is unpleasant. However to equate this immediately with an unsound economy is fallacious. Common sense tells us that the contrary is true. The welfare of Japan is not bound up with there being good cheer in everybody's kitchen." --Kurahara, the capitalist

Not feared nor, much less, hated, only loved, [Isao] found himself in a situation that wounded his pride.

". . . Purity can't be toned down a little . . . . [I]f our ideas can't be watered down, and if they're threat to the nation . . . our ideas are just as dangerous as those of the Reds . . . ." --Isao


FINAL THOUGHTS

• I imagine contemporary suicide bombers are not so different from Isao, in their zealousness and intensity.
• I think I understand why Isao thought it necessary for him to die in order to be of service to the Emperor and his country, and I know it takes great courage to stare death in the face. However, I do wonder if there's an element of cowardice there. I mean, isn't it easier to end your life than to keep on living while staying true to your principles and fighting for them?
• Are fascism and communism two sides of the same coin? (Backdrop: The richer getting richer while the poor getting poorer; cheap imported goods abound, leaving local producers--e.g. farmers--in a pinch; increased activism from the Right and Left, sometimes taken to extremes, e.g. murder, bombings.)

----The Sea of Fertility #3: The Temple of Dawn----