Runaway Horses [Paperback]

Yukio MISHIMA (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Pocket Books (1995)
• ASIN: B001EBQQ0C
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mishima-----a master craftsman., March 30, 2000

By 

"jovaldo" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Runaway Horses (Paperback)

Mishima is undoubtedly a fine writer. His technique and style are amazing. He can even make a two page description of kimono fabric interesting to an NFL linebacker! Many will certainly question the motivation of his writing (a return to samurai codes [Bushido], restoration of emperor, expelling all things western from Japan, etc.), but they cannot deny the accurate portrait Mishima paints of a mid-20th century Japan that is straddling the lines between traditional culture (buddhism/shinto/etc.) and western industrialization. Mishima takes a grand-scale problem and puts it into a specific setting. Obviously readers that have an understanding of the greater context of Japanese history from the mid-20th century will appreciate this novel more. I do think, however, that even someone that couldn't point to Japan on a map, but likes good writing and story-telling will be able to appreciate the book on those merits alone. While not as enjoyable as the first installment of the "Sea of Fertility" tetrology, it is an enjoyable book.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant masterpiece on its own..., October 6, 2003

By 

cheguevara (Vancouver, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Runaway Horses (Paperback)

The Runaway Horse has been criticized unfairly for its glorification of nationalistic and even fascist views. The word Kamikaze has become such a taboo in the modern western world that anything that touches even slightly on the subject would be condemned.

In this amazing book, Isao symbolizes the purity of life. All that's good is pure, and all that's pure is good. Thus is the belief of Isao, and eventually, of Mishima himself as evident of his suicide in 1970. Having said that, I do not expect this book to be understood by its English readers. The translation proves to be a great barrier but more importantly, the philosophy that is the core of this particular book is too distant for the modern Japanese readers, let alone readers in North America who have been sheltered from different cultures.

Runaway Horse describes meaning of the true Japanese samurai, or at least of what Mishima believes it is. A samurai is not after his own glory or achievements. His only goal is to be loyal to the Emperor and to God. He is a mere servant of these goals and his life could and should be given up to the Emperor upon request. Isao believes that the blade and the blood of the corrupt politicians will be a wake-up call to the Emperor to restore feudal Japan. Although naive and violent at times, Isao is a one-dimensional human being that follows the human goal of "being yourself", Being true to yourself is an impossible task for most people, and therefore Isao is the idealized human being. It also reflects the Japanese philosophy of simplicity. The problems of the modern day world are so complex that only the simplest actions would resolve them, complex actions would not only take time to execute, but would entangle the matters even more.

This book also displays the obsession with beauty that Mishima has. In his mind, beauty is worth giving up your life for. His ideas of beauty are expressed with the most sensuous and colorful images shaped by adjective upon adjectives. Mishima's writing style, especially when it involves this matter, is not for everyone. Patient readers with deep imaginations, though, will find it joyful as descriptions from the book spring from the wells of their minds and take flight before their eyes. Isao's suicide is a painting that has been painted a thousand times in my mind, along with the rising sun.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "When the time comes for me to turn my sword against myself, lilies will surely rise from the morning dew and open their petals", October 16, 2011

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Runaway Horses (Paperback)

(4.5 stars) Runaway Horses (1969), the second in the Sea of Fertility tetralogy, continues the characters introduced in Spring Snow into 1932 - 1933, a time in which Japan is beset with enormous internal problems - the economy and rural poverty, the corruption of politicians, the rise of communism, the cutbacks in the army, and in foreign affairs. Many incidents of political violence have taken place, including the assassination of the Finance Minister, and on May 15, 1932, the assassination of Prime Minister Inukai himself, by eleven Navy officers.

As the novel opens, Shigekuni Honda, a main character in Spring Snow, now a judge in the Osaka Court of Appeals, has reached the age of thirty-eight, a man leading a quiet life of reason who believes that his youth ended with the death of his friend Kiyoaki Matsugae, eighteen years ago. When he is asked to substitute for his Chief Justice at a kendo exhibition in Nara, some distance away, he accepts. The star of the exhibition is young Isao Iinuma, the nineteen-year-old son of Kiyoaki's tutor during their childhood. Later, after climbing Mount Miwa, Honda performs a purification ritual in a waterfall and sees, once again, young Isao. This time he is stunned to notice a pattern of three moles under Isao's arm. His friend Kiyoaki had exactly the same pattern of moles, and had insisted on his deathbed that "I will see you again." Honda, who has always grounded his life in reason, now believes that Isao is the confident samurai reincarnation of Kiyoaki.

At the Saigusa Festival of Wild Lilies, Isao gives Honda a copy of a book which is a prized possession: The League of the Divine Wind, by Yamao Tsunenori, which rails against making Japan a republic and insists that all foreign influences be eliminated from Japan. (The Japanese word for "Divine Wind" is "kamikaze.") Long passages which go back to the early parts of the Meiji dynasty, set the scene for the action to follow as Isao, dedicating his life to the pure samurai tradition, establishes a group of other young men who plan executions of those in public life who have violated the code.

Rich descriptions of nature, including a section in which a white camellia is personified, accompany the developing action, and some nature scenes of obvious symbolism add to the dilemma faced by Honda as he remembers dreams which Kiyoaki has recorded in his diary and left for Honda as a legacy. And as Isao begins to plan for what is the climax of this novel, one can see the author preparing the way for new understandings. Mishima succeeds in giving voice to points of view that would otherwise have been totally alien to me. By explaining the samurai code within the context of Japanese history and culture, and using characters of different beliefs whom I liked and respected, he was able to explain what lay behind the ritual suicide he himself committed shortly after completion of the tetralogy. Though the book is sometimes propagandistic and deals almost exclusively with men and their behavior, 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. The Sea of Fertility has always been regarded as his masterpiece, and readers interested in Japan will not want to miss this novel. Mary Whipple

Spring Snow