Spring Snow: The Sea of Fertility, 1 [Paperback]

Yukio Mishima (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 14, 1990

Yukio Mishima’s Spring Snow is the first novel in his masterful tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. Here we meet Shigekuni Honda, who narrates this epic tale of what he believes are the successive reincarnations of his friend, Kiyoaki Matsugae.
 
It is 1912 in Tokyo, and the hermetic world of the ancient aristocracy is being breached for the first time by outsiders — rich provincial families unburdened by tradition, whose money and vitality make them formidable contenders for social and political power. Shigekuni Honda, an aspiring lawyer and his childhood friend, Kiyoaki Matsugae, are the sons of two such families. As they come of age amidst the growing tensions between old and new, Kiyoaki is plagued by his simultaneous love for and loathing of the spirited young woman Ayakura Satoko. But Kiyoaki’s true feelings only become apparent when her sudden engagement to a royal prince shows him the magnitude of his passion — and leads to a love affair both doomed and inevitable.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Perfect beauty. . . . A classic of Japanese literature.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
 
“Mishima was one of literature's great romantics, a tragedian with a heroic sensibility, an intellectual, an esthete, a man steeped in Western letters who toward the end of his life became a militant Japanese nationalist.”
—Jay McInerney, The New York Times

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Japanese

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (April 14, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679722416
• ISBN-13: 978-0679722410
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

112 of 126 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Read at once. May 29, 2002

By Angry Mofo

Format:Paperback

I've only read two Mishima books so far, am reading a third now, and intend to get through 'em all. Alas, I fear that none will be as good as the first one I read - Spring Snow. I really didn't think people could still write like this in the 20th century. I mean, star-crossed, tragic love was an old subject by the time Shakespeare got to it - what made Mishima think he could write something new about it hundreds of years later? But something did, and I'm glad it did. For while there is a [very interesting] historical context to Spring Snow (tell me, what other book paints such a visceral portrait of early 20th century Japan?), the focus is on the love story. And no one writes love stories like Yukio Mishima. Somehow, it manages to avoid the gaping pitfalls of sentimentalism and melodrama, creating instead a world of great beauty and fragility that I was loath to leave when the book drew to its close.

If you read a biography of Mishima, you will likely find mountains of speculation concerning his various eccentricities (and that word is putting is nicely, methinks). Some will accuse him of right-wingery, others will rant about his "nationalism," etc. etc. etc. But I think that none of that applies. He was in no way a political person, just a hopelessly deluded romantic who still believed that romantic ideals had any place in modern society. This he applied to politics as well as to everything else. Spring Snow, fortunately, contains no politics, concentrating instead on romantic ideals as applied to the personal. The result is something that, while being Japanese through and through, is accessible to anyone. This book is worth reading for the marvelously poetic descriptions alone.... I shan't say that it will "change your life," since that's cliche and more often than not utterly wrong, but I daresay that you will have an indelible impression made upon your mind. At first, you may not notice it, but as time passes, you will find that you remember large parts of Spring Snow on countless occasions, and you will find yourself recalling parts of it as examples of great beauty and purity, and reflexively applying them to your own life. And then you will cheer Mishima as quite possibly the last romantic on Earth. That is exactly what happened to me. Read more ›

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Quietly Disturbing May 27, 2000

By Calix F Eden

Format:Paperback

Mishima has the ability to get underneath the skin of his readers. What seems like an innocent and harmless story of adolescence gradually becomes one of fundamental importance. In my view, this is the most brilliant of the three Mishima novels I have read. It is a masterpiece which leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. None of Mishima's characters seem happy and even the 'heroes' are ambiguous, despite the fact that many of them are perfect in physical terms. We have to judge the character for ourselves without help, rather like a film without background music. There is a strong homo-erotic undercurrent in Mishima's work, even though the central relationship in this novel is heterosexual. The focal character, Kiyoaki, seems to be massochistic and derives a form of pleasure from his own destruction.

I would strongly recommend anyone who is interested in the complexities of relationships and the specific cultural life of Japan to read this novel. Above all, it should be read for the intricacy and skill of its literature.

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, moving, delicate, and unforgettable. July 9, 1997

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Spring Snow is a dramatic, moving work that helps codify Mishima's tetralogy, the Sea of Fertility, as perhaps the 20th century's greatest magnum opus. Mishima writes in a delicately impressionistic style, employing similes and metaphors of subtle, almost fragile beauty, that create a vivid and harmonic unity that simply inspire awe. Like Dante, he moves the reader's spirit as his characters spirits evolve. Like Dostoyevsky, he plunges relentlessly into the dark caprices of the mind. Like Milton, his word choice was so perfect that I put down the Sea of Fertility wishing that I had written it myself.

Spring Snow, the first installment of the cycle, stands very well on its own (though its ultimate meaning can only be appreciated as the tetralogy is continued). It takes place early in 20th century Japan, a time of transition in which Japan's decreased isolation leads to a Westernization that ultimately proves Spring Snow to be an elegy for the samurai tradition. It is also a wonderful and tragic love story -- far more convincing than Romeo and Juliet -- in which an impossible and doomed love threatens the young protagonists whose wealthy families adjust to the changing sociopolitical climate of Japan.

The other three books in the cycle are (in order):

'Runaway Horses,' 'The Temple of Dawn,' and 'The Decay of the Angel'

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting: it makes you want more May 16, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Perhaps I shouldn't review this book in light of the fact that I haven't read the whole tetralogy. However, after reading 'Spring Snow' I'm trying to plow through 'Runaway Horses' as quickly as I can so I can get to volumes III & IV to complete the whole cycle.

He pays wonderful attention to detail and subtlety without it becoming tedious or overbearing. I can't begin to count the hours of sleep I lost pouring through this book. I look forward to completing the cycle so I can go to bed at a decent hour again.

Mishima's writing is entrancing. Of all the supposed western "classics" that were forced on me in high school and college, this one surpasses them all. Mishima should be required reading, and I thank the wonderful college professor that introduced me to his work.

31 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful! March 1, 2000

By Ryan Yeung

Format:Paperback

I first read this book back when I was a College Freshman. Back then the book presented a very good picture of the aristocratic life of early 1900's Japan to me. I read it at it's face value, as a tragic love story. The story was so intense and quiet full of suspense that I went thru 7 sleepless nights in a row to finish this great book. Eight years later, I have a second reading of this book. Since I had grown more mature since my first reading, I am able to detect more of the underlying ideas in the book. Ideas such as patriotism VS self-interst, self-gratification VS self-restraint, are 2 such forces that drive the plot.