Hello Gentle Reader
It is a difficult assessment. The word belief is not a word that I particularly like to use. The word itself, has always been defined as, that cowardly word, that people try to make as some metaphysical concept to it. The word itself, for me however was a word that in its meaning symbolized the fact and the concept that a person when they said they believed in something, that it usually meant that they were giving up their own free will. Therefore they were also giving up their rationality and therefore were also giving up their reasonability as a human being to think for themselves, and therefore be responsible for their own thoughts. The word “believe,” always spoke of some ignorant and dogmatic concept that someone would never listen to reason. When using the word “believe,” it was just something that one gave up their own ideas and opinions, and therefore gave up their responsibility as an individual to think for themselves. However, as a human being and an admitted hypocrite, I have used the word; believe on numerous occasions through the days of my life. However my opinion of the word believe is still something that I continue to hold on to.
Horrible atrocities and actions have been committed, by people who believe in something to the point of fanaticism. The act of terrorism itself can be summed up as the fact of believing in a ideology so full heartedly to the point that the radical actions and fundamental thought itself becomes so strong, that those people would do anything in the action itself. Therefore the act of terrorism, that had been committed, will scare people so bad, that they will meet the demands of the terrorists. Yet the ideological fantasy of such a belief isolates them really from a more grounded world view. They do not begin to see that their fanatical actions themselves are not at all as ideological pure as they themselves thought. Their actions themselves are as nihilistic and destructive as the force they themselves fight against. The fundamentalist and radical thought that they so whole heartedly believe in, alienates and isolates them from their fellow human beings. After believe in the thought so much and so heartedly, and being lead to believe that what they are about to do is, for the greater good, their last and only option is to do terminate their existence. The act of ‘picturesque,’ death – this suicidal, action of such a nihilistic approach leads them to believe that they are becoming martyrs and that their self sacrifice by their own hands will lead to their disillusioned martyrdom, which will shake the concepts of the world and will purge the supposed evil that they see. However in my opinion when placing this act of self-destruction as a concept of some twisted sense of martyrdom, in the comparison to this novel’s main character Isao, it becomes clear in the end that his self-sacrifice is something more of a selfish action then an action for the greater good.
Often while reading this novel, and its treatment of death, as some sense as the greatest poetic concept of purity, it felt like it was the ground work and the plan for the author’s own, attempted coup and death at his own hands in ritual suicide.
“The concept of purity, then could alter to the contrary with arbitrary swiftness. And so purity was the stuff of poetry.”
Lines like the above passage from the book are very common in this novel by Yukio Mishima. The concept of purity and of death, and an honourable warrior’s death is something that is continually discussed. It becomes rather dour and repetitive after a while, and is not something that I particularly wish to want to have read continually. However, if one get through the constant feeling of moaning and the feeling of melodramatic, actions of Isao who acts like a Nietzschean concept of a “superman,” the novel can be an interesting discussion of the fanaticism of Japan in the nineteen-thirties.
The May fifteen Incident (May 15 Incident) that one will often read about in this novel, at times greatly leads to the concept of how this novel was also written about – or rather how the novel was formed. Yukio Mishima believed whole heartedly, that after the end of World War II Japan’s traditional society and its traditional identity was destroyed by the nuclear bomb, and the rapid consumerism that was taken hold of the country in such a decadent fashion, and the western thoughts surrounding it, was so vile and cancerous that he himself, saw it as the destruction of Japan and the Japanese Society.
Isao Iinuma is the fictional embodiment of these beliefs of Yukio Mishima. Raised at the “Academy of Patriotism,” and an athletic prodigy from the appearance, Isao Iinuma becomes the force of this novel of right wing fantastim and patriotic devotion. While Honda – from the previous novel “Spring Snow,” remains a voice of reason. Nineteen years ago, Honda had witnessed the death of his dearly departed friend Kiyoaki Matsugae the crystal cold emotionless aristocrat. Now nineteen years in the future the young law student Honda, is a junior judge and has come to believe that he sees the reincarnation of his dear friend Kiyoaki in the form of Isao Iinuma who is the son of Shigeyuki Iinuma the former tutor of Kiyoaki Matsugae, who has no turned into a right wing personality and has raised his son with a strict education.
It is a fascinating story to have witnessed the development and changes of the characters. Honda now in middle age. Iinuma no longer a servant, to Kiyoaki, and now how Prince Toin has also grown. At times I thought there certainly could not have been a worst character then Kiyoaki when I was reading “Spring Snow,” but the destructive action and desire to commit suicide, of Isao Iinuma, was just as worst as the emotionless unsentimental glacier character of Kiyoaki. Which is why Honda has become a character far more easier to enjoy. He does not have the Nietzschean concept of a “superman,” of Isao Iinuma; nor does he have the emotionless unsentimental warmth of Kiyoaki. He has a more rational mind and head to him. However his devotion to save Isao Iinuma’s life, comes to have more grounded purpose in its action – because of his inability to save Kiyoaki’s; rather than the action that Isao Iinuma wishes to take, to die as an honorable soldier, and use an act of terrorism, to wake up the nation against its decadent behavior and realize its traditional roots.
The May fifteen Incident (May 15 Incident) was an incident that happened in May of nineteen-thirty two. The then Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was shot by eleven young naval officers. However an interesting twist, the original assassination plan was also to kill Charlie Chaplin – who at the time of the incident was visiting the country of Japan, and also at the time was watching a sumo wrestling match. However along with the assassination of the prime minister, the house of the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, and the residence and office of the Rikken Seiyukai, was also attacked. Hand grenades were also thrown into the Mitsubishi Bank Headquarters, as well as several transformer substations.
The plan of Isao mimic’s greatly the May fifteenth Incident. The plan is to eliminate the Zaibatsu of the pre-war Imperial Japan – in modern day terms the Zaibatsu, were the one percent capitalists, who the more traditional leagues of Japan, thought were corrupting the society with their decadent behavior. It is in this concept that Isao Iinuma, shares the same concept of Yukio Mishima, in the fact that the decadence of Japan was caused by certain people who brought too much western influence into the country and needed to have been destroyed and terminated. As with the May fifteen Incident – the youth and the actions deemed to be in the proper sense of ideological purity and the stuff of youthful arrogance and worldly ignorance, were left with minor sentences. However in the case of Isao his death obsession and desire of the perfect warriors death and martyrdom leave him with only once selfish decision to make – and there being no other choice he would make it.
The themes of political devotion, the nihilistic actions of the falsehood and the futility of Isao, as well as the beginning compare and contrast of Shinto and Buddhism, and obsession and radical thoughts of fanatical devotions are all explored in this novel. The era of the Nineteen-Thirties of the economic depression of the country. The farmers, starving, and the poor trying to work hard, as well as the political violence of the time, are enacted in Mishima’s poetic and beautifully cold prose that are resemble the facade of a crystal, but leave one with the feeling of looking at a very cold glacier.
A beautiful yet very cold portrait of this era of Japan. The beginning feelings and sentiments of World War II are right around the corner. It’s a strange novel written by one of the greatest Japanese writers of the twentieth century (after Yasunari Kawabata of course) and its themes of martyrdom and political radical ideologies, and the time of economic depression and down fall, are adequately written about.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
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M.Mary
