Runaway Horses: The Sea of Fertility, 2

In RUNAWAY HORSES, the second volume of Yukio Mishima's "Sea of Fertility" tetralogy, we are presented with a remarkable turn of events. Kiyoaki Matsugae, the tragic protagonist of SPRING SNOW, has been born again. Those who wondered why the first novel in the cycle had those long debates on the transmigration of the soul will be pleased to see the consequences of the Siamese princes' beliefs.The year is 1932. RUNAWAY HORSES unfolds through the thoughts of Shikeguni Honda, once Kiyoaki's best friend, who is now thirty-eight years-old and a judge in Osaka. Honda encounters a young man, Isao, who is almost as old as Kiyoaki was when he died, and Honda comes to believe that this boy is his old friend come again, whose life contains events that Kiyoaki foretellingly dreamed of and wrote in his journal. While Kiyoaki's fatal flaw was excess love, his reincarnation is an obsessive patriot, who seeks to purge Japan of foreign ideals and the vices of a capitalism which denied the Emperor. RUNAWAY HORSES is, essentially, a novel of political extremism. The Japan of this era seems poised on the verge of either Communist revolution or, what actually came to pass, military dictatorship, and the uncertainty of the times makes for a very engaging setting. Some knowledge of Japan history comes in handy, although the novel can still be read as it is. The form of the work is also rather more varied than in the first volume of the cycle. RUNAWAY HORSES contains a fifty-page long imagined political tract praising the leaders of a 19th-century rebellion, which inspires the protagonist, and a courtroom scene recounted in dialogue form.I found so much of this novel supremely agreeable. Mishima expertly causes the reader to feel the long years that have passed for Honda, and the shock that comes in being jerked back to the death of Kiyoaki. Some of the people and places linked with Kiyoaki are seen again in this novel, and often the characters have little idea of the connection, but the reader knows the haunting truth. Nonetheless, the novel is not entirely perfect. One common objection may be that Mishima gushes too much over the purity of Isao, for the author's own political ideals where much the same. Still, anyone concerned with issues of globalization and the existential crisis of the West and westernized nations will have some sympathy for Mishima and his protagonist, even though much about them is deplorable. And Isao is certainly more nuanced than the protagonist of Mishima's gory nearly-pornographic novella "Patriotism" of three years before. My own dissatisfaction about the matter comes from Mishima giving his protagonist, toward the end, the opportunity to rather unrealistically give a long speech to an audience that in truth probably wouldn't hear it.Still, these are relatively minor complaints. I underestimated the beauty of SPRING SNOW the first time I read it, and I'm quite happy that I re-read it and moved onto RUNAWAY HORSES. The "Sea of Fertility" cycle is indeed an impressive work of fiction.

About eight years ago one of my friends told me I needed to read this book; it was one of the best books he had ever read. So, I bought it and put it on my shelf until recently.With all the craziness that has been going on in the world, I have been turning to fiction to try to escape it all. So, I picked this off my shelf without really knowing what the plot would be. Let me tell you, if I had known it was about the fanaticism of a group of young men in the runup to the second world war in Japan, I might have not picked it up. It hit a little close to home as we are in the aftermath of the 2020 election and have nationalists in the streets.I must give credit to both Mishima and his translator, since even with too timely subject matter, it is a beautiful book and amazing psychological portrait of both the leader of the young men and those in his orbit. There’s a weird structural bit where there’s a book that is important for the formation of the young men’s ideology that Mishima includes as full text in the novel that kind of interrupts the flow, but it is important for the plot.One thing that I did not know at all was that this book is the second in a four-part series. It works pretty well as a stand-alone book, but there are some references to the previous text that stick out and it would work better and thought I was able to piece together context clues I think it would make more sense if I had read it first. I have ordered the book and plan on reading it as much to fill in the gap as I enjoyed this book and like’s Mishima’s style.

I can't say I liked this. While very well written, the themes and characters I found at best irritating. Samurai traditions are to my mind, not some pure and noble tradition but rather a violent, self-centered nonsense. In the end, it all seems rather pointless and I was glad when Isao offed himself feeling the world was better off. Unfortunately, Isao was not alone and others of his ilk led to Japan's part in WW II.

This is a novel with gorgeous, even lyrical passages, yet in my view, considerable technical setbacks.Why do i like Mishima? Becouse he was trained as a lawyer, and from the many years of discerning the nuances of legal practice, he developed a style of writing, that is structured, concise, and sometimes pompous. Concurrently, there is a dark tendency in his writing to place his characters irrationally attracted to themes relating to death, suicide, romantic tragedy or nihilism. The combination of these seemingly opposite forces, creates a mood of unsettling, and reckless passion.When i read that Kiyoaki, who in Spring Snow had been endowed with an almost supernatural beauty, returned reincarnated in Isao, who was peerless on his purity of intent, i couldn't put the book down. Mishima created such a beautiful case for the purity of dying in defense of Japan and the emperor, that even me, who is on the opposite side of the political spectrum, was rooting for Isao to go ahead with his mission and inevitable seppuku.If the book would have finished with the ritualistic suicide, it would have actually been beautiful. I won't recount the details of the plot, but there is an unfortunate twist that completely alters the sentiment of the idealistic and poetic opening pages. The denouement creates an anti-climax that forces the reader to question the validity of the values professed initially by the protagonist, to then again in a haste, switched back the storyline to a romantic conclusion in order to salvage the book. I found this thematic ambivalence, a source of irritation and a technical setback that undermines the quality of the book as a whole. Therefore I gave it four starts.

Reading the first two books of Mishima’s tetralogy “The Sea of Fertility” is almost akin to a religious experience. “Runaway Horses” story and characters will remain fond in my memories for the rest of my life. I’ll never forget this book, and very much look forward to finishing the tetralogy!

Blazing with feral energy, Mishima's second installment in "The Sea of Fertility" tetralogy is fiercer, darker, and unsettling. Isao, a reincarnation of the tragic, melancholy Kiyoaki, from Mishima's first installment "Spring Snow" set in the early years of the Taishō period, is a patriot whose discontent towards the new social and economic order brought about by Westernization of Japan and its gradual decay into economic recession and widespread political corruption morphs into a violent obsession with purity, a restoration of the old Samurai ethos of the pre-Meiji era Japan where the Emperor assumed absolute power of the State. Honda, now a middle-aged judge, who follows his childhood friend Kiyoaki's reincarnation after twenty years of his death and yet again bears witness to the destructive power of heedless passion now taking over Isao, represents the rational, controlled aspect of mind and spirit. In "Runaway Horses", Mishima, through his tormented protagonist, chronicles the dying spirit of Japan, plagued by unrest and poverty, in which every attempt to reclaim its lost glory and integrity is brutally thwarted.

The Runaway Horses is even more ravishing than Spring Snow.Set 20 years after the tragic events ending the last novel, this volume opens gloomily with Honda as a judge. The story progresses through a series of occurrences that will leave Honda to doubt his initial composed, rational understanding of the world as he encounters young Isao Iinuma, none other than the sun of Kyioaki's previous tutor, Iinuma.The story juxtaposes love and reason, passion and tranquility, as Honda learns to heed mysterious signs connecting Iinuma to the long-gone Kyioaki. In a struggle to redeem himself after feeling he had let down his friend two decades ago, Honda abandons his career as a judge to serve young Iinuma in a fight for freedom.Freedom from corruption, freedom from greed, from all worldly desires, are synonymous to complete loyalty to the Emperor in Iinuma's heart.Isao's speech during his hearing reverberates the pure spirit of Japan, led by an Emperor descendent from the Goddess of the Sun, to whom the people, his children, will forever pledge allegiance. In his monologue, Isao explains how we would like to tear down the clouds that harm the pure rays of sun emitted by His Majesty -- in other words, he aims to destroy the corruption that eroded the purity of the Japanese spirit and that separated the Emperor from his disciples. Isao sees the rising zaibatsu, modern firms that in their restlessness for money impoverished Japan, as the source of all evil. They are to blame for having viciously corrupted the politicians who should have been the force behind the Imperial Will and acted as intermediaries between the Emperor and his children, the people of Japan.Striking these conglomerates, in Isao's view, will restore Japan's health and sanity. Following the path of the activist Wang Yang-ming, Isao believes that "To know and not to act is not to know." This comes at a cost, despoiling the doers of their virtue, of their purity, like a luminous vase crumbling under countless cracks furrowed all over its surface. The price to pay is seppuku. Only then will the corrupt and those pure who soiled their hands with corrupt blood -- an allegory explained by Isao to Prince Toin as a present of rice offered to the Emperor which, one way or the other, must lead to the death of the person who bestowed the gift -- be purified and rise to heaven in full glory. Only then can the sun shine freely beyond the clouds and reach the destitute people of Japan, and embellish them with its pure rays of eternal light.

The writing is beautiful and there are many interesting passages but some of the rationale behind the main plot is hard going, However in the end it is worth reading, especially as there are two more books in the series

Sicher keine leichte Lektüre!Selbst in der englischen Übersetzung imponiert noch eine unglaublich kunstvolle Sprache und die faszinierende Inszenierung der Handlung. Wie eigentlich immer bei ihm, erzählt Mishima auch hier eine grausige und stellenweise fast schon abstoßende Geschichte über menschliche und gesellschaftliche Abgründe.Sein jugendlicher Held gerät auf seiner verzweifelten Suche nach Identität und Sinn in die politische Radikalität... Auf ein Happy End sollte man da besser nicht hoffen!

Bad quality and bent cover