Yukio Mishima – The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea – Review

 

Yukio Mishima (1926-1970) was a novelist, poet, screenwriter, actor, fashion model, right wing militarist and Japanese Nationalist. Probably his most famous novel in the west is Confessions of a Mask. (see my review below) Just as popular is The Sea of Fertility tetralogy,  a collection of four novellas. Mishima predicted that when he finished the last novel of the four, he would meet his death. This became a self fulfilling prophecy when he committed seppuku in November 1970.

The Sailor who Fell (1963) is a beautifully written tale, (the Times called it 'A major work of art') that is at once poetic and under the surface, deeply sociopathic.

The young lad Noboru is the son of a wealthy widow. They live in a seaside town where the boy is fascinated with the great ships, sailors and imagining their adventures. Noboru is a very intelligent boy with strange ideas as to what it means to be human. He belongs to a gang led by a boy they call the Chief. This group have a particular view of existence, mainly despising the lies adults engage in and their weaknesses. One's conscience must be eradicated at all costs because to have one is weak and opposite to “heroic”.

There is a particularly disturbing chapter where the gang engages in the murder of a young animal. Noboru kills the animal and the Chief eviscerates the corpse as a twisted method of removing the fur, skin and muscle to reach the core truth of existence. To practice actions to rid one's conscience to achieve a level of purity of character is insane. (The boy's are practicing to be full blown psychopaths).

Noboru's mother is a wealthy and beautiful woman who inherited a high end clothing store who's clientele are only the wealthy. Since her husbands death she has becomes lonely and finally meets a sailor, where they begin a relationship. Ryuji is a life long serving member of the Japanese merchant Navy. He is only at port for short periods of time, preventing any serious long term relationship.

Noboru discovers a peephole into his mother's bedroom behind his chest of drawers. When his mother and Ryiji are together, he watches them in silence. This kind of voyeurism for a pubescent can be chalked up to mere curiosity. Though Noboru knows it's wrong, revealing this behavior as obvious perversion and the actions of a sexual pervert.

The ending of the novel is a picture of mob psychopathy.

Mishima pushes the boundaries of his subject matter in this novel as he did in Confessions of a Mask. Certainly not for everybody, Mishima's work, however, provokes thought and issues that many would rather not read or talk about. Personally, worth the read.

Confessions of a Mask- review :  https://sychronicity1.blogspot.com/2020/10/yukio-mishima-confessions-of-mask-review.html