Book description
Isao is a young, engaging patriot, and a fanatical believer in the
ancient samurai ethos. He turns terrorist, organising a violent plot
against the new industrialists, who he believes are threatening the
integrity of Japan and usurping the Emperor's rightful power. As the
conspiracy unfolds and unravels, Mishima brilliantly chronicles the
conflicts of a decade that saw the fabric of Japanese life torn apart.
Yukio Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of
complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor - the
same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen. He
wrote countless stories and thirty-three plays, in some of which he
performed. Several films have been made from his novels, including
The Sound of Waves, Enjo
which was based on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea. Among his other works
are the novels Confessions of a Mask
and Thirst for Love
and the short story collections Death in Midsummer
and Acts of Worship. The Sea of Fertility
tetralogy, however, is his masterpiece. After Mishima conceived the
idea of The Sea of Fertility
in 1964, he frequently said he would die when it was completed. On 25
November 1970, the day he completed The Decay of the Angel
, the last novel of the cycle, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual
suicide) at the age of forty-five.
