Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima

In Spring Snow, the first novel in Mishima's ‘The Sea of Fertility’ series, Mishima explores the development of love, societal change, and personal growth in early 20th-century Japan. Set during the final years of the Meiji era, the story centers on Kiyoaki Matsugae, the privileged son of a newly noble family. Raised in luxury and embodying a blend of modern and traditional influences, he stands at the crossroads between the ways of the past and modernity. His pragmatic best friend ‘Honda’ provides a counterpoint to Kiyoaki's introspective and detached personality that complements him well.

The narrative begins when Satoko Ayakura, the daughter of an old aristocratic family, returns from a convent. Satoko and Kiyoaki share a deep childhood connection, but he dismisses her initial affection with indifference. When she becomes engaged to an imperial prince, Kiyoaki realizes his love for her (!) and becomes infatuated with her completely. Mishima uses Kiyoaki and Satoko's love story to reflect broader societal changes in Japan, showing the challenges of navigating a transforming society while personal desires clash with rigid social norms.

As Kiyoaki's passion for Satoko deepens, he becomes increasingly aware of their love's doom. Mishima captures this realization by noting, "There's no doubt that he's heading straight for tragedy." Their love, while powerful and genuine, can’t withstand the weight of tragedy and familial obligations and societal norms, despite being the heart of some of the most beautiful quotes of the 20th century.

In Kiyoaki's world, love is not just a matter of passion but an art form, carefully balanced between desire and despair. He becomes obsessed with an unattainable ideal of beauty, which is carefully embodied in Satoko. Her beauty transcends the physical and blinds Kiyoaki to imperfections. This idealization becomes his curse, as it often does. Hesitating to fully commit, Kiyoaki is devastated when Satoko is promised to another. Mishima captures this love and loss through hesitation, writing, "Very often a man's whole life alters because of a single moment's hesitation."

The supporting characters in the book offer a contrast to Kiyoaki; Honda serves as a rational voice amid Kiyoaki's spiraling emotions, understanding logic and fate, he warns Kiyoaki of his obsession's consequences, but Kiyoaki remains true in his desire for the ephemeral beauty of love. As Honda watches his friend sink further into despair, he muses, "A man may be hard to persuade by rational argument while he is easily swayed by a display of passion, even if it is feigned." Throughout The Sea of Fertility, Honda becomes a vigilant observer, witnessing successive incarnations of Kiyoaki's "soul." There are limits to rationality’s power to understand spiritual mysteries; we have to mitigate our expectations, I say.

While Kiyoaki emulates the melancholy of a passing era, Honda symbolizes unwavering conviction that behind history's shifting tides lies universal natural law. Influenced by Western thinkers like Aristotle, Honda represents Western thought's intrusion into Eastern culture. He and Kiyoaki are both products of their time; their contrasting natures reflect an era rife with contradiction. Kiyoaki remains tethered to a fading lifestyle, while Honda aligns with a rising world. Kiyoaki's tragic passing leaves behind a beautiful memory, while Honda is forced to witness the unfolding future.

Kiyoaki ultimately resigns himself to offering his life as a sacrificial tribute to a "beautiful death," embracing a path that leads to his demise. Mishima foreshadows this fate with a metaphor of a "bird in flight glimpsed from a window," reminding us of Kiyoaki's quest's fragility. He is unable to reconcile desires with societal norms, so he believes the only solution is to preserve dignity through death, leaving behind a fleeting, tragically beautiful memory – very Lana Del Rey of him!

Spring Snow became a tale of cultural and personal decline, echoing Nietzsche and Spengler's explorations of nihilism, where people embody their eras' cycles and rhythms. Living in cultural decay means participating in it, aligning your goals with the universe's or Gods, at the end of the day. Through their choices, characters become passive vessels for manifesting cosmic history.

Mishima reflects partially on transient beauty through Kiyoaki’s journey. This impermanence is symbolized particularly in the cherry blossoms symbolizing life's fleeting nature. Kiyoaki's desire for a "Beautiful Death" comes as a yearning to preserve dignity, rather than endure life's slow decay. He envisions death as a moment of grace, a poetic descent that protects him from time's erosion. Mishima captures this desire in a metaphor: "Would he be able to die young—and if possible free of all pain? A graceful death—as a richly patterned kimono, thrown carelessly across a polished table, slides unobtrusively down into the darkness of the floor beneath."

In Kiyoaki's imagination, death becomes a culmination of beauty—a final flourish before the curtain falls. He seeks to transcend mundanity and believes death untainted by suffering can embody artistic elegance. Mishima suggests that this longing is universal, as humans fear losing control. Kiyoaki, like many others, wants to "throw his whole life away as a sacrificial offering to such fleeting beauty—like a bird in flight glimpsed from a window." This longing exemplifies the fragility of desire, showing how a perfect moment can outshine enduring mediocrity. Mishima explores this relationship between beauty and mortality, showing how the pursuit of a "beautiful death" becomes a final stand for those who wish to be remembered for their artistry, and this became what Mishima himself was known best for – his Beautiful Death.

Kiyoaki and Satoko relationship blooms amid secrecy and social constraints, each step building toward inevitable tragedy. They grew up together but it wasn't quite until they were older that Kiyoaki began to see Satoko that way. He stays aloof at first, suppressing his emotions while struggling internally with intense attraction - Satoko, aware of her charms, engages Kiyoaki, but his conflicting emotions keep him from giving in. Her family arranges her marriage to another, finally prompting Kiyoaki to send Satoko a letter confessing his love, urging her to reject the engagement and meet him in secret.

The letter marks a decisive moment in the novel. After long hesitating, Kiyoaki pours his heart out, urging Satoko to elope. He exposes his inner turmoil, begging Satoko to see their bond and renounce societal constraints. His words reflect his affection, and the anguish hesitation has caused. He puts it, "Even when we're with someone we love, we're foolish enough to think of her body and soul as being separate." The letter is a plea to salvage their relationship, revealing both his love and fragility. This heartfelt appeal becomes the catalyst that sets their tragedy into motion.

Kiyoaki’s despair deepens eventually into illness, and when Honda stays by his side, Kiyoaki makes a final attempt to see Satoko. Denied again and again and again, Kiyoaki returns to Tokyo and succumbs to sickness two days later. Mishima emphasizes that Kiyoaki’s face, despite death's contortions, remains tragically beautiful, embodying the “beautiful death” he sought—a fleeting ideal in his final breath. "Despite the contortions, however, it was beautiful. Intense suffering had imbued it with an extraordinary character, carving lines into it that gave it the austere dignity of a bronze mask."

Kiyoaki sees a beautiful death as the only way to resolve his inner conflict. He believes his fate is sealed and finds solace in dying young to preserve a fleeting moment of beauty. Mishima crystallizes this idea when Kiyoaki imagines "a graceful death—as a richly patterned kimono, thrown carelessly across a polished table, slides unobtrusively down into the darkness of the floor beneath." This metaphor captures Kiyoaki's vision of a death unmarred by time—a poignant desire ultimately driving his life toward self-destruction.

Ultimately, Mishima portrays tragedy as a bittersweet counterpart to the fleeting nature of beauty. For Kiyoaki, the pursuit of love and the desire for a beautiful death become a meditation on life's impermanence and the fragile line between passion and despair. Spring Snow stands as a timeless reflection on the sacrifices made in the quest for meaning, providing a tragic yet beautiful glimpse into the complexities of the human heart.

In the end, Spring Snow is not only a reflection on Kiyoaki's personal struggles but also a broader commentary on Japan's changing identity at the time. Mishima examines the decline of traditional values in a rapidly evolving society and the melancholy that comes with transitioning from one era to another.

Kiyoaki’s final words to Honda, "I'll see you again. I know it. Beneath the falls," lay the groundwork for the next novel in the series, continuing the cycle of reincarnation and the exploration of fate that will define the subsequent books in The Sea of Fertility. In this way, Spring Snow marks the tragic beginning of Mishima's evocative & controversial literary journey, revealing how the pursuit of beauty can lead to self-destruction when you become ensnared in the web of unfulfilled yearning.