Review: The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea-Yukio Mishima
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Cliff Notes (Placeholder) : A young boy and his posse of psychopaths in training act out their chunibyo delusions and need for inflicting violence on the boy's step-dad; the eponymous sailor who fell from grace with the sea.
View all my reviews
Summary
One night Noboru Kuroda finds a hole behind the dress drawer in his room, which allows him to peek into the room of his widowed mother, Fusako. Every night he intrudes on her, as she touches her flesh. Later, he spectates as she makes love to her lover, the Sailor Ryuji Tsukazaki. This filles him in wonderment, as he feels a hero worship towards the man he considered to be some hero from Mythic.
He discusses this all with his ‘Gang’, a posse of six led by the ‘Chief’. They are all docile and excellent students to the society. Who hold Chuunibyou delusions about being geniuses above the Plebeians of the common world, burdened with glorious purpose. In order to accomplish this purpose they needed to transcend the needs of the flesh. One of the ways they do this is murdering a kitten in cold blood, then dissecting it, bathing in its blood and reveling in the perceived power they hold over life and death.
Ryuji Tsukazaki is a man who dreams of glory and a noble death at sea, the kind that fate had reserved for only him. He is someone who loathes the land, but doesn’t fit in at the sea, a man in between. His meeting Fusako and their relationship, caused him to reassess his desire, disillusionment and consider settling and having a family. To which purpose, he proposes to her, takes up a role in her store, and becomes a father to Noboru.
Noboru sees this as a betrayal; the perfect man, the sailor who had enthralled him with tales of his voyages was, as days rolled on losing the scent of the sea. He was becoming yet another mediocre adult, and the worst type of existence, a father.
In order to correct this perceived wrong, the gang, orchestrated by the chief, calls Ryuji out under the pretense of sharing sailor tales and drugs him. As he is in full swing talking to the boys, and reliving his past, Ryuji begins to wonder; whether he made a mistake, abandoning the sea and glory for the safe life. With these last thoughts he plunged into unconsciousness, his ultimate fate left to the reader’s imagination.
Yukio Mishima (Kimitake Hiraoka)
In order to better understand this story, one needs to understand the mind of its author, as well as his views on Japanese society. Yukio Mishima was someone who Romanticized the Samurai Bushido culture, with Glory and the legacy of an honorable death. He saw the Westernization of Japanese society following the post war allied occupation to be a betrayal of their authentic culture and feared it would result in them being a ‘rootless’ society. Many of his works reflect a strong bias towards right wing nationalism and critique of western influences.
His desire to reinstate the Emperor’s rule resulted in his forming Tatenokai, a rightwing political party, attempt a peaceful coup d'état, and commit ritual suicide upon its failure. In a sobering instance of life imitating art, seeing how many of his characters including Ryuji from this story wished for glory in death.
The characters: What they’re all about
Noboru Kuroda: The 13 year old with whom we spent most time. The death of his father, and lack of said figure has turned the boy into one who is narcissistic and who does not show pain or emotions. He spies on his mother’s bedroom, watches her masturbate and have sex with another man. He worships this man, Ryuji and holds him up to mythic standards.
When that expectation is broken, his hero turns into the object of resentment and hate. Noboru might also have latent homoerotic thoughts and emotions. But his upbringing and indoctrination by the gang of nihilistic chuunibyou have not allowed him room to explore his sexuality.
Noboru wants Ryuji to remain the perfect golden hero that he had built him up to be; so when the sailor enters a relationship with his mother, with intention of marriage, Ryuji feels betrayed; that the man who he admired, and perhaps had a romantic fantasy about; an unabashed masculine mascot of the sea, was being tamed into being a husband. And that he was trying to be the worst thing in existence, a father, his father.
Which leads to his conspiring with the chief and posse to murder dissect the sailor, to return him into the state of being a ‘hero’.
Ryuji Tsukazaki: The eponymous ‘sailor who fell from grace with the sea’, Ryuji is a man who hates the land and hence escaped to life at sea. This may have been rooted in the loss of his entire family. Ryuji is also a man who nurtures dreams of glory, the kind which life and fate had reserved only for him; and a fitting death to accompany it.
“At twenty, he had been passionately certain: there’s just one thing I’m destined for and that’s glory; that’s right, glory! He had no idea what kind of glory he wanted, or what kind he was suited for. He knew only that in the depths of the world’s darkness was a point of light which had been provided for him alone and would draw near someday to irradiate him and no other.”
But Ryuji is a man trapped between the land and the sea; he doesn’t want the land, neither does he form relations with his fellow sailors aboard the ship. At 34, Ryuji begins to feel disillusioned with his glorious purpose and is disinterested even to the wonders which travelling the world brings with it.
Meeting Fusako, making love to her, getting intimate emotionally and maintaining a long distance relationship with her made him consider the prospect of settling on land. He goes through with it, proposing to Fusako, and taking up a job in her clothing store. Throughout the story, he also tries to maintain a good relationship with Noboru, enthralling him with tales of his voyages.
Towards the end, right as he was served the drugged tea, as he was regaling the posse with his tales, Ryuji began to regret his decision. Was he making a mistake, taking away his opportunity to find glory at sea, for a safe life?
The sailor’s ultimate fate remains unknown, though it is heavily implied that he was murdered and dissected by the posse, much like how they had planned, and did to a kitten earlier in the story. The circumstances surrounding his death and disappearance are such that, Fusako would’ve mistaken that he fled their marriage, to return to the sea. His ultimate fate might remain misunderstood by the world at large.
Fusako Kuroda: Widow and mother to one Noboru Kuroda, she is the least developed of the main characters. While an independent proprietor of the clothing store Rex, she still is shown to be lonely emotionally and physically. Which might be what attracted her to Ryuji, the sailor who personified her desires and was able to connect with her emotionally.
She is a disciplinarian parent to her son, which might’ve stunted his emotional growth to an extent. Her grace, charm and presence was such that Ryuji, who loathes a life on land, began to reconsider the prospect of married life.
Things eventually go well for her, with Ryuji and her set to be married. Although she is devastated when she learns of how Noboru was spying on them during their intimate moments.
With the murder and disappearance of Ryuji, her fragile thoughts might’ve led her to come to the conclusion that he had run away from their marriage to be at sea. We are rarely given an in-depth look into Fusako’s thoughts and personality independent of her role as mother and lover.
Themes:
- Extreme Nationalism: Loss of national identity of Japan, following their loss in WWII. The author despising the westernization of Japanese society
- Extreme Dispassion: In Noboru’s case, this might be a mechanism to deny the loss of his father.
- For the rest of the posse, some sort of rebellion towards their domineering parents.
- Glory & honorable death; with parallels to the Bushido code which Samurai followed.
- Veiled and repressed Homoeroticism and hero worship.
- Allegorically, the story deals with the conflict of Japan's national identity, the ancient one, immediate past, and the changing future.
Ryuji, represents the author’s views as someone who seeks Glory at sea, in battle and an honorable death. This runs parallel to the prewar imperial attitude of the Japanese military who threw themselves in suicidal campaigns seeking glory in death.
The Gang represents the values of old Japan, one rooted in Bushido and samurai culture. Who viewed the world as broken, which could only be corrected by death and sacrifice. When Ryuji turns away from the sea and glory, he is essentially betraying the expectations of the old ways of Japan. For this he had to be punished, and the only redemption for him is through death, which the gang enacts by their own hands.
“Of course, living is merely the chaos of existence, but more than that it’s a crazy mixed-up business of dismantling existence instant by instant to the point where the original chaos is restored, and taking strength from the uncertainty and the fear that chaos brings to re-create existence instant by instant. You won’t find another job as dangerous as that. There isn’t any fear in existence itself, or any uncertainty, but living creates it. And society is basically meaningless, a Roman mixed bath. And school, school is just society in miniature: that’s why we’re always being ordered around. A bunch of blind men tell us what to do, tear our unlimited ability to shreds.”
Fusako represents post war Japan, which under the influence of US occupation moved towards a more westernized society, and viewed by many to turn away from their authentic Japanese culture. Mishima considered this to lead to the Japanese being a ‘rootless’ society.
The words used to describe Fusako are with implied sardonicism, as someone who benefited from betraying her traditions, and merely noted for her erotic sexual characteristics. Even her independent well off status comes secondary. She is vilified as someone who shies away from everything Japanese and embraces western society.
For this she is eventually punished, by having her son spy on her intimate moments, and her lover ‘run away’ from their marriage to her knowledge.
Homoerotic Undertones: Noboru who grew up without a father figure, sees in Ryuji the personification of his ideal lifeform, his hero. He projects to him a persona of pure ‘authentic’ gold. When said persona was shattered, he felt betrayed not only emotionally, but by the conflicting feelings towards the man.
The boy’s sociopathic personality and flawed indoctrination owed to the Chief & the posse has left him as someone who sees emotional outburst and desires of the flesh to be something which should be suppressed; something beneath him. So his feeling towards Ryuji manifests as anger and hate, and leads to the eventual act of violence. This tone is explored not so subtly in several points in the story.
“Conscious of being watched, Noboru was putting on a show, smearing the sand on the backs of his legs and all the way up his thighs. When he was satisfied, he stepped into his shoes gingerly so as not to dislodge the sand and minced back to Ryuji. “Look,” he said, indicating the sand on his sweating thigh.”
“Noboru swilled his drink, dribbling yellow fruit juice on his throat. Then he turned to look at the sailor, and, for the first time, his eyes were smiling…Rapturous, Noboru shut his eyes tight.”
Prose:
The story has some exquisite prose, in describing the sea, love, desire, death, and delusions of grandeur. It can pull you in a hypnotic meditation, lulling you to ponder the reality and purpose of life & death, and everything in between.
“For Ryuji the kiss was death, the very death in love he always dreamed of. The softness of her lips, her mouth so crimson in the darkness he could see it with closed eyes, so infinitely moist, a tepid coral sea, her restless tongue quivering like sea grass . . . in the dark rapture of all this was something directly linked to death. He was perfectly aware that he would leave her in a day, yet he was ready to die happily for her sake. Death roused inside him, stirred.”
“Waves, as tepid as blood, inside an atoll. The tropical sun blaring across the sky like the call of a brass trumpet. The many-colored sea. Sharks…”
Shortcomings & Final Verdict
As mentioned, this is a stale steeped in Japanese nationalism and cultural identity, so some of the beats might not hit you as hard as someone familiar and brought up in the culture. Then there is the misogyny. Fusako as a character is not as well developed as the other two. She is someone who struggles to get respect even from her workers. Her greatest qualities are implied to be her role as the mother, and as the object of Ryuji & Noboru’s physical fascination. Simply put, there is nothing much for her to do.
But there are times reading the words, when you feel the need to just lean back, and imagine the clear warm summer evening in the docks with all its rustic aesthetic, hustle and bustle. Or ruminate on the purpose of your life, of glory, and the thrall which the sea and adventure holds over men. Which makes it worth a read
Comments
Post a Comment