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Yukio Mishima is great and unique author. His books were full of beauty contrasted to reality, which helped the writer to understand better what real beauty is; the beauty that is so beautiful that is sometimes even hard to explain. That is my impression of Mishima's revolutionary writing Spring Snow. Many people agree that paintings of Van Gough are beautiful, however Van Gough depicted things that we see around almost everyday. The question rises: what is so beautiful about these masterpieces? It is hard to tell, but some message that they send makes them so beautiful.
It is just matter of thought. Mishima did great work in his book Spring Snow that is full of different meanings and understandings of beauty. In order to contrast beauty and reality in Spring Snow we should first understand what Mishima's concept of beauty is. Every day we see beautiful women or men and each of us can say that he / she is beautiful. What is beautiful then? Well, I think it is something important.
I mean not important from materialistic point of view, but important for our soul. If you fall in love with the person regardless of what others think about this person you will claim that he / she is beautiful. Our soul wants to see beauty and it actually defines beauty for each of us. This hint might help us to find what the beauty for Mishima's soul is. Mishima was patriot of his country and was concerned with the erosion of Japanese traditions. After World War II the gap between the young and the old was made more apparent and traditions were lost.
Mishima felt that Japan had succumbed to western ideas and cultures and was diluted of its own cultural heritage. Mishima was among those who became disillusioned and felt betrayed. He wanted Japan to revert to its days of honor when the land was filled with samurai; he was obsessed with the Japanese code of honor Mishima believed it was better to die than lose the heart of ones own country. His soul belonged to Japan. Mishima's understanding of beauty was based upon vision of beautiful Japan that he used to know and that was continuously changing. Mishima himself was as conflicted as his many stories and plays, which tend to play out the problem of which direction is Japan heading, and should the nation be developing that way.
Mishima romanticized the samurai and nurtured a lifelong affair with traditional Japanese theater. He dedicated his whole life to make something that would be useful for Japanese culture, which used to be unique, but was under influence of West. He wanted Japan to preserve its traditions for future generations. Mishima's perception of reality was not much different from thoughts of other people of that time; however, he clearly identified existing problem of Japanese society after the end of World War II.
Spring Snow fits the dilemma that Japan faces. What to do about the state of the nation? is the question that Mishima works with. What has happened to Japan since the injection of Western technology, culture, fashion, and ideas? And how does Japan regain a sense of direction and purity in the face of such severe pressure from the West? Mishima uses the characters in Spring Snow to play out different approaches to these questions, but arrives at very few answers.
Spring Snow revolves around Kiyoaki, a sort of Japanese everyman who is at once within and outside of mainstream Japanese society. Kiyoaki is he son of the Marquis Matsugae, a sort of nouveau-riche during the reign of the Meiji Emperor. Kiyoaki, a beautiful young man on the path to success in the new Japan, which reality. Kiyoaki is in love with his childhood friend, Satoko, the beautiful daughter of the Ayakuras family. The Ayakuras are very prominent, of higher aristocratic class than even Kiyoaki's family. Kiyoaki is a moody, pensive boy who gets a thrill out of alternately rejecting and accepting Satoko's demure advances.
Eventually the Ayakuras will wait no more for Kiyoaki to make his approach for Satoko's hand in marriage, and, faced with another offer from an impressive suitor, Satoko becomes engaged to be married. Kiyoaki realizes only as the situation escalates beyond any reparation that he truly loves Satoko. Kiyoaki begins an affair with Satoko, with the help of his friend Honda. The two meet in secret for sex, and Satoko eventually becomes pregnant. Having violated multiple social barriers, and after the realization of Satoko's pregnancy, the couple are found out. Satoko is sent to a nunnery, and Kiyoaki dies, which is the symbol of fall of new winds blowing in Japans direction.
Satoko is a blend of East and West, and thats what frustrates Kiyoaki. Although Kiyoaki is inextricably involved with the reconfiguration of Japanese culture, he is at the same time witnessing it. As the protagonist, nearly everything Mishima tells us is in some way filtered through Kiyoaki. Mishima gives Kiyoaki a strange ability to observe and comment upon certain things he witnesses that other characters do not have.
It is Kiyoaki's love / hate relationship with all things Western that causes his love / hate relationship with Satoko herself. Kiyoaki's love for Satoko becomes unquenchable and essential only after she is engaged, which is a direct violation of Japanese tradition. Still, it is during these illicit meetings that Satoko acts in the most submissive, demure manner. She does not assert herself or tease Kiyoaki, but submits completely, physically and mentally. She has finally figured out how to make Kiyoaki love her. On the other hand, Honda, Kiyoaki's closest friend, seems to be an example of what the samurai class could and should become.
Completely cut out for military school, Honda is self-assured, but not arrogant, and he seems incredibly strong. Mishima remarks that although Hondas home is, on the surface, more Western than Kiyoaki's, at heart the Honda residence is entirely Japanese. Honda is ideal for Mishima and serves as example for others to follow. In 1970 Mishima committed seppuku, taking his life in the traditional samurai manner. He died believing that death was an honorable solution to Japans problems. Main purpose of writing Spring Snow for Mishima was not letting Japan blindly forget its traditions and spirit as it raced to catch up with the western powers and adhere to modern standards.
The message of his novel speaks strongly and plainly as a warning not to forget what spirit and tradition means, which are associated with untouched beauty. Mishima's fear that Japan might lose its spirit altogether is based upon situation in Japan of that time, and is reality. This contrast between beauty and reality, right and wrong, was the main goal of Mishima's Spring Snow. Mishima encouraged Japanese to pursue beauty.
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