Essay: The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea – Yukio Mishima

Seppuku, the driving force of the Japanese
How does the author use the allegory of Seppuku as a catalyst in The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea ?
In The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Yukio Mishima presents issues of Westernisation occurring in Japan from the 1960s through a fatherless family’s encounter with a sailor. He uses the imagery of dissection as an allegory of the art of Japanese suicide, Seppuku. It is a suicide ritual by disembowelment reserved for samurai: it was performed as a way of finding a glorious death in battle or as capital punishment for the warrior who committed treason. In this novel, Seppuku is symbolised through the two scenes of dissection in the book : the dissection of the kitten and the one of the Sailor. The allegory can interpreted as a way of expressing his resentment of this takeover situation, which he then transforms into a major catalyst. The author was known for his frustration towards the Japanese World being engulfed by the Western World, and tried to do all in his power to save the Traditional Side. When he saw that what he feared was inevitable, the author committed Seppuku. Consequently, this novel can be considered as his way of testifying what could have been done to save the Traditional Side from the Western World.
In the first part of the novel, Summer, the imagery plays a key role in clarifying the author’s thoughts on glory. In chapter 5, the group of boys were looking for a cat to kill to test each other’s “hard, cold heart”. The intentions of the author was to have the boys “killing, breaking the endless chain of society’s loathsome taboos” and to test each other to find out if they were too weak for living the traditional life. After throwing it against the piece of wood, “He felt like a giant of a man”, revealing how powerful and glorious he felt after having the life of a creature in his hands. After the cat died, they prepared to dissect him. The scene in which the kitten is described being cut open is hard for the reader, as it is filled with harsh imagery. The use of the “pair of slimming scissors” carries a feeling of discomfort, due do the repetition of the “s” sound. Also, the choice of the author to use an everyday object suggests how Mishima believed anybody could do it and much wasn’t required to save the traditional lifestyle. The reason for the author to slaughter the cat was because of its naiveness, innocence and weakness. It offers an insight into the idea of glory in Japan, how being naive and innocent can be seen as shameful. This demonstrates how, through imagery, the allegory of Japanese suicide is used as a major catalyst.
In the second part of the novel, Winter, characterisation is a major causal agent of Ryuji’s death. In Chapter 5, when Ryuji had the opportunity of beating Noboru for spying on his mohter, he instead decided to lecture him and his mother. This had a terrible backlash on Noboru, as “Every word burned like fire. He wanted to scream, as his mother had screamed: How can you do this to me?”. The quote implies the author’s feelings towards the non-traditional behaviour, as seen by the use of imagery of fire to describe his pain. During his lecture, “Noboru listened, feeling as though he were about to suffocate” suggesting Mishima is being crushed by the lack of glory in this man, causing him to be suffocating. “Can this man be saying things like that? This splendid hero who once shone so brightly?” demonstrates the feeling of disappointment of Noboru and of the author, seeing a Japanese man behave like this is seen as a sign of defeat against the Western World. The author
He considered it an act of betrayal, as he went from being the man uninfluenced by society to becoming one of the “flies of this world”. Consequently, the boys called a meeting regarding the sailor’s actions towards Noboru. They believed that the Sailor had committed treason by becoming a father figure and disrespected Noboru by patronising him, and therefore should be punished. Throughout the novel, Noboru wrote down every time Ryuji has wronged him in his notebook, Charges against Ryuji Tsukazaki. During their gathering, the gang discussed the accusations on the sailor, just like in court, and concluded that he should be executed for betrayal and disrespect towards Noboru. Therefore, the gang planned out the way they were going to murder Ryuji ; by dragging him to an isolated area, making him drink a tranquilliser and then dissect him open. By doing so, they were exposing his intimacy to the world to see. This displays how Seppuku is clearly a catalyst for the death of the sailor : by including the concept of glory and dignity, the author shows how by the traditional lifestyle, a man of this kind should be punished.
On the other hand, the reason behind the death of the sailor can be seen from another perspective. During the group of boys’ meeting, Noboru was hoping to find a way to save him. The Chief told him “There’s just one way to make him a hero again, but I can’t tell you what it is yet. The time will come, though, and soon”, and later “We’ll have to pass sentence. In the long run it’s for his own good”. This shows how the boys saw that the sailor was drifting to an unhealthy lifestyle, so decided to save whatever little glory was left in him by making it look like he committed Seppuku on himself. We can see that the Sailor is continuously being torn between his old life, the Traditional Life, and his future life, the Western Life, which is a representation of the author’s internal struggle. Yukio Mishima then decides to kill off Ryuji as a way of saying that somebody ought to do so. Therefore, this exhibits that Seppuku, whether used to save or punish the Sailor, is a causal agent of this novel. It pushes the boys to commit crimes for the sake of the traditional values that both Noboru and the author truly believe in.
In Conclusion, through characterisation and imagery, the author uses the allegory of Seppuku as a drive in his 1963 novel The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea. It is the cause of the kitten’s death, as well as Ryuji’s. It brings this idea of honour and betrayal into the lives of this Japanese family and forces it into their minds. This makes the boys feel bigger than God and therefore capable of anything and punish whoever they believe deserves punishment. That is why the kitten was killed, for being too innocent for this world, whilst the sailor was murdered for transforming into the only thing the clique hates the most, a father.
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