Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Spring Snow (The Sea of Fertility #1)

4.17 of 5 stars 4.17 · rating details · 3,094 ratings · 210 reviews

Yukio Mishima’s Spring Snow is the first novel in his masterful tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. Here we meet Shigekuni Honda, who narrates this epic tale of what he believes are the successive reincarnations of his friend, Kiyoaki Matsugae.

It is 1912 in Tokyo, and the hermetic world of the ancient aristocracy is being breached for the first time by outsiders — rich provi...more

Paperback, Vintage International, 389 pages

Published April 14th 1990 by Vintage (first published 1969)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy

The ACTUAL 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century

36th out of 37 books — 22 voters

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Best Books About Japan

59th out of 200 books — 88 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Mar 26, 2012 B0nnie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourite-books

Mishima, like other great writers, has a way of implanting memories in our heads, echoes of other lives. How this magic happens is a mystery but when it does, you feel somehow denser inside, more solid. Spring Snow left me with that feeling, of having increased my gravity and weight, with the lyrical descriptions, history, characters, ceremonies, letters, political intrigue, birds and emerald rings and emerald snakes, and silk kimonos, and more.

At its heart, this is a doomed love story, about t...more Mishima, like other great writers, has a way of implanting memories in our heads, echoes of other lives. How this magic happens is a mystery but when it does, you feel somehow denser inside, more solid. Spring Snow left me with that feeling, of having increased my gravity and weight, with the lyrical descriptions, history, characters, ceremonies, letters, political intrigue, birds and emerald rings and emerald snakes, and silk kimonos, and more.

At its heart, this is a doomed love story, about two beautiful people - Kiyoaki Matsugae, and Satoko Ayakura - whose outward beauty match their inner turmoil.

This excerpt from Kiyoaki’s dream diary is an allegory of the story...which is an allegory…within allegory,

The very night before, he had dreamed of his own coffin, made of unpainted wood. It stood in the middle of an empty room with large windows, and outside, the pre-dawn darkness was shading to a deep blue; it was filled with the sound of birdsong.

A young woman clung to the coffin, her long black hair trailing from her drooping head, her slender shoulders wracked with sobs. He wanted to see her face but could make out no more than her pale, graceful forehead with its delicate peak of black hair.

The coffin was half covered with a leopard-skin bordered in pearls. The first muted glow of the dawn flickered on the row of jewels. Instead of funeral incense, a scent of Western perfume hung over the room with the fragrance of sun-ripened fruit. Kiyoaki seemed to be watching this from a great height, though he was convinced that his body lay inside the coffin.

But sure as he was, he still felt the need to see it there by way of confirmation. However, like a mosquito in the morning light, his wings lost all power and ceased beating in mid-air; he was utterly incapable of looking inside the nailed-down coffin lid. And then, as his frustration grew more and more intense, he woke up.

And Satoko,

...her words had a cold, proud glitter that could not tolerate the intrusion of a third party. In her own mind, she had fashioned their sin into a tiny, brilliant, crystal palace in which she and Kiyoaki could live free from the world around them. A crystal palace so tiny that it would balance on the palm of one’s hand, so tiny that no one else could fit in. Transformed for a fleetingly brief instant, she and Kiyoaki had been able to enter it and now they were spending their last few moments there, observed with extraordinary clarity in all their minute detail by someone standing just outside.

There is a movie, but from the preview it seems to have only caught the surface. But still...

春の雪

Spring Snow is a masterpiece - or at least the beginning of one, as it is the first in a cycle of four novels called the Sea of Fertility. I hope that the other books are as good as this one, but it’s going to be a hard act to follow.(less)

37 likes · like · see review

Sep 08, 2007 brian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

the first in mishima's tetralogy and, so far, the best (i'm in the middle of the third). on its own, Spring Snow is easily one of the most tender love stories i've read -- but it cannot be considered on its own: as honda watches a friend reincarnated several times over the span of several novels, it all adds up to even more than the sum of its extraordinary parts. in the USA, this'd play out as gimmick; in japan (shinto, buddhism, etc.) it is the assumption. an exploration of history, the philos...more

11 likes · like · see review

Feb 01, 2013 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The most important -- and used -- word in this book of historical fiction has to be 'elegant' (and its variations). And while the prose style itself is always elegant, the elegance of the ancient aristocracy is not always a good thing, as mostly it seems to be ineffective, even useless, for the situations the characters find themselves in. Those with 'new-money' have the power, but the novelist seems to like them even less than he does the aristocrats. (Even so, all the characters are well-round...more

10 likes · like · see review

Apr 30, 2013 ايمان rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

من يريد قراءة ثلج الربيع فليستعد لقراءة رباعية الخصب كلها لتتضح له فلسفة ميشيما
لو اغفل ميشيما الاطالة و الاطناب لأخد خمس نجوم و المستفيد الأول في هذه الرواية الطبيعة بلا أدنى شك اخذت نصف الورق من الوصف الدقيق حتى لتتخيل اوراق الشجر يدغدغ وجنتيك.

5 likes · like · see review

May 17, 2008 Ryan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Once you start reading Mishima, and becoming absorbed with his characters, you are caught in a web that resembles the web he reveals his own characters are enmeshed in. His characters are so tragic, yet so ordinary; so privileged, yet so doomed; so foolish, yet so much more introspective than you. Spring Snow was one of the best books I have ever read. Mishima is like a surgeon; the tip of his needle or scalpel so fine, so pointed, that he can isolate the most fleeting, awkward, and yet noble em...more

12 likes · like · see review

Mar 03, 2008 Katherine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I do love books about love ... love that doesn't work out for some reason (maybe it's because one person is a jerk, or too proud, or married to someone else), love that is tragic, love that ends in jail.

This book is about love that is marred by one person's overwhelming personality disorder. I like that aspect of it particularly because I had to write a 8-12 page essay on the character's personality disorder. But I also like it because it makes for a prickly love story, one that feels good but...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 28, 2012 [P] rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love Mishima so much I named my cat after him. That cat was hideously expensive too, so I didn’t take his naming lightly. Of course, as a pedigree he is extremely attractive on the surface, pretty even, yet underneath he is a terror; he is reckless, mean tempered, crazy. All of which pretty much sums up the majority of Mishima’s work. Make no mistake, the Japanese writer was mad, bad, and very dangerous to know, and his books often dealt with the darker side of life, but his writing also posse...more I love Mishima so much I named my cat after him. That cat was hideously expensive too, so I didn’t take his naming lightly. Of course, as a pedigree he is extremely attractive on the surface, pretty even, yet underneath he is a terror; he is reckless, mean tempered, crazy. All of which pretty much sums up the majority of Mishima’s work. Make no mistake, the Japanese writer was mad, bad, and very dangerous to know, and his books often dealt with the darker side of life, but his writing also possessed great beauty.

Spring Snow is, perhaps, his most ‘straightforward,’ least anguished novel. It is more of a classical love story, is less existential, than a lot of his work. It is, therefore, his most accessible, with probably the potential for the widest appeal amongst the general public. It is one part of a tetralogy, but can be read as a single, stand-alone, novel. The plot concerns the tragic tale of star-crossed lovers [although they spend a lot of their time deliberately antagonizing and rejecting each other]: a young boy from a nouveau riche family and a thoroughbred aristocratic girl [the girl’s family are struggling financially, the boy’s are prospering].

Sickness, madness, death, abortion, bad omens, and immature romantic posturing, are just some of the baubles decorating Mishima’s tree. So far, so universal, but, fear not those who want to be transported to ‘another world’ in their reading, as Mishima’s tree is still uniquely Japanese; he describes and gives space to a number of Japanese customs in the text. On the surface, it has much in common with other renowned Japanese writers, such as Tanizaki, Kawabata, Soseki, etc, in that it is largely concerned with the changing nature of Japanese culture, its westernization, and the tension between different generations that this causes.

What sets Mishima apart from these authors is his prose, which, contrary to the aforenamed authors, is not clean and minimal. Indeed, it is a cliché to compare Japanese novels to haiku, but that is in no way applicable here. Mishima’s prose is sumptuous, detailed, emotionally charged. This is perhaps the reason I value Spring Snow above his other works, in that I like this marrying of popular Japanese themes and concerns with a more psychologically intense approach to characterisation [there’s probably more emoting, gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands in this book than in, say, Kawabata’s entire oeuvre] and a less enigmatic, some may say, westernized, style. (less)

8 likes · like · see review

Dec 30, 2007 mina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Spring Snow is the first book of the Mishima’s masterpiece tetralogy Sea of Fertility. I don’t know how it is in Japanese, but I bet it is even more beautiful than its translation. The story is told in vivid detail, you can see the garden of Matsugae family with its cherry blossoms, or the snow falling all the way to the Gesshu Temple when Kiyoaki shuffled through his illness to get to the temple to see Satoko, which I imagine is the most beautiful moment if it ever become a movie.

It’s a love st...more

2 likes · like · see review

Oct 13, 2012 shosho rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

تستحق 4 نجمات , أول تجربة لي مع الأدب الياباني والتناسخ , دخلت في دوامة من الوصف المكاني لــ وصف حب كيوكو لــ ساتوكو
إلى أن يقعان في الخطيئة وتدور الأحداث بعد ذلك ..
النهاية حزينة جداً..
اتصور روح مشيما "المنتحر" كانت رائحتها بين الصفحات بشكل لافت ..

3 likes · like · see review

May 10, 2013 Aiden Xiang rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

as the first volume of the sea of fertility tetralogy, it tells a tragical love story. Thanks to the similarities between chinese and japanese, i could almost fully grasp the beauty of this novel, each sentence is like a the kind of poem
as the name suggested, there is an uncanny relationship between the spring snow the the love between Satoko Ayakura and Kiyoaki Matsugae, pure, gentle, descending from the sky above and soon thawing into a dirty pond of water, leaving the most heavenly image in t...more

like · see review

May 01, 2013 Anthony Bolton rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

EVEN IN TRANSLATION MISHIMA CONTAINS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SENTENCES I`VE EVER READ .(EXCEPTING MAYBE SHAKESPEARE AND NERUDA).
THE SHAPE OF THE WHOLE SENTENCE;THE DEPTH OF MEANING AND SENSE OF SEARCHING INTELLIGENCE .THE SWIFT CHANGES OF DIRECTION AND THE SENSE OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OR CHANNELS OF THOUGHT AND MEANING ALL FLOWING ALONG AT DIFFERENT SPEEDS AND RYTHMS BUT ALL COMING TOGETHER IN THE END TO FORM A UNIFIED RIVER OF INTENT.
THE ELEGANT MOMENTUM OF THE VERY LONG SENTENCES IN SOME PARAGRAPHS I...more EVEN IN TRANSLATION MISHIMA CONTAINS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SENTENCES I`VE EVER READ .(EXCEPTING MAYBE SHAKESPEARE AND NERUDA).
THE SHAPE OF THE WHOLE SENTENCE;THE DEPTH OF MEANING AND SENSE OF SEARCHING INTELLIGENCE .THE SWIFT CHANGES OF DIRECTION AND THE SENSE OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OR CHANNELS OF THOUGHT AND MEANING ALL FLOWING ALONG AT DIFFERENT SPEEDS AND RYTHMS BUT ALL COMING TOGETHER IN THE END TO FORM A UNIFIED RIVER OF INTENT.
THE ELEGANT MOMENTUM OF THE VERY LONG SENTENCES IN SOME PARAGRAPHS IS BREATHTAKING.THEY ARE LIKE ORINOCOS OF SYLLABLE FLOWING THROUGH THE PAGE MOVING THE BODY OF THE STORY.
BUT UNLIKE SOME WRITERS(CORMAC MCCARTHY) WHO SIMILARLY WRITE ENDLESS SENTENCES; THE MEANING, DIRECTION AND INTENT OF THE THOUGHTS NEVER DISAPPEARS.THERE IS NO SENSE OF SHOWING OFF(CORMAC MCCARTHY).
THEY MIRROR THE SENSE OF FATALITY AND TRAGIC BEAUTY OF THE WHOLE WORK BUT THEY SHOW THAT MIRROR AND THAT EMOTIONAL REALITY TO HAVE INFINITE VOLUME AND HUMAN POTENTIAL .I WAS GOING TO SAY `` THE INEXORABLE SENSE OF TRAGEDY UNDERPINNING HIS WORK ``AND I GUESS THERE IS THAT BUT IT`S NEVER DESPAIR ,THOUGH IT SEEMS STRANGE TO SAY IT.
CAN A SENSE OF TRAGEDY BE INEXORABLE WITHOUT BEING DESPAIRING.
WITH MISHIMA IT IS.
I THINK THIS IS THE ENIGMA THAT HAS HIM SLIDING OUT OF THE LIMELIGHT IN THE WEST .
HE SCARES PEOPLE .
THEY DON`T UNDERSTAND THIS BEAUTY .
IT`S NOT HEALTHY!!
HE SHOULD BE MORALISING(BY FEIGNED DETACHMENT OF COURSE) AND PSYCHOANALYSING HIS CHARACTERS(WITH A COLD DISTANCE MASQUERADING AS UNDERSTANDING) .
BUT HE LIVES IN THEIR BLOOD ,AND THEY IN HIS, NOT IN THEIR MINDS ONLY.
MANY ARGUE HIS WORK IS PSYCHOLOGICALLY TRUNCATED, NEVER QUITE ACHIEVING AN `OBJECTIVE` POINT OF VIEW (LIKE HIS LIFE) AND THAT THIS DISQUALIFIES HIM FROM BEING A TRULY GREAT WRITER .THE ONLY THING I CAN SAY TO THAT IS `BOLLOX `.
IT JUST HIGHLIGHTS THE HEGEMONY OF PREJUDICED TRADITION AND CONVENTIONAL THOUGHT IN THE WESTERN LITERARY WORLD WHICH IS QUITE QUICKLY HEADING TOWARD A WHOLE LITERATURE AND CULTURE OF ONE PRESCRIPTIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL-EMOTIONAL VIEWPOINT .
THE SEA OF FERTILITY IS A MASTERPIECE.(less)

like · see review

Apr 05, 2012 César rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: myshelf, japanese-literature

Here we have typical Yukio Mishima: (1) A young, male effete (2)falls in an aberrant kind of love with (3)a quiet and uncannily beautiful subject [here: a woman] who is (4)prevented by custom and (5)their parents from (6)openly loving in return. This leads to an (7)obsessive quest which (8)the rational and worldly foil/friend must guide him through.

This isn't to say that it's a rehash or that it's been-there-done-that. Spring Snowis unique among all of Mishima's novels for its depth and quality...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 01, 2011 La Stamberga dei Lettori rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: tancredi

Primo episodio della tetralogia Il mare della fertilità, ultima opera e forse capolavoro di Mishima, questo romanzo, scritto nel 1969, e ambientato all'inizio del secolo, si presenta ben ricco di tutte le tematiche tipiche dell'autore.
Yukio Mishima è noto per i conflitti interiori dalla molteplice natura: oltre alla sofferta, soffocata omosessualità, lo scrittore visse con sofferenza e sentimenti opposti il conflitto tra la cultura occidentale sempre più dilagante e l'ormai morente tradizione g...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 14, 2010 Karen Hansen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had mixed feelings about Yurkio Mishima’s novel “Spring Snow.” The story felt a bit uneven in pacing and in tone. I felt like much of the book was heavy in symbolism and meaning. However, many chapters were written like a bad romance novel. The book would often pick up steam, only to come to a grinding halt for a few chapters.

I really disliked the main character, Kiyoaki, who was unbearably immature and angst ridden. Actually, none of the characters were easy to like, but I think that was the...more

like · see review

Mar 04, 2012 yamami rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

أعتقد أن من علامات الرواية الناجحة المؤثرة ، أن تترك روح قارئها مُترعةً بكل تلك المشاعر والأحداث التي احتدمت في قلب وعقل شخصيات الرواية ، أن تُخلِّف في صدر القارئ ذلك النوع مِن الحُزن الذي يُداخل المرء ويستوطنه إثر أحداثٍ عاشها وخساراتٍ كابدها بنفسه .. أن تزرع في ذاكرته ذاكرة أخرى ..
هذا ما شعرت بهِ تماماً بعد أن أنهيت رواية (ثلج الربيع) لـ يوكيو ميشيما ، كُنت في الحقيقة مُثقلة بحياةٍ عَبرتها -بزخمها- خلال صفحات الكتاب.
في المشهد الأخير الذي انتهت عليه الرواية ، كنت أشعر بالبرد الذي يُجمد أطراف...more

3 likes · like · see review

Aug 19, 2009 Krystle rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really loved this book! It was awesome. The pacing of the story gradually builds up steam before it plunges towards the finish, much like a wave cresting as it reaches the shore. I love Mishima's writing style. It reminds me of Vladimir Nabokov's writing (and you know how much I love that man) but less extravagent. All of the expectactions I had for him were totally met, and I'm so going to read his other books now.

Anyway, the plot of this book was pretty formulaic in the beginning, as it det...more

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 24, 2012 Jeffrey Keeten rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yukio Mishima felt the Japanese government needed to return to a system based on the samurai code. He was descended from samarais and believed that this code, advocating complete command of one's body and soul combined with a complete loyalty to the emperor, was necessary for Japan to return to prominence. He formed his own army in 1970 and attempted a coup d'état. With a few friends he overpowered the commandant of the Ichigaya Camp — the Tokyo headquarters of the Eastern Command of Japan's Sel...more

34 likes · like · see review

Jan 31, 2013 flannery rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't know if I'm too impressionable or if every book I read is, as a matter of fact, the most beautiful book I've ever read! Like Wagner, Mishima is an artist of supremely weird personal politics and yet capable of unprecedented scale, scope, and majesty. What would, in other hands, be a fairly predictable story of star-crossed lovers here plays out in cinemascope extravagance, with a cast of very complicated characters whose motives are impossibly bound with their principles, politics, aesth...more

like · see review

Jan 14, 2011 Bets rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

Enjoyed it, but not that impressed.

Kiyoaki seems to be the Japanese variation of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, in which a genteel young man is driven to death from his own infatuation. Like other love stories of this era, Kiyoaki and Satoko's romance is pitted against waning Imperial traditions, and is representative of a lost generation in the emerging tide of modernity. Their passions are inevitable, and faced with notions of bygone morality and loyalty that no longer seem relevant, b...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 14, 2011 Hikachi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, literature, worth-re-read, fun-fun-fun

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

1 like · like · see review

Nov 02, 2009 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, classics, translated, owned

Jefferson's first day of school was a Wednesday, and I of course had a brain meltdown and barely got us out the door in time, so certainly didn't have a lunch packed or a book to read while I hung out in Mecosta and waited for time to pick him up. Plus, on Wednesdays, the library doesn't open until 1:0o (preschool starts at 11:30), but happily the used bookstore was open.

Spring Snow was the first book to catch my eye on entering the store. I suspected at the time and have since confirmed that it...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 25, 2013 Хейко rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Интересното ревю в началото на книгата, за биографията - житейска и творческа, прочетох до момента на ритуалното самоубийство на автора, исках да започна романа.Така неволно пропускайки подробности за сюжета на книгата, не си развалих магията на четенето. След прочита се върнах отново на ревюто в началото, където под въздействие на книгата го изчетох внимателно цялото. Клишето, „прозира същността на автора”, тук е в буквалния смисъл, доколкото въобще може да се определи същност, в която живеат н...more Интересното ревю в началото на книгата, за биографията - житейска и творческа, прочетох до момента на ритуалното самоубийство на автора, исках да започна романа.Така неволно пропускайки подробности за сюжета на книгата, не си развалих магията на четенето. След прочита се върнах отново на ревюто в началото, където под въздействие на книгата го изчетох внимателно цялото. Клишето, „прозира същността на автора”, тук е в буквалния смисъл, доколкото въобще може да се определи същност, в която живеат няколко Аз.
Сблъсъка на японските традиции с прогреса на европейския дух, сбора от емоции и следвани правила пресъздадени чрез юношеството на двама приятели. На моменти си мислех, че всичко е прекалено наивно, но ме спираха повече размисли в тази посока - това е една непозната за мен култура, а и младостта на прага на съзряването сама по себе си е наивност, неопорочена от света на възрастните.

Мишима рисува един период, в който новобогаташи с интереси за политическо влияние в управлението на страната се стремят към приобщаване кръга на дворцовата аристокрация, подпомагайки обеднели аристократични фамилии, а в замяна преписвайки си изтънченост на аристократизъм . Едно общество, което на обяд пие чай в английски порцелан, а вечер традиционното саке, носи кимоно, но в стремеж да покаже благосъстояние облича фрак. Редом с театралните представления кабуки, проява на добър вкус се счита прожекция на европейски филм. Мебелирани къщи в европейски стил, пищни приеми по повод традиционни празници с нетрадиционно – европейско меню. И всичко това на фона на опитите да се придържа към дворцовите етикети на поведение , като единствен стремеж към властта.

Роман на мечтите, страстта, любовта, безразсъдството и като символ на безвремието – белотата на снега и цъфтежа на вишните.

„Цветовете висяха на огромни гроздове от аскетично черните клони и приличаха на бели раковини, покрили плътно риф. Вечерният вятър издуваше завесата, после подхващаше най-напред долните клони и те се разклащаха, сякаш цветчетата по тях си шушукат, а след това поемаше нагоре към върха на широката корона и постепенно всички цветове се впускаха в буен танц.
Бяха бели; розовееха само скупчилите се тук-там на гроздове пъпки. Но при по-внимателен поглед и в белотата им се забелязваха червеникаво-кафявите с формата на звезди тичинки, които се преплитаха като конци на здраво пришити копчета.”

"Ние японците, отъждествяваме духа на снега с красива жена, но аз си спомням, че в европейските приказки той е красив млад мъж. Затова и ти, Кийо, в своята строга ученическа униформа ми се стори като снежния дух, който ме е отвлякъл. За мен би било неизказано щастие просто да се разтворя в красотата ти, да се слея със снега и да измръзна до смърт."
(less)

like · see review

Nov 22, 2011 Ryan Greer rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book has EPIC written all over it. Its most certainly one of those books that, after finishing, one is tempted to rate highly to help themself feel that much more multi-cultural and well read. Unfortunately for me, I just didn´t like it all that much. It had some fantastic 4 star moments, but in general I found myself flipping ahead to gauge how many pages I had left before the end of the chapter, which is a sure sign of my waning attention. While the characters had a great deal of depth, i...more

like · see review

Feb 18, 2013 Michael Battaglia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't know how many Japanese authors count as "well-known" in the US (the guy who wrote "The Remains of the Day" and "Never Let Me Go" may be the closest we have to that), but I've heard of Mishima and I'm far from a student of Japanese literature. If any Americans have heard of him . . . well, it may be that his work has been translated into English (a plus for me, as its easier to let someone else do the work) or because he infamously finished his "Sea of Fertility" quartet and then proceede...more I don't know how many Japanese authors count as "well-known" in the US (the guy who wrote "The Remains of the Day" and "Never Let Me Go" may be the closest we have to that), but I've heard of Mishima and I'm far from a student of Japanese literature. If any Americans have heard of him . . . well, it may be that his work has been translated into English (a plus for me, as its easier to let someone else do the work) or because he infamously finished his "Sea of Fertility" quartet and then proceeded to kill himself (after attempting to overthrow the government). As a person he seems quite fascinating and is probably worth a more in-depth look than anything I can attempt here. So we'll stick to the book.

This novel is the first in the "Sea of Fertility" series, and the title hints at a kind of evasive delicacy, a kind of event that looks absolutely beautiful and pristine but doesn't last very long. Which is pretty much what we have. Set in early 1900s Japan, just as the country was beginning to become modernized, it shows the relationship between the members of two families. Kiyoaki's is a kind of new rich and Satoko's family is part of the old aristocracy that has fallen on harder times. In the course of the novel, the two of them fall in love, which goes okay until Satoko is betrothed to a prince, cutting the love affair short. Or it would, in a perfect world where everyone is sensible. Here, of course, because everyone alternates between the world of romance and the world of tradition, the affair keeps going until it starts to go wrong and veers toward the tragic.

Mishima takes a great risk by making Kiyaoki the main character, as he spends a good portion of the novel being obsessed with his own notions of romance and drama and tragedy. He's casually cruel to other characters, callous to others, for no better reason than he's a lovestruck man flush with hormones with a rather large ego. But at the same time it rings true. He not only believes he has the worst problems in the world, on some level he believes he has the only real problems in the world, everything that happens is seen through the filter of himself, and different era of Japan or not, chances are most of us were like that at that particular age. Especially when a member of the opposite sex (or the same sex, to be fair) were involved. Fortunately, every so often the narrative will cut to his friend Honda or his servant Yamada, when the story requires a different perspective.

Yet the story is romantic, often achingly so, and not in the Harlequin romance kind of way where everyone is heaving bosoms and torn bodices, but in an oddly delicate and touching way. For these two people it turns out to be their first real love and Mishima, whether through stylistic preference or cultural proclivity, seems almost shy when depicting any physical acts of love between them, the prose shifting to an even more poetic style, dancing around the action and leaving memory to color in the blanks. But because they're in a novel we're almost trained to believe that this won't end well, which adds a looming hint of tragedy to the proceedings, just at the edges.

If the bare bones of the story was the only draw I'm not sure how well it would be remembered except for being very pretty. The plot itself is almost melodramatic in parts, especially as the consequences loom for two young people making love in the days before really effective birth control and most of this if written in a more straightforward style would veer close to cliche or predictable, a doomed romance headed by a surly artsy type who is convinced he knows how the world works and can make it work for him. Even the setting, while nice, isn't revelatory. So what happens?

As with any classic, its the little things. The book could be about Kiyaoki ticking everyone off, until you reach the point where his friend has a long discussion about how no matter how forward thinking or rebellious they are, in the sweep of history they're going to be lumped in with all the other faceless masses that live at the same time they are . . . all the radical ideas that they specifically have will be lost and even if a seed of it down the line ignites a spark that changes the world, who cares because they won't be around for it. At this point the book began to take off for me, and it becomes clear that there's a deeper realm of thought at play underneath the Thai princes and people getting married into the royal family. There's an obsession with passing time and a certain stillness held in the moment, and its a sensation that can only occur when the prose gets the tone exactly right. And Mishima does . . . the narrative is beautifully poetic and sometimes the story almost stops as Mishima observes or sketches out the scene, focusing on details or small touches. A lot of detail is given to nature and while there's never an entropic feel to events, there's a sense of events laconically being steered to an end no one can really avoid. Beyond the aspects of star-crossed lovers, there's a notion of people living out philosophy, or trying to, of being bound to ancient notions that are beginning to unravel, or trying to find a way to make both work. The problems here become both old and new, and the solutions are just the same. No matter what century it is, you're never too old to embarrass your family.

Still, it ends pretty much as you'd expect a tragedy like to this, with everyone either getting their just desserts or being unfairly punished by fate, depending on such of the line of morality you fall on. The consequences of it seem larger than it should be and yet it feels right. The stillness infests and invades it all, and the final lines of the book manage to be both tragic and hopeful and dramatic and unbearably peaceful and sad all at the same time, rendered with just the right touch and beautiful in that way a decaying landscape can be right at the cusp of its descent, if you were able to isolate a frame of it for only a moment, and hold it. (less)

like · see review

Jan 26, 2012 Carlos rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nunca había leído a Mishima, y era un error lamentable.

Con una prosa preciosista y delicada, cuidada en cada palabra Mishima cuenta una turbulenta historia de amor entre personajes que expresan sus emociones sutilmente pero razonan con crudeza. Aun así, es dificil saber de qué lado se inclina la balanza, porque los sentimientos de los personajes se vuelven intelectuales y sus razones pasión. Me ha sorprendido la atención y poesía -presente siempre- de las descripciones de un entorno casi vivo, y...more

like · see review

Nov 15, 2010 Madhuri rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: japanese, tetralogy, sea-of-fertility, memento-mori

Mishima's suicide after finishing the Sea of Fertility tetra-logy has given a memento-mori quality to this series of writing. I could not escape a death-consciousness from the very beginning of Spring Snow, when Kiyoaki is introduced as a beautiful man and a war photograph is described shortly after. The writing is beautiful, imaging the flickering, irresponsible nature of youth, but more vividly show-casing the dichotomy of a changing culture. All cultures, especially oriental stand at the diff...more

like · see review

May 22, 2011 Ron Samul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Spring Snow is probably one of the best books I've ever read. It is book one in a four novel series title the Sea of Fertility Cycle by Mishima, which he wrote and then committed suicide. I am a big fan of Yukio Mishima and would highly recommend his books, however, each book has its own dynamics and feel to it based on his time, his thinking, and his life. So, while Spring Snow is by far the most beautiful of his writing (maybe to that of Temple of the Golden Pavilion) if you don't have the tim...more

like · see review

Sep 21, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: japanese-literature

Yukio Mishima is considered one of the literary giants of modern Japanese literature, but up until now I have read only two of his books: The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea (which I read in college and I can barely remember) and The Golden Pavilion-which I thought was impressive. I have started on his famous Sea of Fertility teratology with Spring Snow. It is interesting in the details he presents of modern Japanese life after the Japan-Russo War, which brought Japan into prominence as...more

like · see review

Jan 04, 2012 Greg Heaney rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: japan

Spring Snow is a Japanese novel from 1966 written by Yukio Mishima. Mishima is perhaps the most prolific modern Japanese modern writer, writing a dozen plays, over one hundred short stories, forty novels and one movie. Born in 1925, Mishima famously committed seppuku, a brutal ritualistic suicide after a failed political coup at the age of 45. He is most well known for the Sea of Fertility tetralogy, a series of four novels starting with Spring Snow. The Sea of Fertility, covering over sixty yea...more Spring Snow is a Japanese novel from 1966 written by Yukio Mishima. Mishima is perhaps the most prolific modern Japanese modern writer, writing a dozen plays, over one hundred short stories, forty novels and one movie. Born in 1925, Mishima famously committed seppuku, a brutal ritualistic suicide after a failed political coup at the age of 45. He is most well known for the Sea of Fertility tetralogy, a series of four novels starting with Spring Snow. The Sea of Fertility, covering over sixty years of Japanese history, is the story of four successive reincarnations of a passionate man doomed to die young.

Spring Snow tells the tale of Kiyoaki, born the perfect aristocrat-a few decades too late. A stunningly handsome nineteen-year old, Kiyo desperately needs attention in a world where aristocrats, samurai, are increasingly marginalized. He uses his charisma to keep a beautiful maiden, Satoko, on a short leash. He uses her passionate love for him to feed his insatiable ego. Of course, this “romance” is doomed from the start. When Satoko is suddenly arranged to marry a prince, Kiyo suddenly realizes that Satoko is worth fighting – and dying – for.

The rest of the story is a whirlwind meditation on passion, romance, sin, and the dying aristocracy. Despite being a classic of Eastern literature, its themes are universal across hemispheres-and time.

Mishima was less than five years from death when Spring Snow was published. How is it possible that at the age of forty this genius wrote an impossibly beautiful novel perfectly capturing the feeling of teenage boys in love? A novel as true today as it was one hundred years past and one hundred years to come.

In one of the most moving passages, Kiyo and his only friend Shigekuni Honda sit on the beach at night, examining the sea and sky. This is the border, Mishima tells us. The place where the land abruptly ends and the sea begins, just as Kiyo has suddenly ended his childhood and plunged into the dark waters of obsession. In this way, the story is about far more than a child entering adulthood. It is about leaving the shifting tide behind and swimming into the deep.
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Apr 15, 2010 K.D. Oliveros rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 501 Must Read Books; 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (20

Shelves: 501

A story of young tragic love. If you strip the plot to its barest, two young children grew up together. The girl was 2 years older. At 21, she showed affection to the boy but the boy was immature enough to brush it off. At that age and time in Japan, 21 was already old so her parents arranged her to be married to an Imperial prince. After she was betrothed, the boy changed his mind, chased the girl, got her pregnant. Again, during that time in Japan, it was a mortal sin to commit such act to the...more

9 likes · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
The ending	3	25	Nov 03, 2012 11:23am
The World's Liter...: Chapters 26-36 (before Satoko's accomplishments to be a princess)	1	7	Sep 05, 2012 11:21am
The World's Liter...: Chapters 22-25 (before Kiyo hires another rickshaw)	2	6	Sep 04, 2012 08:08am
The World's Liter...: Chapters 12-21 (before Prince Harunori and Satoko's engagement)	7	13	Aug 29, 2012 11:26pm
The World's Liter...: Chapters 6-11 (before Satoko's parents visit the sick Kyoto relative)	6	16	Aug 23, 2012 11:00pm

combine
Other Editions (41)

More editions...

Genres

Cultural > Japan

92 users

Asian Literature > Japanese Literature

67 users

Historical Fiction

36 users

Literature

25 users

Classics

24 users

Literature > Asian Literature

12 users

Cultural > Asia

12 users

Novels

9 users

Romance

8 users

Literature > 20th Century

7 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

The Setting Sun
by Osamu Dazai
Some Prefer Nettles
by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
Beauty and Sadness
by Yasunari Kawabata
Sanshirō
by Sōseki Natsume
The Silent Cry
by Kenzaburō Ōe

About Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima, a Japanese author, poet and playwright, famous for both his highly notable post-war writings and the circumstances of his ritual suicide by seppuku.

Mishima wrote 40 novels, 18 plays, 20 books of short stories, and at least 20 books of essays, one libretto, as well as one film. A large portion of this oeuvre comprises books written quickly for profit, but even if these are disregard...more

More about Yukio Mishima...

Books by Yukio Mishima

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Spring Snow

2 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Spring Snow

“Dreams, memories, the sacred--they are all alike in that they are beyond our grasp. Once we are even marginally separated from what we can touch, the object is sanctified; it acquires the beauty of the unattainable, the quality of the miraculous. Everything, really, has this quality of sacredness, but we can desecrate it at a touch. How strange man is! His touch defiles and yet he contains the source of miracles.” — 86 people liked it

“His conviction of having no purpose in life other than to act as a distillation of poison was part of the ego of an eighteen-year-old. He had resolved that his beautiful white hands would never be soiled or calloused. He wanted to be like a pennant, dependent on each gusting wind. The only thing that seemed valid to him was to live for the emotions--gratuitous and unstable, dying only to quicken again, dwindling and flaring without direction or purpose.” — 13 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Spring Snow
avg rating	preview: Spring Snow Goodreads rating: 4.17 (3094 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/464261.Spring_Snow?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361254848l/464261.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/464261.Spring_Snow?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima[/url]

Spring Snow (The Sea of Fertility #1)

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website