“Just now I had a dream. I’ll see you again. I know it. Beneath the falls.”[…] Two days after his return to Tokyo, Kiyoaki Matsugae died at the age of twenty.”
Kiyoaki Matsugae is a beautiful and delicate young man living in Tokyo with his family during the reign of the Emperor Taishō (1879-1926). With his parents, the Marquis and Marquise Matsugae, Kiyoaki lives a wealthy life in the capital, respecting all the Japanese traditions but also appreciating their fusion with the western style. Satoko Ayakura is the fascinating daughter of the Ayakura family, an important aristocratic family quite close to the Matsugae. She is spirited and has always teased Kiyoaki with fun jokes and direct questions since they were children. The novel unravels around the relationship between Kiyoaki and Satoko, which takes many different shades as the story develops. The first half of the book describes the different dynamics among the people in Kiyoaki’s life, zooming on the Japanese traditions in the background. Kiyoaki knows that Satoko has a crush on him and pretends indifference to her. He is torn by his love-hate feeling towards Satoko and starts a game of secret letters, hidden feelings and acts of spite in a desperate attempt to ignore his feeling for her. Kiyoaki is a complex character with childish acts of revenge and irrational behaviours. His figure is fragile and, as a unique physical mark, he has three moles in a row on the left side of his back. He finds comfort in talking to his dear school friend, Honda. Honda respects him and admires his beauty. Together, they like having intellectual debates on sophisticated topics such as the meaning of life and reincarnation. Apart from Honda, Kiyoaki does not have many friends. He spends his days with Iinuma, his tutor who worked for him for more than six years. Iinuma is a right-wing conservative person with strong opinions on the decadent state of Japan, and a sincere affection towards the Matsugae family. On the year of the eighteenth birthday of Kiyoaki, his school hosts two princes from Siam, the Prince Pattanadid (Chao P), a younger brother of the new king Rama VI, and his cousin Prince Kridsada (Kri). The two princes are given rooms by the Matsugae and slowly become friends with Kiyoaki and Honda. Chao P is madly in love with Kri’s sister and always wears an emerald ring that she gave him before leaving for Japan. Kiyoaki confides to them his love for Satoko, admitting it to himself for the first time. Unfortunately, by that time, he and Satoko have stopped talking due to a misunderstanding after a very romantic kiss under the snow. At this static point of the relationship between Satoko and Kiyoaki, the book’s second part starts and quickly brings the reader to the end. After weeks without talking to Satoko, Kiyoaki discovers that she is promised wife of Prince Toin’s third son, Prince Harunori. Because of his pride, Kiyoaki cannot take the news and secretly arranges a meeting with Satoko with the help of Satoko’s maid Tadeshina and Iinuma. They finally become lovers and keep on meeting secretly until Tadeshina discovers that Satoko is pregnant. Unable to conceal their love story anymore, Tadeshina confesses everything to the Count Ayakura. The relationship between Satoko and Kiyoaki is permanently broken, and so is the relationship between the two families. The story ends abruptly and sadly with the abortion of Satoko, her decision to become a nun at the Gesshu Temple and the death of Kiyoaki in his attempt to see Satoko one last time. Just before dying, Kiyoati has one last wish: he wants Honda to have his dream diary.
Spring Snow is the first novel in The Sea of Fertility tetralogy. Yukio Mishima, the author, was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the emperor. He is considered a controversial figure because of his political activities and right-wing ideology. He was proud of the traditional culture of Japan and negatively deemed the western materialism and style that had slowly started to contaminate Japanese traditions. The central theme of this first novel is the austere love story between Kiyoaki and Satoko, and how Japanese traditions and aristocratic families played a role in it. It is a complex story, rich in its characters and detailed descriptions. Yukio Mishima uses a sophisticated language and style to dive into the story.