LOW FLAT RATE $9.90 AUST-WIDE DELIVERY
Yukio Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor - the same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen. He wrote countless stories and thirty-three plays, in some of which he performed. Several films have been made from his novels, including The Sound of Waves, Enjo which was based on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea. Among his other works are the novels Confessions of a Mask and Thirst for Love and the short story collections Death in Midsummer and Acts of Worship. The Sea of Fertility tetralogy, however, is his masterpiece. After Mishima conceived the idea of The Sea of Fertility in 1964, he frequently said he would die when it was completed. On 25 November 1970, the day he completed The Decay of the Angel, the last novel of the cycle, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide) at the age of forty-five.
An engaging love story of a boy and girl whom the sea has fashioned, wise, beautiful and strong, occurs on the self-sufficient little world of a Japanese island, Uta-Jima. The hero, Shinji, a poor young fisherman of noble character, falls in love with Hatsue, beautiful and good daughter of the wealthy merchant marine Terukichi. Jealousy complicates their romance when the unhappy girl student, Chiyoko, home on holiday from Tokyo, whispers that Shinji has made Hatsue a cracked pitcher . Yasue, an educated suitor of wealth and family as well as the town operator , attempts to rape Hatsue as she goes at the appointed early morning time for water. Terukichi tests the suitors by putting them on the same ship, and it is Shinji who proves his shining worth by saving the ship in a typhoon, swimming in a dangerous sea to tie the ship safely, and thereafter wins his prize. The peripheral scenes are winning - the competition of the women divers, Terukichi at the bath house, Shinji's brother writing from Kyoto on his school trip. There is an experiment in style which is almost a success. The whole, with its classic undercurrent, is intentionally unsophisticated. (Kirkus Reviews)
