The Sea of Fertility is a
tetralogy, that is, a four-part "
cycle", if you will, authored by the
prolithic Japanese author/director/playwriter/many-other-things
Yukio Mishima.
He first conceived the idea for
The Sea of Fertility in
1964, and told
Donald Keene that he would
die when it was completed. As many of you
Mishima afficiandos know, the fateful November 25th, 1970 event, which marked his committing of
seppuku after taking over the Defense Force facility in
Ichigaya, was the day he finished
The Decay of the Angel, the final novel in the cycle, thus completing his own death prophecy.
"The title,
The Sea of Fertility," he told Keene, "is intended to
suggest the arid sea of the moon that belies its name. Or I might
say that it
superimposes the image of cosmic
nihilism on that of the
fertile sea."
The cycle("tetralogy") is as follows(in this order):
The main theme of the cycle deals with the reincarnation of a sprit, each time having to face different issues and recurring themes that seems to
haunt it throughout it's many "lives", most notable of which is the
erosion of the Japanese society as a whole at the hands of outside
influences and
changing times in general. Each of the novels depict a
different reincarnation of the same
being: first as a young
aristocrat in 1912
Tokyo, then as a
political fanatic in the 1930s, as a
Thai princess before and after
World War II, and as an
evil young
orphan in the 1960s.
Personally, I was deeply moved by the first two novels and am currently reading the third as we
speak. Vintage Press international has an english edition of all the books available for sale at most
reputable book stores, if you're into that sort of thing. At times like this, I suppose you
Japanese speaking members of this community are the lucky ones, because you can read the originals. :P