Snow in spring
Snow in Spring ( Japanese 春 の 雪 , Haru no Yuki ) is the first volume of the tetralogy The Sea of Fertility by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima .
The novel is primarily about the love story between the young protagonist and his older friend from childhood.
In the same year, the second volume of the tetralogy appeared with Unter dem Sturmgott .
action
Beginning
You get to know the protagonist Kiyoaki Matsugae and his family situation. He is the only child of a nouveau riche noble family. Because of his beauty and his soft character, he lives relatively isolated. At school he only has one friend, Shigekuni Honda, who, unlike him, is an exemplary hardworking student. His supervisor, Shigeyuki Iinuma, despises him at home because of his weakness, but displays submissive behavior in memory of the family's progenitor, a famous samurai who drove the Meiji Restoration and gained reputation and fortune in the process. Matsugae's family had given him to the Ayakuras, an old noble family, in his youth in order to give him the old courtly education. In his childhood, he made friends with Satoko, the daughter of the house. Now the relationship is rather cold, as Kiyoaki feels the memory of the time with the more mature Satoko as embarrassing and her sometimes rough open manner bothers him.
center
The relationship with Satoko changes after Kiyoaki realizes that Satoko is a beautiful woman and is equal to his beauty. The relationship gets a special boost from the presence of two Siamese princes, in front of whom Kiyoaki wants to show off his future wife (who knows nothing about it). Out of hurt vanity, however, Kiyokai breaks off his relationship with Satoko. She fends off all other marriage proposals, but she has to bow down when a member of the imperial family asks for her hand. When Kiyoaki's parents tell him about the marriage proposal and even ask him for possible objections, he stays cool and does not reply.
Enough
After the emperor has given his consent to the upcoming wedding, Kiyoaki is overcome by an insatiable need for Satoko. With the help of her maid, he arranges secret meetings in which the two pursue their sexual desires. What must happen happens: Satoko becomes pregnant. Your own family does not care in principle, as Count Ayakura is a comfortable man and usually stays out of everything. When the Matsugaes find out about this, they decide to have the child secretly aborted. On the return trip from the doctor's office, Satoko is supposed to visit the abbess of the Gesshuji Temple to keep up appearances. Out of renunciation, Satoko suddenly enters the temple and expresses the desire to become a nun. Her mother is overwhelmed with the situation and first leaves to get support. However, nobody can dissuade Satoko from their plan and so the engagement to the prince (because of alleged mental illness) is broken. In the meantime, Kiyoaki's desire is growing stronger and he decides to see her at least one more time. So he runs away from home with money borrowed from Honda. His requests at the temple gate to see Satoko again are always refused because Satoko had to promise the abbess never to see him again. When he becomes seriously ill, he asks Honda for help. However, this cannot do anything for him. After bringing him back home, Kiyoki dies at the age of twenty.
publication
The novel was published on January 5, 1969 by the Japanese publisher Shinchōsha . A paperback version followed on July 30, 1977 (new edition 2002).
A German translation by Siegfried Schaarschmidt was published by Carl Hanser Verlag in 1985 ( ISBN 3-446-14395-5 ), and a sub-licensed paperback edition by Goldmann Verlag in 1987 ( ISBN 3-442-08856-9 ).
An English translation, Spring Snow ― The Sea of Fertility , by Michael Gallagher, was published by Knopf in 1971.
The work has been included in the UNESCO collection of representative works for translation into English.
Adaptations
There are several Japanese stage versions of the work, the first of which was performed in the Tokyo Geijutsuza Theater in 1969 . Further performances took place in 1973 at the Nissay Theater . The Takarazuka Revue performed an adaptation in late 2012.
From February 27 to April 3, 1970, an adaptation as a 6-part television series ( Dorama ) ran on Fuji TV . On October 29, 2005, a film adaptation by director Isao Yukisada was shown in Japanese cinemas .
In addition, an adaptation was published as a manga by the publisher Shufu to Seikatsu-sha ( ISBN 4-391-13199-4 ) in February 2006 and a new edition by Chūō Kōron Shinsha ( ISBN 978-4-12-205001-3 ) on March 23, 2008 . The text editing comes from Riyoko Ikeda and the drawings from Erika Miyamoto.
Individual evidence
- ↑ 春 の 雪 . In: 公演 検 索 - 歌舞 伎 公演 デ ー タ ベ ー ス . Retrieved October 9, 2013 (Japanese).
- ↑ 『春 の 雪』 | 月 組. (No longer available online.) In: 宝 塚 歌劇 | 公式 HP . Takarazuka Revue, archived from the original on December 3, 2013 ; Retrieved October 9, 2013 (Japanese).
- ↑ 放送 作品 . In: 三島 由 紀 夫 文学 館 . Retrieved October 9, 2013 (Japanese).