Under the storm god

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Under the storm god ( Japanese 奔馬 , Homba , dt. "Durchgiegenes / galloping horse") is a novel by Yukio Mishima published in 1969 and after snow in spring the second volume of the tetralogy The Sea of ​​Fertility ( 豊 饒 の 海 , Hōjō no Umi ).

The book is about a nationalist-minded young man whose dreams have no place in modern Japan in the 1930s.

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Beginning

In 1932 Honda Shigekuni was judge (left assessor) at the Osaka Higher Regional Court. 18 years have passed since the death of Kiyoaki (the protagonist of the first volume). He travels to the Omiwa Shrine in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, to represent the President of the Court to attend a kendo tournament. There he meets Isao, the son of Kiyoaki's old teacher Iinuma, and thinks he recognizes Kiyoaki's rebirth in him, which is not - like Kiyoaki - beautiful, but masculine and warlike.

Isao's favorite story “Der Göttersturm-Bund” is of particular importance for the course of the plot. A Historical Report by Yamao Tsunanori ”. Several samurai try to counteract the Europeanization of Japan during the Meiji period by attempting a military coup. The essence of the story is found in the poem of one of the samurai:

“The land was handed over to the barbarians,
the emperor, the throne in danger.
But the gods of heaven and earth know
that our will is faithful to the kingdom. "

(Translation by Schaarschmidt, p. 110)

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Shigekuni sees a parallel between the coup of the Göttersturmbund and Kiyoaki's love story (from Volume 1), namely the irrational rebellion that can only be quenched with death. And warns Isao, who only dismisses this warning as a lack of attitude.

“Integrity” is Isao's central concept that he also gave to his two best friends. The aim is to sacrifice one's life in accordance with His Majesty's commands. Believing industry and high finance would control the emperor, he gathers contemporaries around him, with whom he wants to kill the leading figures of capitalism, set the Japanese central bank on fire and destroy the most important electricity substations so that the state of siege is declared. This is intended to drive western capitalism (together with communism) out of Japan and to put industry and high finance back under the control of the emperor. As Isao's father betrays him and his comrades, everyone is arrested and the plan fails.

Shigekuni changes through his acquaintance with Isao, he is no longer the same as before.

Enough

When, with the help of Shigekunis, everyone can be saved from prison, Isao's integrity is destroyed - as can be clearly seen from his gaze.

In the end he kills one of the big capitalists, and facing the sea himself.

publication

The novel was published on February 25, 1969 by the Japanese publisher Shinchōsha . A paperback version followed on August 30, 1977 (new edition 2002).

A German translation by Siegfried Schaarschmidt was published in 1988 by Carl Hanser Verlag ( ISBN 3-446-14628-8 ), and in the same year a sublicensed paperback edition by Goldmann Verlag ( ISBN 3-442-09145-4 )

An English translation, Runaway Horses ― The Sea of ​​Fertility , by Michael Gallagher, was published by Tuttle in 1973.

Adaptations

The novel was adapted by Paul Schrader in the biographical film Mishima - A Life in Four Chapters .

literature