Runaway Horses

The second book in Mishima’s Sea of Fertility tetraology – this is a story of political violence, traditional samurai values and nihilism. Isao is a young, engaging patriot, and a fanatical believer in the ancient samurai ethos. He turns terrorist, organising a violent plot against the new industrialists, who he believes are threatening the integrity of Japan and usurping the Emperor’s rightful power. As the conspiracy unfolds and unravels, Mishima brilliantly chronicles the conflicts of a decade that saw the fabric of Japanese life torn apart. ‘Runaway Horses is disturbing material, also a harbinger of Mishima’s own act of ‘patriotic’ self-slaughter… Strange, elegant, erotic’ Guardian