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Part 1, Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Glory, Heroism, and Death
Japanese Nationalism and Identity
Masculinity, Love, and Family
Reality, Perception, and Identity
Summary
Analysis
Fusako Kuroda runs Rex, her late husband’s luxury shop, which sells expensive European menswear to rich foreigners and Tokyo celebrities. Through her connections at the port, Fusako always gets her first pick of the fine English sweaters and Italian leathers that arrive in Japan. The devoted store manager, Mr. Shibuya, has made business contacts all across Europe through his travels.
Fusako’s luxury shop represents Western influences on postwar Japanese culture, which were largely a legacy of the American occupation (and the capitalist economy it set up). In particular, it shows how the Japanese elite pivoted from exalting traditional Japanese goods and culture to privileging the West.
Themes
When Fusako reaches the store, she goes to her office, opens her mail, and lights a cigarette. She’s relieved to be at work, rather than at home. Today, the actress Yoriko Kasuga will be visiting to buy accessories, and a secretary will come to buy Italian golf shirts for her boss. But so far, the store is still empty. Fusako wonders if Mr. Shibuya has noticed her red eyes, and for the first time, she realizes how long her husband has been dead: five years. But Fusako also still feels Ryuji’s presence all over her body.
Fusako is a successful, financially independent woman, and her store is clearly her dominion—she feels more comfortable there than at home, where she clashes with Noboru. Between her ability to own a business and the imported goods that her business sells, the novel clearly links her independence to her Westernized values and lifestyle. But Mishima isn’t necessarily presenting Fusako’s independence as a good thing—instead, he connects it to her husband’s death and attributes it to necessity.
Themes
Fusako first met Ryuji two days ago, when she took ship-obsessed Noboru to visit the enormous freighter Rakuyo. At the port, Noboru chattered on about ships, while Fusako languished in the sweltering heat. But when she first saw the mighty Rakuyo, she felt unexpectedly aroused. As the ship unloaded its cargo, Noboru and Fusako wandered its corridors, looking for the Captain. Instead, they met Ryuji. Fusako showed him a letter from her shipping executive friend, which was supposed to authorize the visit. Ryuji explained that the Captain was not there, but he offered to give Noboru and Fusako a tour instead. Fusako will never forget how intently Ryuji looked at her—it was as though he were gazing at a distant object across the sea.
Fusako clearly wasn’t looking forward to reaching her store so that she could get away from Ryuji—instead, she spends her time at the office reminiscing about meeting him, which suggests that she views their connection as far more than a one-night stand. Of course, the novel suggests that Ryuji feels the same way: when it describes him looking at Fusako as though he were gazing out at something across the sea, it directly links his dreams about his glorious destiny to his romance with Fusako. But again, in this scenario, Ryuji takes the active role—traveling across the metaphorical sea to reach Fusako—while Fusako passively waits for him. Finally, Noboru’s obsession with ships shows that he shares Ryuji’s vision of glory and masculinity: he also views sailing as the way for men to prove their might and achieve greatness. (Of course, this vision is also rooted in Japan’s geography—which makes the sea its only lifeline to the rest of the world—and its navy’s legacy during WWII.)
Themes
Ryuji took Noboru and Fusako up to the ship’s bridge (or command center), and Ryuji told Noboru how the port assigns berths (places for ships to dock). Meanwhile, Fusako contemplated Ryuji’s ruggedness and indifferent attitude. Ryuji commented that while Noboru clearly knows a lot about sailing, he should find other aspirations—sailing is “a miserable business if ever there was one.” Noboru wanted to see and touch everything, starting with the ship’s navigation instruments, nautical charts, and daily log. When Fusako dropped her parasol, Ryuji picked it up and offered it to her slowly, like a diver gracefully rising to the ocean’s surface.
Noboru and Fusako experience their visit to the Rakuyo from completely opposite perspectives that reflect their completely opposite interests. Fusako is mainly interested in Ryuji and Noboru in the ship, which Noboru uses to gleefully explore his fantasy of becoming a sailor. Of course, his childish enthusiasm contradicts his proud cold-heartedness, and this suggests that his nihilism is less a sincere philosophy than a bold attempt at rebellion. Meanwhile, Ryuji also makes his reservations about sailing clear, warning Noboru about the vast difference between the job’s reality and his fantasies about it.
Themes
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Mr. Shibuya draws Fusako out of her memories by calling her down to meet Yoriko Kasuga, the film actress. Fusako descends and chats with Yoriko about the heat. Yoriko complains about filming 30 takes for a mediocre movie on the docks that morning. She is desperate to win an acting award, the narrator explains—in fact, she’s visiting Rex to buy gifts for the awards jury. She’s a reliable customer, but Fusako can’t stand her gullibility and vulgarity. Fusako offers to show Yoriko the ties, shirts, and perfume that she has chosen as gifts. But Yoriko replies that she is in a rush and trusts Fusako to choose the gifts—as long as she wraps them beautifully.
The novel lurches back into the present. Fusako’s client, Yoriko Kasuga, represents the superficiality and mediocrity of the modern consumer culture that Mishima thinks the West imposed on Japan. She also serves as a character foil for Fusako: her selfishness and indifference highlights Fusako’s responsibility, elegance, and thoughtfulness. Of course, Fusako also represents Japan’s drift toward Western influences, chiefly because of her line of work. But the novel suggests that her personality is still compatible with traditional, idealized notions about Japanese womanhood.
Themes
After Yoriko leaves and the secretary visits to buy her shirts, Fusako knows she has no more customers for the day. She brings her lunch to her office and lays down in her chair. Closing her eyes, she returns to her memories of meeting Ryuji on the Rakuyo. She remembers following him down to the boat’s lower decks, where they watched a powerful crane unload giant cargo containers up through a hatch, relentlessly emptying out the ship in the sweltering heat. She invited Ryuji to dinner. Then, she remembers their dinner and their long walk in the park afterwards. She talked more to Ryuji than to any other man since her husband’s death.
In addition to completing the story of her meeting with Ryuji for the reader, Fusako’s memories also help show why he so fascinates her. Evidently, in addition to Fusako and Ryuji’s mutual attraction, their shared feeling of extreme loneliness has brought them together. Meanwhile, the cargo-unloading crane shows the impressive power necessary to run the Rakuyo and coordinate international trade in modern Japan. But to Fusako, it’s also clearly a metaphor for Ryuji’s own strength and the great weight she feels lifted off her conscience through meeting him.
Themes
