The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea Analysis
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What is bushido? Known also as the ‘fighting spirit’, bushido is a set of values including frugality, loyalty, and honor unto death, that warriors strictly adhered to in times of great conflict. Before the start of World War II, Japan’s military used bushido to indoctrinate extreme nationalism into the nation’s youth and convince them to become future soldiers. But after Japan’s humiliating defeat at the end of the war, bushido and all of its teachings gradually disappeared from its culture. In Yukio Mishima’s novel, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, we learn that Western cultural influences are the main cause of bushido’s rapid decline. Mishima describes what he believed was the takeover of Western culture as the love affair between…show more content… In the novel, Mishima describes how more and more Japanese departed from traditional culture and values and adopted more modern, westernized ones. Using Fusako as the bringer of the west, we see Tsukazaki become more and more westernized. Since his beliefs have changed, so too do his habits change and he begins to “read silly novels and art books Fusako recommended and study English conversation” (135). No longer does he stare out at the sea with dreams of glory filled destiny and no longer does he see the sailor’s life as the pinnacle of freedom. For Japan, the fighting spirit was no longer thought to be the great ideal to strive for and, instead, a simple, stable life was sought. To further drive this point home, Mishima also describes how Tsukazaki alters his outward appearance, that “he learned to wear the ‘smart’ English clothes [Fusako] lavished on him” (135), abandoning his traditional sailor’s uniform. At the same time, “Western technologies and customs like music, clothing, and cars” (Wikipedia: Westernization) pervaded Japan itself – and in place of bushido, which found no place in this type of society, Japan instead embraced a life with a mix of conservative Japanese and Western