Historical Context
The Japanese Economy
Following World War II, Japan experienced a swift and remarkable economic revival. Several factors played a role in this achievement. Instead of focusing on producing low-cost textiles for the Asian market, Japan shifted its efforts towards creating advanced technology for a global audience. The country's workforce was both skilled and highly driven. Additionally, the government provided support and collaboration with industries.
By 1960, Japan had risen to become the fifth-largest market economy in the world, and by 1968, it was second only to the United States. By the mid-1960s, Japan was exporting more goods to the U.S. than it was importing. Although a brief economic downturn occurred in the middle of the decade, from 1965 to 1970, the economy experienced an average growth rate exceeding eleven percent annually.
Society and Wealth
In the 1960s, there was a trend towards more equitable income distribution among individuals. Post-war reforms in land and labor, along with the breakup of the zaibatsu (Japanese conglomerates or cartels), contributed to this increased income equality. During this era, Japan became the country with the most equal income distribution among all advanced industrialized nations. Nearly ninety percent of Japanese people believed they enjoyed a middle-class lifestyle. This rise in middle-class awareness led to increased enrollment in schools and universities, higher personal savings, a desire for home ownership, and the acquisition of consumer goods, such as televisions.
Japanese Lifestyle
However, economic growth did bring some drawbacks for the Japanese population. Japanese workers put in longer hours than their counterparts in similar jobs in Western countries. Furthermore, the cost of living in Japan was significantly higher than in other industrialized nations.
During the 1960s, rapid industrialization and population growth became significant issues in Japan. In the early 1960s, many rural residents began migrating to urban areas, leading to overcrowding. Space and housing became limited, and prices surged dramatically during the decade. In the six largest cities, the urban land price index increased more than twentyfold between 1955 and 1970.
As thousands of people moved to the cities, rural municipalities sought to boost their tax base and revenue. To achieve this, they offered financial incentives to industries to relocate to their areas. Consequently, rural Japan experienced a phase of industrialization. Pollution became widespread, and the government failed to take preventive measures. By the mid-1960s, citizens started forming grassroots movements to combat potentially hazardous environmental pollution.
The U.S.-Japan Mutual Security Treaty
Following Japan's surrender in World War II, the United States played a key role in reconstructing the Japanese government and stationed military forces there under the terms of the U.S.-Japan Mutual Security Treaty. However, by 1960, both nations sought to amend the treaty. Several provisions were updated, and a focus on economic collaboration between the two countries was introduced. Political leftists opposed the treaty, arguing that it compelled Japan to support any military actions the United States might undertake in Asia, as U.S. military bases would remain in Japan. Despite this opposition, Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi's government backed the revised treaty to satisfy American demands. Eager to finalize the treaty during U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower's upcoming visit, Japan's prime minister pushed it through without consulting opposition parties. This led to massive protests, with tens of thousands of students and workers taking to the streets, resulting in riots. Due to security concerns, Eisenhower canceled his visit. The prime minister then traveled to Washington, where the treaty was ratified. Upon returning to Japan, Kishi resigned from his position.
Literary Style
Point of View
The narrative unfolds from a third-person perspective, offering insights primarily through Akio's experiences. The reader is privy...
(This entire section contains 497 words.)
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only to Akio's thoughts and perceptions. Due to Akio's lack of awareness and interest in Masako, the reader gleans minimal information about her character. Her thoughts are revealed solely through brief dialogues and Akio's occasional descriptions of her actions. For example, during a pivotal moment, Masako reacts to Akio's repeated announcement of their breakup by saying, “Really? Did you say that? I didn’t hear you,” in a “normal” voice. This reaction undermines Akio's emotional turmoil and turns the humor of both his attempt to win Masako just to end things and confronting her at the fountain back on himself.
Symbolism
The fountains serve as the story's central symbols, depicted in sexual imagery. The primary columns of the fountains, which “shot upward from the center of each basin,” are phallic symbols representing male genitalia. The basins encircling the fountains, with their “radiating curves,” symbolize female genitalia. Akio's intrigue with the fountains contradicts his professed disinterest in sex. His ambivalence extends to his sexual orientation. Initially, he describes the water columns but then claims to be “less taken” with them than with the surrounding waters. Observing the water’s “untiring rushing,” Akio enters a sexual daydream, feeling “taken over by the water, carried away on its rushing, cast far away.” This reverie persists as he focuses on the large central column, envisioning the upward rush of water. Unlike male genitalia, this phallus experiences a “kind of perpetual replenishment.” Despite this, the column will be “frustrated.” However, the column possesses something Akio desires: “unwaning power.”
Setting
The story is set in Tokyo, though the city is not explicitly named. By omitting the location, Mishima suggests that this narrative could unfold anywhere and in nearly any culture.
This anonymous setting also highlights Akio’s sense of isolation from himself and others. In the tea house, the environment is filled with overwhelming noise and bustling activity. The sounds within the tea house—such as customers’ conversations, clattering dishes, and the cash register—“clashed with each other all the more violently... to create a single, mind-fuddling commotion.” These sounds, along with the chaotic atmosphere, mirror Akio’s emotional state. He is agitated and excited by the breakup, yet not as comfortable with his actions as he wishes to be. The setting is significant because the noise in the tea house is why Masako fails to hear Akio’s words.
As the two depart from the tea room, the setting transforms. Outside, Masako trails behind Akio "silently," while he moves "in silence." The sidewalks are deserted, creating a sense of complete isolation for Akio and Masako. Upon arriving at the garden, "not a soul" is present, yet "beyond the garden, a steady stream of wet truck hoods and bus roofs in red, white, or yellow" can be seen. Akio is conscious that life continues, but at this moment, he feels detached from it.
Compare and Contrast
1960s: In 1960, Japan's population was 93,419,000.
1990s: By 1998, Japan's population had grown to 126,486,000.
1960s: By 1970, seventy-nine percent of students continued their education beyond the mandatory level, and twenty-four percent pursued college studies.
1990s: In 1998, 96.9 percent of students advanced to upper secondary school, and 44.2 percent attended university.
1960s: In 1960, 32.6 percent of Japan's workforce was engaged in primary industries like agriculture and forestry.
1990s: By the 1990s, less than ten percent of the workforce was involved in primary industries, while over half were employed in tertiary sectors such as research and management.
1960s: Most Japanese women joined the workforce early, worked for a few years, and typically retired by their mid-twenties to marry and start families. Many companies required women to retire upon having children.
1990s: Many married women returned to work in their mid-thirties, once their children reached school age. Women constituted nearly forty percent of the workforce.
Bibliography and Further Reading
Sources
Anderer, Paul, Review in Los Angeles Times, December 17, 1989, p. 2.
Bester, John, Preface to Acts of Worship, Kodansha International, 1989, pp. vii–xii.
Ditsky, J. M., Review in Choice, April 1990, p. 1329.
Mishima, Yukio, ‘‘Fountains in the Rain,’’ in Acts of Worship: Seven Stories, translated by John Bester, Kodansha International, 1989.
Napier, Susan J., Escape from the Wasteland: Romanticism and Realism in the Fiction of Mishima Yukio and Oe Kenzaburo, Harvard University Press, 1995.
———, ‘‘Mishima Yukio,’’ in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 182: Japanese Fiction Writers Since World War II, Gale Research, Detroit, 1997, pp. 121–134.
Shabecoff, Philip, ‘‘Everyone in Japan Has Heard of Him,’’ in New York Times, August 2, 1970.
Starrs, Roy, Review of Acts of Worship, in The Journal of Asian Studies, August 1990, p. 659.
Further Reading
Scott-Stokes, Henry, , Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, New York, 1974. This biography is the first of Mishima to be published in the West, authored by one of his friends.
Yourcenar, Marguerite, Mishima: A Vision of the Void, translated by Alberto Manguel, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, New York, 1986. This essay by the acclaimed French writer examines Mishima’s life and work, highlighting the often indistinct line between them.
