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.

Yukio Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor - the same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen. He wrote countless stories and thirty-three plays, in some of which he performed. Several films have been made from his novels, includingThe Sound of Waves, Enjowhich was based onThe Temple of the Golden Pavilionand The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea. Among his other works are the novelsConfessions of a MaskandThirst for Loveand the short story collectionsDeath in MidsummerandActs of Worship. The Sea of Fertilitytetralogy, however, is his masterpiece. After Mishima conceived the idea ofThe Sea of Fertilityin 1964, he frequently said he would die when it was completed. On 25 November 1970, the day he completedThe Decay of the Angel, the last novel of the cycle, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide) at the age of forty-five.

The second novel in Mishima's masterful Sea of Fertility tetraology>