Yukio Mishima's The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea

Yukio Mishima’s The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea outlines various images of masculinity throughout the novel. Traditionally, the male role emphasizes the traits of being independent, strong, ambitious, sexually aggressive and emotionally stoic. Mishima has incorporated masculinity as one of the main themes in the novel and evidently portrays these characteristics through the character of Ryuji Tsukazaki. He is the main masculine figure in the novel in which many instances have defined his prominent masculine identity.

Ryuji is emblazoned as a very independent man as in his younger years he was stricken by poverty and his mother’s death, but “despite everything, Ryuji had grown up into a strong, healthy man” whose “total in his bankbook climbed and now he had almost two million
Ryuji believes in traditional Japanese ideologies and exemplifies the traditional characteristics of masculinity. What I found particularly interesting is that the introduction of Fusako, a very feminine figure, was the thing that made his masculinity vanish in the eyes of Noboru, but to me it made him appear stronger as a man. A very masculine trait that I believe Mishima was trying to convey is the ability for a male to be capable of love without it deeming his masculinity. I believe that it took a certain strength to be able to possess the ability to love and nurture someone not only physically but emotionally. I think he was trying to show that due to the western ideologies, love has somewhat been lost and forgotten for things we believe are more important like a career. Overall, I relate to Mishima’s portrayal of masculinity because he gave Ryuji the traits that I believe all men should be comprised of. From being independent to having the capacity to love, it gave us a very traditional exemplar of what masculinity should be