Spring Snow (春の雪, Haru no Yuki) was published by Shinchosha in 1969, the first volume of The Sea of Fertility (豊饒の海), Mishima’s four-novel magnum opus. He completed the final volume on the morning of his ritual suicide, November 25, 1970.
Matsugae Kiyoaki is a twenty-year-old aristocrat in 1912 Tokyo — beautiful, melancholic, and perversely unable to desire what is available to him. His childhood friend Satoko is in love with him; he ignores her until she is betrothed to a member of the Imperial family. Only then — when she is forbidden — does his passion ignite. Their clandestine affair leads to Satoko’s pregnancy, a secret abortion, and her decision to enter a Buddhist convent rather than face the world she has betrayed.
Kiyoaki, refusing to accept her withdrawal, pursues her through rain and cold to the convent gates. She will not see him. He collapses, develops pneumonia, and dies at twenty — but not before telling his friend Honda that they will meet again: “I’ll see you again. I know it. Beneath the falls.”
The novel establishes the tetralogy’s central conceit: Honda will encounter Kiyoaki’s reincarnation in each subsequent volume — as a right-wing fanatic in the 1930s, a Thai princess in the 1940s, and a sociopathic orphan in the 1970s. Each incarnation is marked by three moles on the left side of the chest.
Collecting Spring Snow
First edition (Shinchosha, Tokyo, 1969): Japanese text, two volumes.
First English edition (Knopf, New York, 1972): Translated by Michael Gallagher.
Market values:
- Japanese first edition, both volumes: $200–$600
- Knopf first English edition, fine in jacket: $80–$200
Projected values (2026–2036): Strong appreciation, especially as part of the tetralogy.
The Sea of Fertility Begins
Spring Snow (春の雪, 1969) is the first novel in Mishima’s four-volume masterwork, The Sea of Fertility. Set in early twentieth-century Japan, it tells the story of the doomed love between Kiyoaki Matsugae, an aristocratic young man of exquisite sensitivity, and Satoko Ayakura, who is engaged to a member of the imperial family. The novel is Mishima’s most beautiful and romantic work — deliberately modeled on The Tale of Genji — and its tragic ending sets in motion the cycle of reincarnation that drives the entire tetralogy. Mishima mailed the final pages of the last volume to his publisher on the morning he committed suicide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I read the Sea of Fertility in order? Yes — the four novels (Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, The Decay of the Angel) tell a continuous story across four lifetimes. The emotional and philosophical impact depends on reading them sequentially.