Staying with Mishima, as Spring Snow is the first in the Sea of Fertility tetralogy. He is writing about the zest of sexy living things in a lost world where natural balance still persists.
In this world, the seclusions and attractions of nature match those if the human subjects. Satoko is a beauty who parallels the cherry blossoms, the nape of her neck sanctified.
I mean, Ivanka Trump is cute but you couldn't say that about her! With seclusion in nature comes realism - as opposed to facts - and closeness to the symbolism of natural symmetry.
The Sea of Fertility is a psychic reality as opposed to a material illusion. Reality and symbolism are closest in the contours of balance that surround elemental nature.
Satoko had never looked more beautiful than now as she closed her eyes, still struggling in his arms. But although there was no feature, no contour that marred the delicacy of her face, it was nevertheless imprinted with a subtle, fleeting cast of willfulness. The corners of her lips were slightly upturned. He anxiously tried to make out whether she was smiling or crying, but her face was already deep in shadow, an omen of the darkness almost upon them. He looked down at her ear, half-hidden by her hair. With its tinge of pink and its fine curve, the wonder of it made him think of a delicate coral recess that more hht appear in dream, containing a tiny, beautifully carved Buddha. There was something mysterious about the hollow of the ear, now fading in the darkness. (page 134 - cf Moebius, Is Man Good?)
This type of Japanese preciousness runs through the book - but is it precious or simply a world the west has lost? Messner-Loeb's Journey (prev) has a similar preciousness that connects the wiles and customs of folk to the fecundity if natural forms.
Facts go contrary to this wilful charm because facts are barren of universal symmetries. They tend to be true only insofar as they occupy an illusion of weakness; the monetary system, the flow if goods.
Money has become reality because goods are much more numerical than in days of yore. See The Royal Exchange (HB6) when artisan ware and eastern fabrics were exchanged as tokens of taste and beauty.
Taste does nor come into "facts" owing to the lack of the natural connection.
The trees along the way bore evidence of a remarkable surge of growth with their clusters of new leaves and branches. The mountains were a mass of green that ranges from a near yellow to a dark tone verging on black. The bright young maple leaves stood out especially against the general outpouring of green that made the whole countryside glitter. (page 153, elegant description)
The aristocratic society described - around 1915 - sanctifies natural events in periodic festivities that are gay and blossoming with fecundity.
The fecundity is mirrored in the society. On one occasion a flock of geishas are employed to play-act and play instruments, flirting with lover-boy Kiyoaki.
The lax morality is not lost on the patrons of this dying social order. In one sequence, Satoko probes Kiyoaki's father the Marquis on his son's "knowledge".
'Well, according to what I've heard from Kiyo, his father seems to be a great advocate of the empirical approach. He told me that you treated him to a guided tour of the world of geishas so that he could learn how best to conduct himself there. And Kiyo seems to be very happy with the results, feeling that he's now quite a man. But really, Marquis Matsugae, is it true that you champion the empirical method even at the expense of morality?'..
'What a difficult question! That's just the sort if thing these moral reform groups ask in their petitions to the Diet. Well, if what Kiyoaki said were true, I could muster something in my defence. But the truth is this: Kiyo himself rejected just that very educational opportunity..' (page 140)
The Marquis also sleeps around with the Maud Mine and a lodged mistress. So the society is lax in what you could call a sense of natural fecundity.
The subtext of this is that nature also cleanses - with its strong fecund presence. Dirt and cleanliness are difficult to disentangle; the very strength of growth and health.
By way of his patronial spirit, the Marquis also dispenses favors. Kiyoaki's tutor, Iinuma, has been found to be liaising with Mine.
"Yes, in the old days I would have had to cut him down. But times have changed. And then he came here with a fine recommendation from the people in Kagoshima, and I know had s old middle-school principal, who comes up here to give us New Year greetings. It's best to let him go without creating ant kind of stir that would damage his future prospects. Not only that, but I want to handle it tactfully, so as to make things east for him. I'll send off Mine on her own too. And then if they're still both in the mood and want to marry, well and good. I'm willing to fund work for him. The main thing is I want to get him out of the house, so it would be besr to handle it in a wat that would give him no cause for resentment. That's the best thing. After all, he served you faithfully for such a long time, and we have no complaints about him.in that regard."
This is close to the old European order of patrnage and equal laxity (see Bergmann's Fanny and Alexander).
In all cases, the "facts" are never clean and wholesome, but tinged with dirt and wilfulness. But the very fecundity of the situation cleanses any lingering stink. Apart from anything else, toxins are destroyed by exposure to germs that strengthen the immune system response; modern "facts" merely confuse the situation into a morass of expert testimony (aka junk).
This entire world of strength and (Byronic) beauty is swiftly gone. After all, nature's things wilt and are easily paved-over. True, their strength will prevail - but when? The puritanical moderns even abhor shooting vermin - a natural pursuit of woodsmen and gamekeepers in nature's bounty.
After Iinuma had gone, he stood at the open window gazing down at the beautiful reflection of the marble hill, with its fresh mantle of new leaves, as it floated on the water of the pond. Close to the window itself, the foliage of the zelkova was so thick that he had to lean our in order to see the place at the bottom of the hill where the last of the nine waterfalls plunged into the pool. All around the edge of the pond, the surface was covered with clusters of pale green water shields. The yellow water lillies had not yet flowered, but in the angles of the stone bridge that zigzagged a path close to the main reception room, irises were pushing their purple and white blossoms out from sharp-pointed clusters of green leaves. (page 163)
The moon had not risen when Kull, hand to hilt, stepped to a window. The windows opened upon the great inner gardens of the royal palace, and the breezes of the night, bearing the scent of spice trees, blew the filmt curtains about. The king looked out. The walks and groves were deserted; carefully trimmed trees were built shadows; fountains near by flung their slender sheen if silver in the starlight and distant fountains rippled steadily. No guards walked these gardens, for so closely were rgw outer walla guarded that it seemed impossible for any invader to gain access to them. (Robert Howard The Shadow Kingdom, page 29 King Kill)
