Vintage Classics: Runaway Horses

‘Runaway Horses’ is the chronicle of a conspiracy, a novel about the roots and nature of Japanese fanaticism in the years that led to war – an era marked by depression, the upheaval of radical social change, political violence and assassination.

Isao, the driven hero, is a young, engaging patriot-fanatic. His father, a corrupt and temporising spouter of nationalist pieties, instils in him the ancient samurai ethos. In its service Isao organises a violent plot against the new industrialists who he believes are usurping the Emperor’s rightful power and threatening the very integrity of Japan. As the conspiracy unfolds – and ultimately unravels – Mishima brilliantly dramatises the conflicts of a decade that saw the fabric of Japanese life torn apart.