Generally, the western culture’s view of the relationship between a man and his wife in a Japanese culture is pretty narrow. Typically their view of the women is that they are very submissive and quiet women, whereas the man is the domineering one of the relationship. In Yukio Mishima’s Patriotism, Mishima shows these attributes to be somewhat true but he shows it in a way to provoke the reader to think whether or not these people act the way the do because of cultural expectations or out of love for one another. Patriotism is a beautiful masterpiece where Mishima, through his word and imagery, was able to entice the reader in a journey of a young Japanese couple and their lives with each other.

One of the techniques Mishima used in writing Patriotism was by writing in a way where someone was reminiscing about this couple while reading their obituary in a local newspaper or magazine. This is seen in the way he wrote the first paragraph. Mishima started off with the date of the death, the name of the person who died, Lt. Shinji Takeyama, what Takeyama has accomplished and the way Takeyama died. However, in a usual obituary, what tend to

The theme of devotion comes to life when dealing with the relationship between Lt. Shinji Takeyama and his country and friends. The relationship between the man, Lt. Shinji Takeyama, and his country plays an important role to this story. He was a devoted soldier in the Imperial troops of Japan. And upon finding out that his closest colleagues acted out against the emperor and his army, drove him to a dilemma, forcing him to make a choice of whether he should choose to side with those colleagues and act out and fight against the emperor or if he should act with the emperor and capture and/or kill them. Having this dilemma of Takeyama as a driving force for the story, the dilemma forcing him to choose his friends or his country, Mishima shows the honor and devotion of this man to both his country and his friends. Such a great devotion to each of them, Takeyama ultimately decides to do the honorable thing by killing himself in order to show that he completely devoted to both and that they both had great importance to him and his life.

follow is the people who Takeyama would be survived by but in this case Mishima shows the reader that Takeyama isn’t survived by anyone, that his wife also committed the same act in committing suicide herself. By showing that both, the husband and wife committing suicide, Mishima suggests the question of “Why?” into the readers mind. Mishima answers this question by demonstrating the themes of devotion and love.

Shinji and Reiko’s love for each other was put into a final test when the actual act of suicide arose. When Shinji told Reiko that she must die after he does not only shows that he has utmost faith in her but that he truly loves and trusts her as well.

Some topics in this essay:
Shinji Takeyama, Education Rescript’s, Patriotism Mishima, Shinji Reiko’s, Takeyama Takeyama, Mishima’s Patriotism, United States’, Shinji Reiko, pg 318, Patriotism Eyes, committing suicide, shinji takeyama, lt shinji, country friends, story mishima, Lt Shinji, throughout story mishima, lt shinji takeyama, throughout story, yukio mishima’s patriotism, love passion, towards husband, physical relationship, shinji takeyama country, relationship lt shinji,