Yukio Mishima's novel The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea is a powerful allegorical novel written in Japan after World War II. It is deeply rooted in Japanese culture and much of its deeper meaning may be lost on Western audiences. One such example is the use of Summer and Winter as titles for the two parts of the novel. In Japan, kigo and kidai are words and concepts traditionally associated with different seasons. These range from the obvious, like the connection between summer and heat, to the obscure, like autumn and the memory of the dead. Mishima wrote waka, a form of classical Japanese poetry from a young age and would have been familiar with these connections ("Yukio Mishima - Biography"). Within the novel, Ryuji experiences changes in his characterization, from an honor-bound sailor seeking a good death to a man seeking to feel a part of his new lover, to the worst of all (in Noboru's mind), a father. The division of the sailor who fell out of favor with the sea into summer and winter informs the change in Ryuji's characterization through reference to traditional Japanese seasonal concepts; furthermore, this adds further allegorical commentary on the cultural changes that have occurred in Japan. Ryuji, at the beginning of the novel, is considered “asocial and eccentric” by his teammates (15). He sees himself as a “heroic figure on the brink of the human world” convinced that “there must be a special destiny in store for [him]” (17). Ryuji reduces Fusako to a sexual companion, losing his interest in her when she no longer "hugs" him but instead spills coffee, spending his thoughts "calculating how far he might be able to go" (22). Look at the men who “read the letters […] and I…… in the middle of the paper…… worry about the lifestyle he had held just the previous summer and which they had abandoned for comfort, just as the Japanese did as they approached the 'Westernization. Mishima uses the traditional meaning of the seasons and their cyclical nature in parallel with Ryuji's behavior and passion for his goals to enhance the allegorical meaning; as the seasons repeat, Japan in his mind must recapture the glory of its summer. Works Cited "Japanese Haiku Topical Dictionary" Japanese Text Initiative. University of Virginia LibraryElectronic Text Center, nd Web. 10 April 2014. .Mishima, Yukio. The sailor who fell out of favor with the sea. New York: Vintage International, 1994. Print."Yukio Mishima - Biography." EGS Library. The European Graduate School, 2012. Web.09 April. 2014. .