Summary

Chapter 1
The narrator states that on February 28, 1936, Lieutenant Shinji Takeyama, a
soldier in the Japanese Imperial Army, "took his officer's sword and ceremonially
disemboweled himself." February 28 is mentioned as the third day of "the
February 26th Incident." Shinji's wife, Reiko, takes her own life at the same
time. The reason given for Shinji's suicide is that he was disturbed that his
friends in the army had committed a mutiny and was also angry that imperial
troops were about to fight one another.
Shinji leaves a note that reads simply, "Long live the Imperial Forces." Reiko's
suicide note adds, "The day which, for a soldier's wife, had to come, has come."
The narrator says that the couple's final moments were "such as to make the
gods themselves weep." Shinji was 31, Reiko was 23, and they had been married
for half a year.

Chapter 2
The narration now shifts to describing the events before the deaths of the
protagonists. The narrator describes the commemorative photograph of Shinji
and Reiko's wedding. Shinji is wearing his military uniform, standing sternly and
protectively next to Reiko. As for Reiko, the narrator says that she looks
beautiful. After the couple's suicide, people look at the photograph and reflect on
whether "there was a curse on those seemingly flawless unions." The narrator
suggests that the couple in the photograph is looking out at the deaths that
would soon follow.

The couple finds a new home in an old house in Yotsuya, a neighborhood of

Tokyo. The pair does not have a honeymoon because the two live in "times of
national emergency." The first night of their marriage, Shinji and Reiko sit in
their bedroom. Shinji places his sword in front of him and gives his wife "a
soldierly lecture." He tells her that the wife of a soldier must accept that her
husband's death can happen at any time. He asks Reiko if she is resolved to
accept this eventuality. Reiko, in answer, goes to a cabinet and takes out "the
most prized of her new possessions," a dagger given to her by her mother.
Without saying anything, she lays the dagger in front of her husband's sword.
Shinji understands and does not test her resolve again.

The pair is described as having a passionate sexual relationship. But even in

their passion, the spouses are said to have "sober and serious" hearts. When
they are apart, they think of each other. Reiko is said not to be surprised that a
man who had been a stranger to her only a few months earlier had become "the
sun about which her whole world revolved."
The narrator says that the couple's behavior has "a moral basis" and follows
government policy for husbands and wives to be harmonious. Reiko never
contradicts her husband, and Shinji never scolds her. The couple places
photographs of the emperor and his family on a special shelf and honors the
photographs every morning. The spouses, because of their attention to rituals
and propriety, are said to live their lives "beneath the solemn protection of the
gods," which fills them with happiness.

Chapter 3
The couple does not hear gunfire on the morning of February 26, even though the
two are in the neighborhood where Lord Privy Seal Saitō lived. Makoto Sait ō
(1858–1936) was a senior government official who was murdered in his home as
part of the February 26 coup attempt. The lieutenant is instead awoken by a
bugle call. He leaps from his bed, puts on his uniform and sword, and heads out.
He does not return to the house until the evening of February 28.

Reiko learns what is happening from the radio. She lives alone in the house for
two days. Reiko had seen Shinji's determination to die on his face as he left the
house and resolves that she, too, is ready to die if he does not return. She makes
her preparations by choosing her best clothes as gifts for her school friends. She
also considers a collection of small china animal figurines she has. She looks at
one, a squirrel. As she does, her thoughts turn from the childish figurines toward
"the great sunlike principle which her husband embodied." She considers that
she is ready and happy to go to her destruction "in that gleaming sun chariot."
Until then, she allows herself to savor the memory of enjoying the animal
figurines when she was younger.

Reiko hears the names of her husband's friends mentioned on the radio
broadcasts. She listens as the broadcasts brand a movement to "restore the
nation's honor" as a mutiny—a military rebellion. On the evening of February 28,
Reiko hears someone banging on the door. It takes her some time to get the door
unbolted. When she does, she sees Shinji. She welcomes him home, but he does
not respond while Reiko helps him take off his coat. Reiko notices that Shinji
looks tired and thin.

After a while, Shinji speaks. He tells Reiko that he did not know about the coup
attempt, and his friends who are involved did not invite him to join in. They did
this, he says, because they knew he was recently married. Shinji says that the
next day he is likely to receive an order to lead soldiers to attack the rebels. "I
can't do it," he says. "It's impossible to do a thing like that." He tells Reiko he
was given official leave to return home for one night before leading the attack,
but he repeats to her that he can't do it.

Reiko understands that "her husband had spoken of his death." She knows he is
resolved to die. She recognizes that although Shinji had spoken of a dilemma, he
has really already made up his mind.
After another silence, Shinji announces that he will cut his stomach that night.
Reiko does not flinch, asking permission to accompany him. Shinji finds himself
mesmerized by the strength he sees in Reiko's eyes. He agrees that they will
commit suicide together, but that he will do so first, because Reiko must act as
witness to his suicide.

The words exchanged between them cause them both to feel a sudden burst of
happiness. The narrator explains that Shinji wanted "no irregularity in his death,"
which is why he needs Reiko to witness it. This shows Shinji's trust in Reiko,
because in a normal suicide pact, the husband would kill the wife first. Instead,
Shinji trusts Reiko to carry out her own suicide after witnessing his. Shinji
considers his wife's request to join him in suicide to be "the final fruit of the
education which he had himself given his wife." Because he is not a romantic, he
does not believe that Reiko's words are spoken out of love for him.

The two of them smile at each other. Reiko feels as she did on their wedding
night.

Reiko and Shinji discuss his bath and supper. Shinji agrees to the bath but
declines food. Instead, he asks for some warm sake, or rice wine. Reiko goes to
make the preparations and, as she does so, points to the open drawer. Shinji
sees within all the arrangements Reiko has made for her death by organizing her
belongings. Shinji is overwhelmed by affection for his wife and kisses her on the
neck. Shinji asks Reiko to lay out the bedding upstairs after warming the sake.

Shinji shaves while Reiko prepares his bath. The two go about their actions as if
there were nothing out of the ordinary. Shinji feels rejuvenated by the warmth of
the bathroom after the "desperate tiredness of the days of indecision" he had
just experienced. Shinji feels that his and Reiko's resolution to kill themselves
places them behind "an impenetrable armor of Beauty and Truth." He sees that
his desire for Reiko and his sincere patriotism are not inconsistent but rather
two parts of the same whole.

Shinji finishes shaving. Seeing Reiko warm the sake with no trace of sadness
about her, he decides that she is indeed the wife he should have chosen. He
drinks sake and offers some to Reiko. She has never tasted it before but takes a
sip.

Shinji calls Reiko to him. He looks into her face, noting it is the last face he will
see in the world. Reiko goes to take a bath herself while Shinji lies down on the
bedding upstairs. He wonders whether he is anticipating death or "a wild ecstasy
of the senses." He feels like the two overlap. He listens to a car going past
outside and considers the situation. He feels like his house is an island in a sea
of chaos. He notes that he grieves for his country and is resolved to die for it, but
he wonders if his protest, in the form of his suicide, will even be noticed. He
decides he does not care because he is waging a war of the spirit, where there is
no hope of glory.

Reiko enters the bedroom. The two embrace passionately, thinking that this is
the last time they will make love. Shinji lays Reiko down and looks over her
naked body for the final time. While noting her features, Shinji reckons that hers
will be a "truly radiant death face." Reiko, too, asks to look over Shinji for the
last time. It is the most assertive request she has ever made of Shinji. Reiko
weeps, and as her tears touch his naked stomach—which he will soon cut open—
Shinji feels himself ready to endure "the cruelest agonies of his suicide."

Chapter 4
Shinji turns away from Reiko, not wanting to exhaust himself as he needs his
strength to commit suicide. Reiko and Shinji listen to the quiet night outside.
They reflect on their lovemaking and think about how all their sensations are
about to be lost, even the feel of their hands laced together.

They make their final preparations. Shinji helps to put away the bedding,
something he has never done before. Shinji puts on his uniform while Reiko
writes her suicide note. Shinji writes his own after thinking about it for some
time. Eventually, he writes simply, "Long live the Imperial Forces." The two then
pray before the god shelf, with its images of the imperial family.

Shinji takes his position and lays his sword in front of him. He tells Reiko that
because he has no warrior to assist him, he will make a deep cut. He asks Reiko
not to panic, because death is always fearful to watch. Reiko agrees that she
will not panic. Shinji looks at Reiko and feels "a bizarre excitement." This is
because he has never shown his actions as a soldier to his wife. Shinji briefly
considers other sorts of death and finds a death before the eyes of his wife to be
the "very pinnacle of good fortune." In Reiko, Shinji sees all the things he loves,
which are "the Imperial Household, the Nation, the Army Flag." He feels the
presence of those institutions observing him as Reiko does. Reiko, looking at
Shinji, thinks she has never seen anything so beautiful.

Shinji says, "It's time to go." Reiko bows her body to the mat. Shinji draws his
sword and prepares himself by removing his shirt. He tests the cutting edge of
the blade on his thigh and draws blood. It is the first time Reiko has ever seen
her husband's blood.

Shinji stares at Reiko and begins to cut. He strikes a deep blow into the side of
his stomach. He is confused and disoriented by the first onslaught of pain. Shinji
feels "a sensation of utter chaos" like the sky had fallen and "the world was
reeling drunkenly." He finds that his courage has diminished suddenly and
almost totally. He looks down and sees that his hand and loincloth are covered
in blood. He considers it incredible that he can still see and that things in the
world still exist amid his pain.
Reiko struggles to prevent herself from rushing to Shinji's side. She tells herself
she must only watch because it is her duty. She notices Shinji biting his lip to
stifle the pain. She considers that Shinji's eyes look "innocent and empty like the
eyes of a small animal." She sees that Shinji's agony "burned as strong as the
summer sun." Reiko thinks that since her marriage, her existence and Shinji's
had been one and the same. Shinji's pain forces her to consider that in her grief,
she can find "no certain proof at all of her own existence."

Shinji begins to cut across his stomach. It is difficult because the blade gets
caught on his intestines. The pain increases as he cuts, and the pain is
compared to "a thousand bells which jangled simultaneously at every breath he
breathed." Shinji succeeds in cutting to beneath his navel and this success
provides him with renewed courage. He is bleeding profusely and cannot stop
himself from crying out in pain. The mat in front of him is soaked with blood, and
a spot flies across and settles on Reiko's white kimono. Shinji cuts across to the
right side of his stomach, but his strength is failing and he begins to vomit.
Vomiting only increases the pain. Shinji's bowels exit through the wound he has
cut.

The narrator says that it would be hard to imagine a more heroic sight than
Shinji at that moment. Shinji gathers the last of his strength and pulls back his
head. Reiko looks on, fascinated. She sees his face is "not the face of a living
man." All that is moving is his right hand as Shinji tries to point the sword at his
throat. Shinji tries and misses several times. The sword tip keeps getting caught
on his uniform collar. Reiko tries to go and help him but finds she cannot stand.

Reiko moves on her knees through the blood and loosens Shinji's collar for him.
Shinji plunges his neck onto his sword. At last, he lays still, the "cold, blue-
tinged steel protruding from his neck at the back."

Chapter 5
Reiko goes downstairs slowly, her socks slippery with Shinji's blood. She looks
at her skirt and sees Shinji's blood has made a red pattern on her white kimono.
Reiko applies makeup "for the world which she would leave behind."

Reiko considers whether she should leave the front door to the house locked. If
she does, her and Shinji's bodies might not be discovered for several days. She
does not want to let their bodies decompose too much before discovery, so she
leaves the door unlocked and slightly open.

Reiko goes upstairs again and sees Shinji's body, accompanied by a bad smell.
She raises Shinji's head up and kisses his lips. Reiko finds a new white blanket
and sits upon it, a few feet from Shinji's corpse. She gets out her own dagger and
examines it. She tastes the dagger on her tongue, finding it slightly sweet.
Reiko acts quickly. She thinks of the joy of "entering a realm her husband had
already made his own." She looks forward to solving the riddle of death, and
experiencing the "true bitterness and sweetness of that great moral principle"
Shinji had believed in.

Reiko puts the blade of the dagger to her throat and thrusts. She produces a
shallow cut that makes her head hurt and hands shake. She pulls the blade
sideways, which reddens her vision as blood pours out. With her strength
gathered, she plunges the blade deep into her throat.

Analysis

Unflinching Description
"Patriotism" is written with clear language that allows the writer to describe
with intense focus and detail the circumstances, emotions, and actions of the
principal characters. The thoughts, beliefs, memories, and sensations of the
characters are described vividly, giving the story an almost poetic feel. These
descriptions are often laden with symbolism. Shinji is described like the sun
several times. In the Shinto religion of Japan, the goddess Amaterasu,
associated with the sun, is the chief goddess. It is from her that the Japanese
warrior nobility ultimately believed they had descended, and the emperor is
believed to be her direct descendent and living embodiment. This symbolism is
linked to the symbolism of the sun as an orbital body at the center of the solar
system. Shinji is the sun around which Reiko, who is associated with the moon,
orbits. Thus, the description of Shinji offers up vibrant imagery that symbolizes
not only the couple's relationship with each other but also to their own culture.

The style of intense and clear description does not change with the acts or
thoughts being described. Thoughts of love and tenderness are not diminished,
and are in fact heightened, by their association with thoughts of death and
annihilation. The idea that these emotions are temporary and fleeting makes
them sweeter.

The impact of this intense and honest approach to description is clearest in the
description of Shinji's suicide. It is described in unsparing detail so that the
reader is well aware of the pain and disfigurement Shinji inflicts upon himself. It
is a scene of horror. In contrast with Shinji's exalted feelings of nobility, dignity,
and courage before the ritual suicide, Mishima vividly depicts the full reality of
the bloody, excruciating act. The violent suicide would seem a brutal intrusion of
gory detail into a story that had before that point been marked by vivid
descriptions of marital tenderness and quiet contemplation. But it is the author's
approach to description, which never flinches from providing intense and clear
detail, that allows the story to flow seamlessly from the earlier scenes to the
later. The description provides continuity that glues the story together.
This approach to description also allows the author to communicate a message
about his values. In "Patriotism" Mishima lays out his belief that love, death, life,
horror, beauty, and violence are all linked and must be faced without fear. He
says to the audience that this is what it means to be a soldier, with the values of
a soldier as Mishima understands them. This is what it means to be a soldier's
wife. His unflinching description is itself a message to readers, that they too
must confront the truth, beauty, and ugliness of the world head-on, without
wavering.

Shifting Perspectives
The third-person perspective allows the author to switch between narration and
exploration of both characters' points of view, showing at different times each
person's internal thoughts and views of their partner. This allows the author to
fully explore the couple's relationship and suicide as a shared event. It also
allows him to explore ambiguities in the spouses' conduct and their relationship,
by showing the contrasts between their outward appearances and their secret
thoughts. Moreover, it allows a truly deep exploration and description of the
pivotal event of the story: the suicides. We are shown Shinji's thinking before
and during the act, and his extreme pain and struggle are described vividly. This
is sharpened by Reiko's perspective on the suicide, as she sees her husband's
face contorted with pain. But she is not only a window on Shinji's action. She has
her own thoughts and her own responses to Shinji's suicide. The final section of
the story is hers alone, as she contemplates Shinji's act and prepares for her
own exit.

The shifting perspective thus not only weaves the characters into a shared
action. It also shows how they are separate, disunited in their inability to truly
share the other's thoughts or pain. Shinji commits suicide first. As the witness,
Reiko cannot participate. The code of martial honor Shinji follows forbids it. He
is a man, and Reiko must not interfere. Thus, Shinji dies before Reiko, and she is
apart from him. She reflects on this temporary separation before her own suicide
and wonders at solving the mystery of death as her husband has just minutes
before her. Earlier, Reiko's reminiscences about her animal figurines show that
she once had a separate life from her husband. She still does, even though she
has tried to subsume her entire existence into his. She knows that the path
ahead lies with Shinji, but she allows herself—through contemplation of a china
squirrel—to remember a time when that was not so. Her death completes her
link to her husband and to a joint life, but it is a feat she must complete alone.

Love and Duty

"Patriotism" functions as a meditation on love and duty. The primary exploration
of these concepts is of that between husband and wife. But it is also about love
and duty to ideals, such as Shinji's idealized concept of the army and nation he
serves.
Shinji and Reiko love each other within the confines of a conventional,
conservative marriage that reflects the standards of 1930s Japan—or at least
the 1930s Japan that Mishima, writing in the 1960s, wished to convey. It is a
patriarchal relationship in which the wife is expected to submit to the husband
and take care of all household chores. We are told that the only time Shinji ever
helps put the bedding away is when he is about to die. Mishima is presenting an
idealized form of a harmonious but intensely patriarchal marital relationship
between man and wife. He seems to believe in the ideal. But it is in the ways
that, faced with death, the couple gently breaks out of the conventional
expectations of their relationship that the two truly show their love and affection
for one another. It is found in small gestures, such as Shinji's help with the
bedding or the sake he offers his wife, who had never tasted it before. It is also
in the intensity of their final act of love. Reiko's devotion to her husband,
meanwhile, is, if anything, more intense than Shinji's to her. On her wedding
night, she pledged to die upon her husband's death, as he expected a soldier's
wife to do. She makes her preparations to die even before knowing that Shinji
intends to commit suicide. As she contemplates the China squirrel, she allows
herself to reminisce about her youth and her life before Shinji. But she does so
only to confirm that her path forward lies with her husband.

The strength of the couple's love is only heightened by the closeness to Shinji
and Reiko's mutual death. Their final acts of suicide are presented as the
ultimate confirmation of their bond, linked inextricably to the act of lovemaking
that immediately precedes it. The story suggests there is no difference between
Reiko lying upon her husband's chest and moving the collar away from his throat,
allowing Shinji to finally end his suffering.

These acts of love and duty are all analogous to the higher duty Shinji feels he
owes. This is his love for and duty to the Japanese state, his emperor, and the
imperial forces. He commits suicide before he is ordered to fight his friends. He
says twice that he simply cannot do it. It is not only that the rebels are his
friends; he believes it is an atrocity in itself for the imperial forces to fight among
themselves. The story implies, further, that Shinji might have joined his friends if
they had invited him. At the very least, those friends thought they had spared
him and his young wife by not doing so. Shinji seems aghast that his friends will
be branded rebels.

Shinji's quandary shows that he is devoted, ultimately, to an ideal. In reality,

Japanese forces are fighting themselves after a failed coup attempt. Neither the
values he holds dear nor the national harmony he venerates actually exist. All
that is within Shinji and Reiko's control is their own lives. They make their final
hours together a model for the world. They act out their high-minded ideals
through their love for each other, culminating in an extreme act of self-sacrifice.

Self-Denial
The most important value promoted in the story is the denial of self. Individual
desires exist within the story, such as the couple's obvious physical desire for
each other, but the characters put them in their proper place and context. They
try to act out their lives in accordance with a set of ideals that require them to
put their duty to hierarchies, institutions, and ideals above their own wants.
Shinji's position is that of a soldier. When he knows he will receive an order to
attack his rebellious friends, he chooses suicide rather than either disobey or
carry out the order. His life is of secondary importance to his principles and to
the message his suicide is intended to carry.

The message of self-denial is mostly keenly shown in and felt by Reiko. She had
a life outside of her marriage, but since the wedding she has tried to make her
life a part of her husbands as far as possible. She denies herself individuality to
play the part of the obedient wife. On two occasions in the story, she considers
what it means to have subsumed her existence in this way. One occurs when
she thinks about the past, when considering her animal figurines. The other,
more important, instance is during and after Shinji's suicide. His act of self-
destruction shows Reiko that she can never truly share her husband's life,
experiences, and pain. All she can do is follow him in her own act of suicide.

Suicide in the story is the ultimate act of self-denial. By ending their lives, the
husband and wife show that their ideals are more important to them than their
very existence. The message they wish to communicate is that it is better to
deny the self in the name of virtue than to live in a world that does not contain
that virtue. Ultimately, principles are more important to them than life itself.

Patriotism Plot Diagram

Climax Falling Action Rising ActionIntroductionResolution2134675

Introduction

1Shinji and Reiko get married.

Rising Action

2A rebellion breaks out in Tokyo.

3Shinji decides to commit suicide.
4Shinji and Reiko prepare for their deaths and then make love.

Climax

5Shinji commits suicide.

Falling Action

6Reiko prepares alone in the silent house.

Resolution

7Reiko commits suicide.