Hatsue Flashcards
Mishima uses clothing to differentiate his hero and heroine from their foils, celebrating ordinary clothing as a symbol of active participation in the world rather than hiding from it.
She was wearing a sleeveless, cotton-padded jacket, women’s work pants gathered at the ankles, and a pair of soiled work clothes. (p.7)
Hatsue responds to Shinji’s monologue at Yashiro Shrine, where he outlines his love of his family and Utajima, and his desire to protect them all from ‘bad ways’ through his future success as a seaman.
Never once looking bored, her face overflowed with an expression of genuine sympathy and trust, all of which filled Shinji with joy. (p.54)
Hatsue reacts to her sexual passion during her secret meeting with Shinji in the observation tower.
“It’s bad. It’s bad! … It’s bad for a girl to do that before she’s married.” (p.77)
Shinji bestows his gift of the shell the sea gave him on his way to their secret meeting. Her pleasure in it proves his thought she would like it, and connects both of them in their shared love of natural beauty.
She held it up against her hair and said: “It looks like coral, doesn’t it?” (p.78)
Hatsue tells this to Shinji in a letter delivered by Ryuji, and Shinji knows he recently visited the burial mound of Prince Deki. This ‘uncanny’ coincidence restores his own faith in the future, because of her ‘dream’s deep meaning’.
In the dream a god had told her that Shinji was a reincarnation of Prince Deki. (p.122)
Hatsue prepares to dive with the other women on the beach. Seaweed
A piece of green, transparent seaweed fell from her hair to the dazzling sand. (p.140)
Shinji’s mother felt shame and anger at Hatsue when Terukichi’s daughter told her he would not see her. Hatsue wins the diving competition and chooses moral rightness over material gain.
The prize she returned with was the brown, middle-aged handbag, which she pressed into the hands of Shinji’s mother. (p.146)
