The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

by

Yukio Mishima

The Peephole Symbol Analysis

The Peephole Symbol Icon

The peephole leading from Noboru’s wall into Fusako’s bedroom represents the power of perspective and secret insight—specifically, it shows how knowledge can become a tool for domination. At the very beginning of the novel, Noboru angrily pulls the drawers out of his wall-mounted dresser and discovers the peephole hidden behind it. Looking through, he gains a new perspective on his mother: he sees a “mysterious chamber” full of exquisite imported furniture and clothing. But when he merely walks into his mother’s room, it looks “drab and familiar.” In other words, the peephole gives him special insight, a new perspective on something he already knew.

Later, he starts watching his mother undress and have sex with Ryuji through the peephole. He believes that this gives him knowledge about “the universal order” of the world. He’s referring to how human life comes from intercourse, but also to how he has access to his mother’s deepest secrets, which he views as the source of her power over him. In other words, he feels that his special insight gives him special powers that make him superior to others.

Fusako and Ryuji eventually discover the peephole. Distraught, they confront Noboru, but he isn’t afraid or sorry—instead, he’s proud, because he views his relationship with them like a war. To Noboru, Fusako and Ryuji are merely afraid of his secret weapon, which means that they acknowledge his superior power over them. When Ryuji decides to forgive Noboru—or make peace instead of war—Noboru decides that he must escalate the conflict and reassert his power over Ryuji by murdering him. The peephole was merely one tool in the endless war Noboru believes he’s waging against the world.

The Peephole Quotes in The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

The The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Peephole. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Glory, Heroism, and Death Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 1 Quotes

Noboru couldn’t believe he was looking at his mother’s bedroom; it might have belonged to a stranger. But there was no doubt that a woman lived there: femininity trembled in every corner, a faint scent lingered in the air.
Then a strange idea assailed him. Did the peephole just happen to be here, an accident? Or—after the war—when the soldiers’ families had been living together in the house…He had a sudden feeling that another body, larger than his, a blond, hairy body, had once huddled in this dusty space in the wall. […] He ran to the next room. He would never forget the queer sensation he had when, flinging open the door, he burst in.

Drab and familiar, the room bore no resemblance to the mysterious chamber he had seen through the peephole: it was here that he came to whine and to sulk.

Related Characters: Noboru Kuroda, Ryuji Tsukazaki, Fusako Kuroda
Related Symbols: The Peephole
Page Number: 6-7
Explanation and Analysis:

And the zone of black. […] He tried all the obscenity he knew, but words alone couldn’t penetrate that thicket. His friends were probably right when they called it a pitiful little vacant house. He wondered if that had anything to do with the emptiness of his own world.

At thirteen, Noboru was convinced of his own genius (each of the others in the gang felt the same way) and certain that life consisted of a few simple signals and decisions; that death took root at the moment of birth and man’s only recourse thereafter was to water and tend it; that propagation was a fiction; consequently, society was a fiction too: that fathers and teachers, by virtue of being fathers and teachers, were guilty of a grievous sin. Therefore, his own father’s death, when he was eight, had been a happy incident, something to be proud of.

Related Characters: Noboru Kuroda, Fusako Kuroda, The Chief, Noboru’s Father
Related Symbols: The Peephole
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:

Assembled there were the moon and a feverish wind, the incited, naked flesh of a man and a woman, sweat, perfume, the scars of a life at sea, the dim memory of ports around the world, a cramped breathless peephole, a young boy’s iron heart—but these cards from a gypsy deck were scattered, prophesying nothing. The universal order at last achieved, thanks to the sudden, screaming horn, had revealed an ineluctable circle of life—the cards had paired: Noboru and mother—mother and man—man and sea—sea and Noboru…

He was choked, wet, ecstatic. Certain he had watched a tangle of thread unravel to trace a hallowed figure. And it would have to be protected: for all he knew, he was its thirteen-year-old creator.

“If this is ever destroyed, it’ll mean the end of the world.” […] I guess I’d do anything to stop that, no matter how awful!

Related Characters: Noboru Kuroda (speaker), Ryuji Tsukazaki, Fusako Kuroda
Related Symbols: The Peephole, The Sea
Page Number: 13
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 5 Quotes

The moment he huddled inside the chest he was calm again. The trembling and the trepidation seemed almost funny now; he even had a feeling he would be able to study well. Not that it really mattered: this was the world’s outer edge. So long as he was here, Noboru was in contact with the naked universe. No matter how far you ran, escape beyond this point was impossible.
Bending his arms in the cramped space, he began to read the cards in the light of the flashlight.

abandon
By now this word was an old acquaintance: he knew it well.

ability
Was that any different from genius?

aboard
A ship again; he recalled the loudspeaker ringing across the deck that day when Ryuji sailed. And then the colossal, golden horn, like a proclamation of despair.

absence

absolute

Related Characters: Noboru Kuroda, Ryuji Tsukazaki, Fusako Kuroda, Noboru’s Father
Related Symbols: The Peephole, The Rakuyo
Page Number: 149-150
Explanation and Analysis:

Obviously, his mother was not mistaken; and she had brushed against “reality,” a thing she dreaded worse than leeches. In one sense, that made them more nearly equal now than they had ever been: it was almost empathy. Pressing his palms to his reddened, burning cheeks, Noboru resolved to watch carefully how a person drawn so near could retreat in one fleeting instant to an unattainable distance. Clearly it was not the discovery of reality itself that had spawned her indignation and her grief: Noboru knew that his mother’s shame and her despair derived from a kind of prejudice. She had been quick to interpret the reality, and inasmuch as her banal interpretation was the cause of all her agitation, no clever excuse from him would be to any purpose.

Related Characters: Noboru Kuroda, Ryuji Tsukazaki, Fusako Kuroda
Related Symbols: The Peephole, Hot and Cold
Page Number: 153
Explanation and Analysis:

To beat the boy would be easy enough, but a difficult future awaited him. He would have to receive their love with dignity, to deliver them from daily dilemmas, to balance daily accounts; he was expected in some vague, general way to comprehend the incomprehensible feelings of the mother and the child and to become an infallible teacher, perceiving the causes of a situation even as unconscionable as this one: he was dealing here with no ocean squall but the gentle breeze that blows ceaselessly over the land.

Though Ryuji didn’t realize it, the distant influence of the sea was at work on him again: he was unable to distinguish the most [exalted] feelings from the meanest, and suspected that essentially important things did not occur on land. No matter how hard he tried to reach a realistic decision, shore matters remained suffused with the hues of fantasy.

Related Characters: Noboru Kuroda, Ryuji Tsukazaki, Fusako Kuroda
Related Symbols: The Sea, The Peephole
Page Number: 156
Explanation and Analysis:

Noboru listened feeling as though he were about to suffocate. Can this man be saying things like that? This splendid hero who once shone so brightly?
Every word burned like fire. He wanted to scream, as his mother had screamed: How can you do this to me? The sailor was saying things he was never meant to say. Ignoble things in wheedling, honeyed tones, fouled words not meant to issue from his lips until Doomsday, words such as men mutter in stinking lairs. And he was speaking proudly, for he believed in himself, was satisfied with the role of father he had stepped forward to accept.
He is satisfied. Noboru felt nauseous.

Related Characters: Noboru Kuroda (speaker), Ryuji Tsukazaki, Fusako Kuroda
Related Symbols: The Peephole, Hot and Cold
Page Number: 158
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 6 Quotes

“I’m sure you all know where our duty lies. When a gear slips out of place it’s our job to force it back into position. If we don’t, order will turn to chaos. We all know that the world is empty and that the important thing, the only thing, is to try to maintain order in that emptiness. And so we are guards, and more than that because we also have executive power to insure that order is maintained.”

Related Characters: The Chief (speaker), Noboru Kuroda, Ryuji Tsukazaki, Fusako Kuroda
Related Symbols: The Peephole
Page Number: 162-163
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Peephole Symbol Timeline in The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

The timeline below shows where the symbol The Peephole appears in The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 1
Japanese Nationalism and Identity Theme Icon
Masculinity, Love, and Family Theme Icon
Reality, Perception, and Identity Theme Icon
...apart his room. He pulls all the drawers out of his dresser, then finds a peephole in the back of it. It leads into his mother’s room, which is lit by... (full context)
Japanese Nationalism and Identity Theme Icon
Reality, Perception, and Identity Theme Icon
Noboru wonders where the peephole came from. He imagines “blond, hairy” occupying soldiers looking through it, and he starts to... (full context)
Masculinity, Love, and Family Theme Icon
Reality, Perception, and Identity Theme Icon
...out of his dresser at night and watches her get ready for bed through the peephole. She usually sits naked for several minutes, watching and sometimes touching herself at her dressing... (full context)
Glory, Heroism, and Death Theme Icon
Japanese Nationalism and Identity Theme Icon
Masculinity, Love, and Family Theme Icon
Reality, Perception, and Identity Theme Icon
...sailor out to dinner. Then, she brings him home, and Noboru watches them through the peephole. While Noboru’s mother undresses slowly, the muscular, hairy sailor sheds his clothes in an instant.... (full context)
Part 1, Chapter 7
Masculinity, Love, and Family Theme Icon
Reality, Perception, and Identity Theme Icon
...Noboru is furious and afraid—he won’t be able to watch her and Ryuji through the peephole. Noboru tries to do some of his summer homework, but he can’t focus because he’s... (full context)
Glory, Heroism, and Death Theme Icon
Masculinity, Love, and Family Theme Icon
Reality, Perception, and Identity Theme Icon
...is too subjective.) Noboru angrily brushes his teeth and then decides to look through the peephole, just because he can. On the other side, his mother’s room is pitch black because... (full context)
Part 2, Chapter 1
Glory, Heroism, and Death Theme Icon
Masculinity, Love, and Family Theme Icon
Reality, Perception, and Identity Theme Icon
...of drawers, and then starts to worry that his mother and Ryuji will notice the peephole. (full context)
Glory, Heroism, and Death Theme Icon
Masculinity, Love, and Family Theme Icon
Reality, Perception, and Identity Theme Icon
...his door unlocked, he wonders if he can take out the drawer and reach the peephole without anyone noticing. (full context)
Part 2, Chapter 5
Masculinity, Love, and Family Theme Icon
Reality, Perception, and Identity Theme Icon
...is a lie. But he also wants to hurt her. He hasn’t looked through the peephole in weeks—it feels too risky with his door unlocked. But tonight, he finds courage. He... (full context)
Glory, Heroism, and Death Theme Icon
Masculinity, Love, and Family Theme Icon
Reality, Perception, and Identity Theme Icon
Fusako declares that Ryuji will come punish Noboru. Meanwhile, Noboru proudly reminds himself that the peephole has shown him the true meaning and source of the universe. When Ryuji comes in,... (full context)
Glory, Heroism, and Death Theme Icon
Masculinity, Love, and Family Theme Icon
Reality, Perception, and Identity Theme Icon
...arrival has changed Noboru’s life, Noboru’s curiosity about him is understandable. So is using the peephole, even though it was clearly wrong. He proposes forgiving Noboru and moving on. Privately, Noboru... (full context)