[Problems] of interpretation abound [in the four novels of The Sea of Fertility: Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, and The Decay of the Angel]…. [The] prevalence of Mishima's hybrid personal symbolism leaves the reader uncertain of the correct context in interpreting Mishima's fictional—and philosophical—approach to Reincarnation. Like the characters in Mishima's play Dōjōji, we are faced with sounds simultaneously identified as Nō chant and "a noisy factory." We only know that we are participating in Mishima's "beautiful, sweaty, intricate choreography of death." (p. 289)

[In] view of the care with which Mishima completed his manuscript [for The Sea of Fertility] hours before the action of his seppuku, we are surely justified in seeking clues to his death by sword in these four novels. At the same time, the tetralogy reexamines Mishima's earlier literary preoccupations, ideas beautifully and ironically resolved in that area...