戦後の純愛ブームと共に誕生した『潮騒』は牧歌的で童話的な世界の純粋な青春男女の愛を描いた三島由紀夫の代表的な純愛小説である。でもこの小説は恋愛の葛藤要素が葛藤として機能しないまま幸福な結末に終わるが、三島は『潮騒』が内的な矛盾を孕んでいると自評し、自分の小説が真の意味の恋愛小説ではないことを暗示した。その後、三島は恋愛小説が成立するための条件として禁忌が必要であると語り、自分が考えられる最大の禁忌として皇室の勅許を設定し『春の雪』を執筆した。恋愛において極服できない禁忌が存在すると、純粋な愛の情念のみが残る。命もいとわない純愛のためには絶対の禁忌が必要とされるのである。
さらに、このような純愛の原理は、絶対の存在に憧れ、妥協せず純粋に憧憬し、ついには破滅に至る浪漫主義のイロニーの原理にも似ていると言える。三島の『豊穣の海』において、一部では純愛を、二部ではイロニーを主題として書かれたことも、その密接な関連性が暗示されていると思われる。
The Sound of Waves is a novel that Mishima wrote precisely ‘as ifhe had drew his own ideal’, along with a boom of pure love during the postwar era in Showa 30s. This novel, which is referred to as one of his representative pure love novels, appears in a typical form of pure love novel in which physical virginity and pure love seeking nointerests became a pair as a concept of virginity was introduced after war. However, Mishima evaluated his novels ashaving internal contradictions and indicated that The Sound of Waves is not a love story in the true sense of theword.
Afterwards, Mishima said that ‘taboo’ disturbing love is required to constitute a lovestory and set ‘imperial family’s permission’ as the biggest taboo among othersthat he could imagine and finally came to write a love story titled Spring Snow.
Fora romantic relationship, when there is taboo that cannot close the distancebetween two lovers, the emotion of genuine love seeking no interests may beleft. Mishima’s ‘pure love’ requiredabsolute taboo in order to become genuine love which overcomes everything.
Meanwhile,this principle for pure love can be deemed parallel to the doctrine of Ironiethat one longs for absolute being and finally becomes ruined. The principle leads to ‘ruin’ as the ‘pure’heart longing for ‘absolute being’ sought by Romanticists such as Yashda Yojuro is not compromised. Mishima demonstrated that thispure love and the doctrine of ironie became a pair by writing the pure love themed first part of his posthumous work, The Sea of Fertility and the ironie themed second part thereof.