[2] According to Araki Seishi, Mishima didn't care whether or not Runaway Horses sold well, and deliberately selected a featureless wasōbon-like cover design.
Set between June 1932 and December 1933, Runaway Horses tells the story of young Isao Iinuma, a rightist reactionary trained in the samurai code by his father.
He is asked by Judge Sugawa to give an address at a kendo tournament on June 16 at the Ōmiwa Shrine in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture.
He now runs the "Academy of Patriotism" (靖献塾, Seiken'juku, pretentiously named after the Seiken Igen of Asami Keisai) and is slowly going to seed, morbidly talkative, his face "marked by the years and by the common tribulations."
Just before they go, Isao lends Honda a copy of his favourite book, The League of the Divine Wind by Tsunanori Yamao, and urges him to read it.
"At the time of the... Imperial Restoration, the indications had been altogether favourable that the august wish of His Late Majesty Komei to expel the barbarians would be fulfilled.
The proposals they have put to the gods are: "To bring an end to misgovernment by admonishing authority even to the forfeiture of life" and "to cut down the unworthy ministers by striking in darkness with the sword".
The tide turns when ammunition is found for the garrisoned troops, and when the second unit rushes to the aid of the third, it is entrapped, and both Kaya and Otaguro die.
The next morning, on the 9th day of the 9th month (lunar calendar), 46 survivors gather on Mount Kinpo, less than four miles (6 km) west of Kumamoto Castle.
The pamphlet concludes with a quotation from the Romance of the Divine Fire (神焰稗史端書, Shin'en haishi tansho), a book later written by the captured rebel Ogata Kotarō (緒方 小太郎) while serving a life sentence in prison.
In it, Honda expresses a new respect for the League, and for the forces of the irrational in general (influenced by his new belief in reincarnation, although that is a secret) and discusses the dead Kiyoaki and his passion for Satoko.
On Sunday morning in July, Isao conducts a kendo practice for young boys in the drill hall of the neighbourhood police station.
After Master Kaido's Sunday lecture, Isao shows his two schoolfriends a map of Tokyo, suggesting an air-raid on the areas he has coloured in purple.
During kendo practice, he is impressed with Isao's abilities, and proposes taking him to an audience with Prince Harunori Toin, the military royal for whom Satoko had been intended.
Honda hears an account of the coup d'état that took place in Siam on 24 June, during which the country became a constitutional monarchy controlled by Col. Phahon Phonphayuhasena.
On Friday 21 October, Honda attends a judicial conference in Tokyo, and on Sunday goes with Iinuma to see Isao at the riverside training camp at Yanagawa.
Isao holds a secret meeting on Monday evening and shows the other boys his elaborate plan for a "Shōwa Restoration" placing all government functions under the Emperor's control, through (1) destroying Tokyo's six electric transformer substations, (2) assassinating Shinkawa, Nagasaki and Kurahara, and (3) burning the Bank of Japan, events that would lead to the desired declaration of martial law, after which they would all commit seppuku.
They discuss details of the plot; Isao names December 3 at random as the date, and they receive an unexpected windfall of 1000 yen from Sawa, who claims he acquired the money by selling land.
Isao visits the Kitos one last time on November 29 to deliver a present of oysters, but Makiko follows him, guessing that he has resolved to die, and they kiss on a hill opposite Hakusan Park.
The prince expresses sympathy for the twelve, but is horrified when Honda informs him that he was mentioned by name in the propaganda leaflets they prepared, and loses interest in helping them.
Honda tries to fudge the issue by bringing up the purchase of the daggers and leading the witness Izutsu to admit that, as imitators of the League of Divine Wind, these weapons would be more appropriate for committing seppuku than for murder.
Makiko is called as witness, and while reading a mendacious diary entry for November 29, she manages to cleverly insinuate that Isao was not only planning to abandon the conspiracy, but that he was merely a schoolboy in over his head, boasting and play-acting all along.
The manipulative older woman hopes that her young lover will surrender his ideals and save himself by lying, since he cannot contradict her in court without exposing her to a charge of perjury.
The judge, who becomes sympathetic, allows him to enlarge on his motives, and he delivers a long address on the suffering of the common people and the need to destroy the deadly spirit poisoning Japan.
Tsumura, the youngest student, is irritated by the jolly atmosphere and shows Isao a newspaper account of desecratory blunders made by Kurahara on December 16 at the Inner Ise Shrine.
On 29 December, Isao slips away from Sawa during a lantern procession, buys a dagger, and travels to Inamura, a seaside village near Atami, Shizuoka.
He breaks into Kurahara's weekend house, stabs him to death because of his blasphemy at Ise Shrine, then runs through his tangerine orchards down to a cave on the shore where he commits seppuku.
It also discusses the Wang Yangming school of thought (according to which, "to know and not to act is not truly to know"), espoused in Japan by Chusai Oshio, a rebel who died in 1837 while leading an insurrection in Osaka.
Richard T. Kelly of The Guardian, after discussing the character of Honda envying Isao's ardor, wrote that "Mishima is dispassionately brilliant in noting ignoble human impulses – the twinge of jealousy, the flicker of disgust.
Until after World War II, Japanese people generally reckoned age by number of different regnal years lived in rather than by birthdays.