[3] Drawing inspiration from Noh plays, specifically the 14th-century Motomezuka, the novel centers on a tragic love triangle depraved by adultery and violence.

[9] The novel was translated into English by Andrew Clare and published in paperback format in the United States and Canada by Vintage International on 27 November 2018.

She hears the prayers, but they are of no avail; she is unable to escape from the Burning House (a Buddhist metaphor for the secular world) and the Eight Great Hells, through which she is eternally tormented by her demons.

[13] It is interesting to note that in the traditional Noh theatre, immorality was always regarded as a sin which would lead to eternal damnation in the fires of hell (echoing Unai's fate in Motomezuka and Yūko's anguish in prison).

The name Motomezuka is likely to be a corruption of Otomezuka (the "Maiden's Grave"), the original story being contained in an episode of the Yamato Monogatari, a tale combining narrative fiction with waka poetry from the mid-tenth century.

[16][13][17] Also, the "dark grape luster" of Yūko's "characteristic thick lipstick" is likely a direct reference to the archetypal "young woman" (Wakaonna) character portrayed in Noh productions.

[13][18] In his review for The Japan Times, Damian Flanagan also compared the "jumbled" nature of the novel's nonlinear narrative as creating a "transcendent unearthliness" similar to that of a Noh play.

[4] Miyoko Tanaka, the commentator in the original Shinchosha paperback edition of the novel says that both in the form of the story, which is "like a dream rising from weed-infested ruins," and from the descriptions of the faces of the characters, "we Japanese clearly recognize vestiges of the traditional Noh theater performance."

The story is considered to be a variation on the theme of Mishima's stream of consciousness novel, Thirst for Love (1950), in that it portrays a dysfunctional family unit, whose members have been thrown together with ultimately tragic consequences.

The Frolic of the Beasts has also been compared to Mishima's novel Forbidden Colors (1951, 1953), which portrays the messy relationship between the much-older Shunsuke and the youthful Yuichi.

[4] In a photograph, three smiling individuals–Ippei Kusakado, his wife Yūko, and the youthful Kōji–are seen standing on the harbor wall in Iro Village, a rural fishing port in the western part of the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Yūko closed the Tokyo shop a year ago, moved to Iro, and started the Kusakado greenhouse, which Kōji will work in.

Ippei Kusakado, a 40-year-old man, is the owner and manager of the ceramics shop but also translates and reviews German literature in his spare time.

Much later while in prison, Kōji reflected on the wrench, viewing it as a manifestation of "will" that had become a material phenomen which sought to "upset the very foundations" of the order of his world.

Kōji immediately reacts without "emotion, objective, or motive", and repeatedly bashes the left side of Ippei's head with the wrench he had placed in the pocket of his jacket.

Yūko throws the lily into the plunge pool, and Ippei's face displays "a look of pure anxiety born of being cut off from all understanding".

Looking at her, Kōji theorises that Kimi had slept with him and persuaded Matsukichi to love her only in order to infect them with the "germ-like secret of her father's crime" without letting them know her truth.

Kōji decides to confront Ippei on their walk, vehemently questioning him and accusing him of elaborately tormenting Yūko and him under the guise of his mental incapacity.

On a summer vacation, a folklore researcher travels to Iro and speaks with a priest, Kakujin, who recounts his memories of Ippei, Yūko, and Kōji.

He selected it as being appropriate because the story largely takes place in a rural shore town and involves a love triangle, which invokes a rock garden and a burning element that is beginning to affect the larger whole.

The photo shoot took place in a remote farming village in the Tōhoku region of Japan and was a collaboration between Eikoh and Tatsumi Hijikata, the creator of the ankoku butō style of dance.

[9] The novel was translated into English by Andrew Clare and published in paperback format in the United States and Canada by Vintage International on 27 November 2018.

[37] In the 16 October 1961 issue of The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, eminent writer and scholar Shōichi Saeki [ja] called the novel an authentic literary depiction of love.

[44][42] In the 30 October 1961 issue of the weekly book review paper Shūkan Dokushojin [ja], Sumie Tanaka described the novel as a work of fierce research.

[45][42] In the 2 November 1961 issue of the Yomiuri Shimbun's evening edition, critic Okuno Takeo [ja] felt, however, that the second part of the novel was written in such a dense and beautiful style that it prevented the overall work from leaving a deep impression.

[47] Publishers Weekly, in its starred review, called it a "luridly propulsive novel" and praised Mishima's "baroque, beautiful prose".

[5][48][4][12] Sam Sacks of The Wall Street Journal called it a "morose little gem" and wrote that the book's influences "aren't integrated so much as piled on top of each other, like a face gaudily layered in makeup.

[49] Andrew Ervin of The Washington Post wrote that the novel's nonlinear timeline "pays huge dividends" and "powerful epilogue ties a neat ribbon around the plot."

Ervin, however, noted that the book seems dated for contemporary readers, with its "excessive and repetitive attention to the breast size of every female character.

"[50] In her review for Spectrum Culture, Ashley Pabilonia felt the first half of the novel suffered from its nonlinear timeline, but praised Mishima for building the characters' "romantic tension, suspense and guilt between them thickly enough that readers will be enticed to see the trio's story to the end.