A Wild Sheep Chase undoubtedly takes multiple jabs at the radical nationalist, beginning with the first chapter being the date of his suicide, and a tongue-in-cheek joke of how the "volume control was broken so we could hardly make out what was being said, but it didn't matter to us one way or the other." Though there's no other explicit reference from the beginning of the book onwards, the Sheep Professor seems to have quite a few references to Mishima, possibly being either inspired by or a deeply satirized version of him.
On page 211, we get a bit of backstory: The Sheep Professor, accelling at academic and violin, is given a gold watch from the royal family. His "family [then] tried to push him in the direction of law, but, the Sheep Professor flatly refused. 'I have no interest in law,' said the young Sheep Professor," choosing not to pursue music, but ultimately his love of agricultural administration. This seems to initially mirror Mishima's life, accelling academically and in his art -- writing stories -- being given a watch by the emperor, and ultimately being asked by his father to pursue law -- though, unlike the Sheep Professor, Mishima did graduate with a degree in law. They once again echo eachother, though, in that both of them studied at Tokyo University and eventually worked in government, with the Sheep Professor working for the Ministry of Agricultulture and Mishima at the Ministry of the Treasury.
It is here where the comparisons become difficult to match, and a more creative comparison is needed. As the Sheep Professor is continuing to be explained, he is mentioned having worked to create a "unified scheme of large-scale agriculturalization for Japan, Korea, and Taiwan," which was deemed "slightly too idealistic." Though this is described in the 1930s, a time that both Korea and Taiwan were under Japan, it also seems to echo Mishima's goal of attempting to have Japan return to what it once was during WWII, and thus create a "unified scheme."
It seems, then, that the sheep, and by extension its posession of the sheep professor, may be something akin to "sheeple," a term that (at least based on Google) was created around the 1940s, and thus may have been known to Murakami while writing the book 40 years later. It may be that the sheep is a representation of far right nationalist ideas, or a blind following of these ideas done at the behest of the emperor, that overtook Mishima, just as the sheep took over The Sheep Professor.
The Sheep Man, and thus the Rat, then may be ultimately also represent Mishima, as he is the culmination of all things sheep and had been posessed by the sheep. Taking this once again to mean a posession of far right ideas, the suicide of the Rat thus mirrors the suicide of Mishima, where the sheep (ideas of nationalism) died with him.
Where this becomes a bit weird is when Sydney Green Street is introduced, though again if we assume the sheep died with the Rat, then both The Sheep Professor and The Sheep Man are now normal people, released from the sheep's power. It would be, I guess, either if Mishima suddenly disowned his previous views and decided to keep writing, or it represents the other people in Mishima's army who continued to live normal lives. Or it may be me making a conspiracy theory, who knows.
Rysen H.E.
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