"More than two decades after his death," writes Susan J. Napier in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, "Mishima Yukio is arguably still the most famous writer modern Japan has produced." Mishima's admirers point to "the brilliance of his style, the power of his imagination, and the fascination and variety of his themes. . . all of which are in marked contrast to much of postwar Japanese fiction." Mishima's work is probably better known to English-speaking readers than any other Japanese writer's work.

Several collections of Mishima's short stories were translated while he was still alive, but in 1989 seven stories that had never before been translated were collected in Acts of Worship. In reviewing this volume, Roy Starrs wrote, "This present sampling . . . will provide a tantalizing glimpse for the Western reader of some of these still undiscovered riches. For in no art did Mishima perform better than in the art of the short story. In fact, he achieved the kind of mature mastery, even perfection, in his short stories that always seems to elude him in his novels."

Despite such kudos and despite inclusion in anthologies and college syllabi, Mishima's "Fountains in the Rain" has elicited little critical attention in English. Its most in-depth analysis comes from Mishima's translator, John Bester, who wrote the preface to Acts of Worship. "Fountains in the Rain," with a hero so like many of Mishima's male characters, invites further investigation.