The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
First edition
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| Author | Yukio Mishima |
|---|---|
| Original title | Kinkakuji 金閣寺 |
| Translator | Ivan Morris |
| Country | Japan |
| Language |
Japanese English |
| Publisher | Shinchosha |
|
Publication date
|
1956 |
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Published in English
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1959 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 247 pp (Hardback edition) |
| ISBN | (Hardback edition) |
| OCLC | 59908578 |
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (金閣寺 Kinkaku-ji?) is a novel by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima. It was published in 1956 and translated into English by Ivan Morris in 1959.
The novel is loosely based on the burning of the Reliquary (or Golden Pavilion) of Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto by a young Buddhist acolyte in 1950. The pavilion, dating from before 1400, was a national monument that had been spared destruction many times throughout history, and the arson shocked Japan. The story is narrated by Mizoguchi, the disturbed acolyte in question, who is afflicted with a stutter, and who recounts his obsession with beauty and the growth of his urge to destroy it. The novel also includes one of Mishima's most memorable characters, Mizoguchi's club-footed, deeply cynical friend Kashiwagi, who gives his own highly individual twist to various Zen parables (koan).
The protagonist, Mizoguchi, is the son of a consumptive Buddhist priest who lives and works on the remote Cape Nariu on the north coast of Honshū. As a child, the narrator lives with his uncle at the village of Shiraku (師楽), near Maizuru.
Throughout his childhood he is assured by his father that the Golden Pavilion is the most beautiful building in the world, and the idea of the temple becomes a fixture in his imagination. A stammering boy from a poor household, he is friendless at his school, and takes refuge in vengeful fantasies. When a naval cadet who is visiting the school makes fun of him, he vandalises the cadet's belongings behind his back. A neighbour's girl, Uiko, becomes the target of his hatred, and when she is killed by her deserter boyfriend after she betrays him, Mizoguchi becomes convinced that his curse on her has been fulfilled.
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