The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima

An infinitely interesting investigation into the great question beauty. This first time around, I could not recognize if Mishima enounciated a coherent theory of aesthetics or if what was written was a confused collection of ramblings (don't get me wrong, such meandering ramblings are often more profound and thought provoking than a clear position).

I also feel as if the perspectives that Mishima took are quite foreign to my own, and I struggled in this foreign, Oriental soil.

The protagonist is stuttering Zen acolyte Mizoguchi who falls under the spell of the beauty of the Golden Temple, a sometimes abstract, sometimes concrete image of beauty itself. In his various attempts to form relationships with women (who represent life and a transient type of beauty), the Golden Temple comes forth with its image of eternal beauty.

I sense a sort of conflation of the beautiful and not-beautiful with the dichotomy of good and evil. This is initially exemplified by the pure and good Tsurukawa, who is able to act as a purifying messenger for Mizoguchi's stuttering tongue and corrupted heart. Tsurukawa gives way to the clubfooted and far-too-knowledgeable Kashiwagi, who defiles the idea of the purity of beauty with his own developed idea of aesthetics.

This is definitely a rich text, and I hope to come back to it one day. However, I think I will have to read up on Zen Buddhism and some more of Mishima's books first to have more effective next readings.

---