The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
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| Author | Yukio Mishima |
|---|---|
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese English |
| Genre(s) | Japanese Literature |
| Publisher | |
| Released | 1956 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 247 pp (Hardback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 1-85715-169-0 (Hardback edition) |
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (金閣寺; Kinkakuji) 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 Kyoto's Kinkaku-ji Temple by a young Buddhist acolyte in 1950. The temple was a national monument which had been spared by the American bombers during the Second World War, and the arson shocked Japan. The story is narrated by Mizoguchi, the young man who will burn the temple, who is afflicted with an ugly face and 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)
A film version of the book, titled Enjo (Conflagration) was made by Kon Ichikawa in 1958. It was by far the most critically successful film to be made from a Mishima novel.
The book was one of three Mishima novels adapted by Paul Schrader for episodes in his film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters.
