Term Paper on the Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima

The Temple of the

Golden Pavilion

by

Yukio Mishima

(A Novel Analysis)

De Villa, Keith Ann G.

II-11 BSE English

Prof. Ruth A. Alido

According to what I have researched, the late Yukio Mishima, pseudonym of Kimitake Hiraoka was the most spectacularly talented young writer during his time. He was born in Tokyo in 1925. Upon his graduation from Peer’s School in 1944, he received a citation from the emperor as the highest honor student. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University School of Jurisprudence in 1947, and his first novel was published in 1948. He wrote constantly after that. He had written more than a hundred novels, many successful plays, and a travel book. He once remarked that his “lesser writings” included fifty short stories, ten one act plays, and several volumes of essays.

His first novel published in United States was “The Sound of Waves” in 1956 under its original title “Shiosai”. This novel had won the 1954 Shinchosha Literary Prize. In 1957, when his “Five Modern Noh Plays” was translated by Donald Keene and published here, he spent six months in the United States. His work has been translated into several European languages. One of his Noh plays has been presented on German television.

“The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” is the fourth book published by Yukio Mishima under the title “Kinkakuji”. The novel won an important literary prize in Japan, sold over 300 000 copies, and was made into a successful modern play. It has been translated by Ivan Morris. The novel was based on the actual occurrence in recent Japanese history, deals with the complex pathology and final desperate crime of a young Zen Buddhist acolyte, in training for priesthood in a Kyoto temple. It was rich in scenes, incidents, episodes which, developed in a great detail. Mishima had been married and, until his tragic suicide in 1970, lived in Tokyo.

The entire story of the novel “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” centered in the mentally unstable life...