The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Masterplots II: World Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Yukio Mishima
- First Published: 1956
- Type of Work: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The early 1940’s through July 2, 1950
- Setting: Japan, most notably Cape Nariu and Kyoto
- Principal Characters: Mizoguchi, Tsurukawa, Kashiwagi, Father Tayama Dosen
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
- Subjects: 1950’s, Maturation or coming of age, 1940’s, Alienation, Friendship, Beauty, War, Death or dying, Japan or Japanese people, Monasteries, monks, or monasticism, Temples, Zen Buddhism
- Locales: Kyoto, Japan
The Novel
In The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Mizoguchi narrates the story of his troubled life from his middle school years until age twenty-one, when he commits what he considers to be an inevitable deed. From the beginning of his narration, Mizoguchi stresses his isolation and feelings of alienation: Born on a remote cape to impoverished parents, a physically frail only child, he recognizes early that he is ugly and that his speech impediment—a stutter—locks him away from easy communication with the rest of the world. He lives virtually in an inner...
[The entire page is 2659 words long]
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