Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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58 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent psychological examination, September 28, 2003
The Temple of the Golden Pavillion is an excellent psychological novel. In this book, we can see how a mind can be driven along to evil through obsession.The main character of this book is Mizoguchi. He is the son of a poor rural priest. He is taken by his dying father to become an acolyte at the Temple of the Golden Pavillion. All throughout his childhood, his father had told him about the spledid beauty of this temple. Mizoguchi builds up an image of ideal beauty in his mind based on this Golden Pavillion. However, this ideal image causes him to feel disappointed in any supposed form of beauty, including women and even the actual physical Golden Pavillion. Nothing can live up to this image of supreme beauty. As he enters university, he comes under the influence of Kashiwagi, a fellow student with a very bitter view of life. Under this influence, Mizoguchi's dark feelings bubble up inside him. One of my favorite parts is Mizoguchi and Kashiwagi's discussion of knowledge and action. Kashiwagi asserts that an unbearable life can be made bearable by just having the knowledge that it is unchangable. However, Mizoguchi argues that knowledge is a dead thing, and that only action to change to change an unbearable life can make it bearable. This attitude leads him to his final desperate attack. I think that this book is particularly important in this age of terrorism. Often people ask why do terrorist do what they do, and they ask this because they don't understand the obsession (whether in ideal beauty as in this book, or with fundamentalist religion as in the case with terrorists), the hopelessness, and the desperation that they feel. I think if you read this book, you can understand how a mind is turned to evil acts through these means. Please read this book, if only to understand this point. A previous reviewer complained that ther isn't much action in this book, and that is true, but that's no reason to give it a low rating. It's a psychological novel about the process of a mind on the road to evil, so naturally the main part of the story takes place in the mind. If you want a novel with exploding cars, you should try a Tom Clancy novel instead.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One reason for 'Kinkakuji', April 22, 1999
By A Customer
This novel is a good example of a theme that frequently arises in Mishima's work: the resentment of the object of desire. Mizoguchi, the protagonist, is overwhelmed by the beauty of the golden temple and learns to resent it through the guru-like counsel of a friend. Over and over, Mizoguchi feels overwhelmed and made insignificant by the beautiful things in his new life as a monk: the beautiful temple, sexual possibility, and ultimately, his autonomy, perhaps even his life. This book, arguably Mishima's best, may well have been another one of the author's suicide rehearsals, and the unforgettable psychological impact of the book is that of a legendary storyteller demonstrating his Hamlet-like "north-by-northwest" madness. Technically, this is an amazing book, dripping with evocative, beautiful imagery and reminds me of a movie in its directorial-like descriptive method, its forceful 'mis en scene'. Artistically, I suspect Mishima was trying to compete with his great literary forefather Kawabata by playing with western ideas of the apolonean, further fueling his hopelessness and his rage with his art and with himself, but that is a bit academic and beyond my ability to determine. Ultimately, I cherish this book for its tortured explanation of the harshness love and beauty cruelly impose, a feral scream quietly hidden in the drug-like beauty of a book.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A deep, thought-provoking, and beautiful book, October 18, 2001
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is a book that stayed with me since I first read it, and in particular certain lines by Mizoguchi and Kashiwagi, two of the principal characters, are often so perfect in describing the events of life that I am again filled with admiration for Mishima's incredible philospohical and literary skills. The thing about Mishima, though, is that his protagonist will almost invariably be a young, introspective male - of course, this is a mirror image of Mishima himelf. I am reading "Confessions of a Mask", his "coming-out" autobiography right now, and it brought me back to thinking about the "Temple"; "Confessions" was one of his earliest books and it certainly set the stage for a work like "Temple" to come. It's clear from the autobiography that the themes of beauty (in particular masculine beauty), death, and war are Mishima's obsessions. Of the four Mishima novels i've read (Sound of Waves, Thirst for Love, Spring Snow, and the TOFTGP), some of these themes are always present. In every novel, too, he is using a different approach to them; in the Golden Temple, there is a heightened awareness of sprirituality and beauty of divine origin, i.e. the Golden Temple itself, the object of the acolyte Mizoguchi's obsession, which progressively takes over his life. ("Did I possess the Golden Temple, or was I possessed by it?")
It is hard to imagine Mishima's characters - like the stuttering teenage acolyte Mizoguchi of The Temple, with his keen aestheticism or his crippled friend Kashiwagi with his brilliant philospophical insights - in real life, whether it be Japan or any other country. Mishima's works, even his autobiography, are all surreal in nature. The "Temple" very effectively built up such an aura around the actual Golden Templein Kyoto that when I later saw a picture of it (it has been rebuilt since its destruction described in the book) I was very disappointed by its real image. It is certainly a beautiful building, but to me is not mysterious or hypnotic like it is to Mizoguchi. It is not alive, and certainly doesn't look like it can manipulate the hearts and minds of people, as it did with Mizoguchi. In general, Mishima's works, as was he - seem otherworldly. If this appeals to you, then his books, and this one in particular, will be unforgettable. Mishima's gift for beautiful, descriptive prose and powerful analogies shines through Ivan Morris's excellent translation. If you have never read a Mishima book, and are looking forward to a hypnotic/intellectual journey, "The Temple" is a great book to start with.
Also, the Everyman's Libraby edition is very good, with historical notes, an introduction by Donald Keene, thick paper and a built-in bookmark. Get it over the others.
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