The Relationship of Beauty and Death in Yukio Mishima’s “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion”
Introduction
The novel written by Yukio Mishima represents a true incident happened in Japan in 1950, when a boy set fire to one of the most beautiful and well-known Zen temples. This event caused shock among the public and raised serious and controversial questions regarding the cultural and social issues in the country. In the trial, the boy claimed: “I hate myself, my evil, ugly, and stammering self”. In the result, it was concluded that the boy has burnt down the temple due to self-hate and obsession with everything beautiful. He could not help to remain calm when he saw beautiful things, which made him to hurt and destroy it. In the same way, Mishima presents his main character, as Mizoguchi hates the abundance and beauty of the Golden Temple. He explains that “only in my hatred was there something authentic.” The main character is angry to the world due to his ugliness, which he sees as the contrast to the Temple.
Analysis
Beauty in Mizoguchi’s Perception
Also, Mizoguchi realizes the presence of the Temple everywhere in his life. He was put in the Temple as the acolyte, his friends also remain in the Temple, and according to the main hero, it is impossible not to notice it due to its beauty and grandiosity. In “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion”, Mizoguchi is overwhelmed with the notion of beauty and everything that encapsulates its attributes becomes the object of his obsessions and contempt. In some instances, the main character cannot help himself to destroy something beautiful. One of the most vivid examples of the protagonist’s treatment of beautiful is his “first love” Uiko, who becomes the object of hatred as well. Mizoguchi confesses: “day and night I wished for Uiko's deathwhat I had seen in Uiko's visage, behind those eyes of hers which shone like water in the darkwas the world, that is, of other people who will never leave us alone”
He cannot stand beauty, yet he also cannot deny its existence or the power it has on people and himself as well. It is impossible to describe the power beauty has on humans, but no one can oppose it. In the novel, there is a strong connection between death and beauty, as it stems from the self-hate and inability to attract the others. It is possible to assume that the main hatred the main hero feels to beautiful things roots in the limitations and inability to express himself and to satisfy his desires. The main hero does not understands what draws him to beautiful things and what actually repels him, yet this conflicting feelings produce the desire to destroy, the drive to make all beautiful things dead.
Overall, Mizoguchi tries to destroy beauty because of his inability to recognize the root of the problem. It is easier to make the problem disappear than to work with it and to accept his conditions. The main character thinks: “I was almost intoxicated with the thought that the fire which would destroy me would probably also destroy the Golden Temple”. Also, the main character is driven by the force of self-destruction and constant desire to kill himself, which he cannot employ in life due to his conditions. Closing eyes on the problem will not make it disappear. Improving his conditions will not probably change the situation as well. The situation when Mizoguchi tries to resist his feelings does not produce any positive results.
The Connection between Beauty, Death, and Tragedy
The connection between the beauty and death roots in the craving for something which is impossible to gain and the obsession by the beauty among the others. People surrounding Mizoguchi are overwhelmed by beauty, like his father who constantly admires the beauty of the Temple. The protagonist wants to feel significant, meaningful, and powerful, but in the society that praises the beauty, he cannot gain any of these attributes and become important. He realizes that the only way to gain any possible recognition is to oppose the beauty, even if this opposition remains within himself. The protagonist is searching for the options to destroy the beauty. He cannot recognize the real root of the problem and his repulsion to beauty. Mizoguchi realizes that no matter what he does, he cannot become even partially beautiful as Uiko or other beautiful people.
The idea to burn down the Temple rooted in one of the occasions, when the building was almost destroyed during the air strike. It was a breaking point for Muxoguchi, as the idea to burn the Temple has poisoned his mind. He recollects: “ the Golden Temple was in danger of soon being burned down in an air raidsince this idea took root within me, the Golden Temple once again increased in tragic beauty.” In Mizoguchi’s mind, the idea of destruction is connected to intensification of beauty and its meaning for him. The possibility to destroy something beautiful makes the Temple for the main character even more significant. However, seeing beautiful in tragedy is not only the ability of Mizoguchi; it is a classic representation of the connection between these concepts.
The link between tragedy and beauty in literature and art in general is particularly strong. There is an element of beauty in the representation of tragedy in art accomplished through various methods. For instance, according to Aristotle, the tragedy can be showed as something beautify, as it elevates a flawed humanity to poetic form. Also, it can induce strong emotions in every human being through empathy and suffering. However, in Aristotle’s framework, humans are not appropriate for this form of emotional elevation due to their complexity that decreases the effect of tragedy. At the same time, tragic collapse of a beautiful object, like the Golden Temple, can be elevated in its tragic beauty. This concept points to the strong bound between beautiful and tragic in the novel and it also connects death to the notion of beauty as well. For Mizoguchi, burning down the Temple represents the act of increasing its value and beauty. In this way, the protagonist tries to explain his intention to destroy beauty.
The link between death, tragedy, and beauty can be seen in the religious doctrine as well. For instance, Christian theologians praised the martyrs by elevating their sufferings into something desirable. Even though the novel does not have Christian ideas, the concept of tragic beauty is present in the Japanese and Buddhist perception of beauty that is represented in the idea of “aware”. In Zen Buddhism, the significance of beauty is particularly strong. Within this doctrine, beauty is present not only in everyday life, but in myths, rituals, and religious experiences. The novel points to the same direction by revealing that everything that surrounds Mizoguchi is beautiful and there is a constant pressure to pursue beauty in rituals and religion. Comparing to such appraisal of beauty, Mizoguchi feels that he does to belong in this world, as there is no place for a person with imperfections. The protagonist seeks for the support among his peers and he finally finds it in the person of Kashiwagi.
The Impact of Kashiwagi
The idea to ruin the Temple stems from Mizoguhi’s relationship with Kashiwagi. While in the Temple, protagonist befriends Tsurukawa, who is quite sweet in nature, their friendship falls apart when they go to the university. Meeting with Kashiwagi has a great influence on the development of the main hero’s intention to burn the Temple. Mizoguchi suffers from stutter, which he considers a major imperfection. So as the protagonist, Kashiwagi also has imperfection, he was born clubfooted. This share of imperfections makes both characters to be disgraced in the eyes of beauty. Once, Kashiwagi shares with the protagonist his sexual experience with a beautiful girl by claiming that he felt disgusted when his clubfeet touched her. Similar feelings make both characters closer, but this encounter becomes destructive for protagonist.
However, Mizoguchi discovers that beauty can be produced by skill. He realizes this after Kashiwagi’s performance with flute. Despite the imperfection his friend has, he is able to produce beautiful sound. Mizoguchi claims: “Kashiwagi’s playingsounded so beautiful not only because of the lovely moonlit background, but because of his hideous clubfeet.” Here, it is possible to see that there is a destructive perception of beauty in Mizoguchi, as he connects the imperfection to the beauty, which both repulse him and attract.
However, Kashiwagi insists that he hates a lasting beauty and he prefers music or flowers, as he knows they will fade away instantly. It has a huge impact on protagonist’s vision of beauty and perception of the Temple. Mizoguchi admits that music has the ability to transform everything in an instant, but fades away immediately not to oppress the listeners with its perfection. Unlike music, the Temple is always present and, thus, is repulsing to protagonist. He recognizes that “nothing is so similar to life as music the Golden Temple shared the same type of beauty, nothing could have been farther from the world and more scornful of it than the beauty of this building”. It is possible to see here that Mizoguchi’s hate to the temple and the things it represents reaches its peak, which later on will drive the protagonist to his infamous act.
There are some speculations about the ambivalence of hatred and love and their roots in the Japanese culture. According to some of them, Mizoguchi's ambivalence of love and hatred for the Temple mirrors the feelings of Japanese citizens particularly of Mishima's generation, regarding the Emperor and political events in 1945. The author sees Mizoguchi as a victim of the world that praises beauty and perfection losing itself in ruination of the traditional moral values. In this way, Mizoguchi’s ruination of Temple can be seen as the act of rebellion against the ambivalent perception of the world present in the Japanese culture during those days.
Conclusion
The protagonist suffers from the same ambiguities and ambivalence, as his counterparts. He cannot distinguish between love and hate, life and death, happiness and tragedy, which make the protagonist to suffer even more. Mizoguchi finds the support of his thoughts in various encounters, from the opinion of his peers to the philosophy of Zen Buddhism. He cannot escape the world that praises ultimate beauty and repulses everything imperfect. The main reason why the protagonist burned down the Temple is his conflicting perception of beauty and death that root in the Japanese culture. For Mizoguchi, the destruction of the Temple is the act of elevation of its beauty and the act of opposition to the philosophy where beauty is praised more than the human skills and personal qualities. By destroying the Temple, Mizoguchi was looking for the ways to eliminate his hatred, yet he failed to recognize that this repulsion stems from himself.
