THE TEMPLE OF THE GOLDEN PAVILION – Romance by Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima was born in Tokyo on January 14, 1925. Writer, playwright, essayist and poet, he was also well known as an actor and film director. His numerous works ranged from the novel to modernizzatee adapted forms in a modern traditional Japanese theater. A grandmother will become a very important figure in the development of his character, both as regards the psychological aspects, and because the approach to classical literature and theater forms. Since 1931, he began his studies at the school of Peers. The pupils of this school were not necessarily part of the aristocracy, and were encouraged to become more than poets soldiers. He graduated from law school, and become a civil servant, living a double life: civil servant until the evening, at night writer. At age 45, in front of newspapers and television, he gave his last speech: the exaltation of the spirit of Japan. Having praised the Emperor, he commits suicide by seppuku, stabbing his belly and making then beheaded.

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, tells the story of Mizoguchi, stuttering Buddhist monaco that ignited one of the most beautiful shrines of Kyoto. The burning of the Pavilion came in the summer of 1950 at the hands of a young apprentice of the temple itself. The arsonist set fire in an attempt to double suicide. His hope was to die, along with the pavilion. However, at the last moment he fled up the hill behind the temple. The author of this novel, tries to identify with the protagonist. Speaking in the first person, he talks about the formation of the personality of this boy, describing the obsession that was born in him the beauty, along with efforts to destroy it. Fundamental, in this novel it is not just the contrast with the beauty that is created with the main character, but also the presence of a secondary character, a friend lame and cynical, that in the course of the book says several Zen parables

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