Good and evil, beauty and ugliness, the transient and the eternal, emptiness and reality, survival and destruction. It seems as if everything in this story is black and white, with clear boundaries. Mishima’s descriptions make these opposing forces even more concrete; this intense contrast makes the beauty of the Golden Pavilion even more absolute and its destruction even more tragic.
“Inferiority and Jealousy”: Both Mizoguchi and Kashiwagi initially believed that others ignored their physical disabilities as if ignoring the meaning of their existence. Mizoguchi sought equal dialogue, while Kashiwagi chose to accept those who recognized him, believing that someone loved the “meaning of his existence” he possessed, yet overlooked the truly beautiful aspects of himself elsewhere.
The Golden Pavilion was also Mizoguchi’s shackle—not because of his intense desire for it, but because his desire was too small. He believed since childhood that the emptiness of the Golden Pavilion’s beauty was the ultimate goal, and his desire was confined to the Pavilion, becoming his shackle. The reason he always considered the Golden Pavilion beautiful was that he never sought something more beautiful; even after seeing the real Golden Pavilion, the emptiness of its beauty remained in Mizoguchi’s heart. Naturally, the beauty of the Golden Pavilion eventually became a catalyst for Mizoguchi’s sins.
I still cannot fully understand Mizoguchi’s complete motivation: was it because he felt the Golden Pavilion was his shackle, or because he was jealous of its beauty and the recognition he could not attain, or was it the evil “intent to kill” that arose in moments of calm? He thought about the Golden Pavilion several times without truly seeing it; thus, the so-called destruction became meaningless. The beauty of the Golden Pavilion exists eternally and cannot be erased by burning. Burning the Pavilion only causes its physical disappearance, yet makes its beauty even more eternal, so it appears to be a meaningless action for Mizoguchi.
I also dislike the ending of The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Perhaps it is because I want to adhere to the facts; after all, it is based on real events, and Mishima only added simple imagination, which is still acceptable. Ending with selfish destruction brings Mizoguchi back to being an ordinary person and returns the beauty of the Golden Pavilion to emptiness, just as the story began. If it were me, I might have turned into an empty illusion along with the Golden Pavilion.
