1956The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
Yukio Mishima
Mishima's novel reworks a real event: the burning of the Golden Pavilion, Kinkaku-ji, by a young acolyte monk in 1950. The stammering, ugly Mizoguchi comes from a poor coastal temple to serve at Rokuon-ji in Kyoto, and his worship of the pavilion's unbearable beauty curdles until he destroys it. The city is real throughout: the gilded pavilion above its pond, the temple grounds where he lodges, Otani University where he meets the crippled cynic Kashiwagi, and the wartime and postwar streets of Kyoto.
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