Carla Vee F.

Ababon
LIT 273
Beauty and All Its Forms: A Closer Look at the Images Described
in the Temple of the Golden Pavilion
Beauty in all its complexity and form has been revealed to me in the Temple of the
Golden Pavilion through the gaze of Mizoguchi, while he struggles with his conceived
ugliness and imperfection, his attempts to understand beauty, his vain efforts to possess
beauty, and his desperation in knowing that in trying to posses beauty, he is the one
being possessed by it. Following Mizoguchi’s thoughts and the images that he sees and
remembers, I come to realize that there is more to beauty than that beauty, which comes
as much from the mind as from the eye.

There are several striking images in the novel that I hope to discuss in detail that reveals
so much about beauty, which at the onset, I thought I already know of. Thus, there is
more to beauty than what meets the eye.

1. Every beautiful thing that Mizoguchi sees in nature, he relates it to the Golden
Temple. Though he sees beauty everywhere, he cannot exactly pin it down to one thing.
He then compares beauty to the sea. When one looks at the sea, it is not the same sea
that one sees a minute ago or even a second ago. Beauty, in this sense, is not fixed or
permanent. It is ever changing; since, beauty starts in the imagination. It is created by
the mind. This is evident in beginning of the story when Mizoguchi says,

“I used to see the Golden Temple soaring up into the morning sky amidst
the rays of the sun as it rose from the folds of those eastern hills. Thus
the Golden Temple was apparent everywhere. In so far, as I could not
actually set eyes on the temple, it was like the sea.” (p.4)

Even if the sea is blocked by the hills and one cannot actually see it, something reminds
one of its existence like the smell of the sea being drifted away by the wind. Beauty does
not need to be physically present to be remembered, as the mental image of beauty has
already been crafted and established in the mind. Beauty, then, becomes intangible.

2. There is an undeniable distinctness between beauty that is constructed in the mind

and the objective beauty – one that exists in reality. Mizoguchi confronts this reality at
the moment he sees the Golden Temple.

In Mizoguchi’s mind, he believes Golden Temple remains safe and immutable amidst
all the changes of the world. For him, beauty is not just an idea but an object that can be
perceived by the senses. “Beauty was thus an object that one could touch with one’s
fingers, that could be clearly reflected in one’s eyes.” (p.20) In his mind, he sees the
Golden Temple as a delicate piece of workmanship that he can put in his hands or a
huge, monstrous cathedral that soared up endlessly into the sky. In his mind, beauty
comes in different forms. Beauty is not set by any boundaries.

However, when he finally stands before the Golden Temple, the temple incited no
emotion in him. It is but a small, dark, old three-storied building. For Mizogochi, “Not
only did the building fail to strike me as beautiful, but I even had a sense of disharmony
and restlessness. Could beauty, I wondered, be as unbeautiful a thing as this?” (p. 23)

Beauty that is crafted in the mind is limitless and immutable as opposed to

objective/physical beauty, which is fixed and fleeting. It is not a surprise that Mizogochi
is attracted to the shadow casted by the temple on the surface of the pond, which is
unreal, than the building itself.

Because of Mizogochi’s disappointment, he begins to think about beauty as something

that deceives those who observe it. Therefore, he has thought of examining beauty,
detail by detail that he can perceive the essence of its beauty. Later on, the beauty that
he has nurtured in his mind becomes real. This shows another aspect of beauty, which
lies not just in the eye but on the mind of the beholder. One thing can be beautiful or
less beautiful depending on the disposition or the stance of the observer. While the
possibility of the temple being raided and burned down, Mizogochi, contemplated on
the idea of the temple turning into ashes, which frees it from all the rules and the rigid
structure or form . As a result of this contemplation, Mizogochi’s image of the temple
began to be superimposed on the real temple itself in all its details and the temple ceases
to be an immovable structure for him. Hence, the temple is no longer a disappointment
for him; instead, it has been transformed into a symbol of the real world’s evanescence
and became no less beautiful as his mental image of beauty.

3. Another striking image of beauty is that of the beautiful music produced by Kashiwagi
Mizogochi realizes that beauty is also a skill to be learned and beauty can come from
someone who is not at all beautiful. Kashiwagi has brought beauty into life with his
clubfoot and his gloomy thoughts remaining. From this image of beauty coming from
imperfectin, Mizogochi also has seen another aspect of beauty – its uselessness.
Mizogochi thinks that “the usefulness of beauty, the fact that the beauty which had
passed through his body left no mark there whatsoever, that it changed absolutely
nothing.” This is what Kashiwagi loves about beauty. There is beauty in imperfection.
Beauty can come from something that is not beautiful at all.

4. The image of beauty as a decayed tooth also presents another aspect of beauty as
something that has its outer existence apart from one and yet it can cause one so much
pain that it seems to be this beautiful thing is rooted within the person. Yet, apart from
the person’s existence, it is just but a dead useless thing.
5. The image of the bee that landed on its object of desire I think has been mentioned
twice in the novel.

The first image is that of a bee which “mistakenly alighted on that white, shining shirt-
flower”. While he was gazing at the beautiful objects which were discarded by the young
student of the Naval academy, Mizoguchi was reminded of the perfect young hero and a
strange image of death and an honorable grave entered his mind. Beauty is seen as
perfect yet juxtaposed with death. I think this aspect of beauty as perfect yet temporary
and fleeting must be the same reason why Mizoguchi engraved ugly marks at the back of
the beautiful black scabbard of the sword.

Another image of the bee is mentioned at another part of the story. Mizoguchi looks at
the yellow chrysanthemum from the eyes of the bee. The bee sees a beautiful flower,
finds it so enticing and is consumed by its beauty, and thus, thrusts its way deep into the
flower and sank into intoxication. The flower, on the other hand, after having welcomed
the bee, becomes itself like a yellow bee.

Mizogochi realizes that his eyes which had been looking at the scene are exactly in the
position of the eyes of the Golden Temple. For several instances that the temple would
intrude between him and his life, Mizogochi realizes that he has abandoned his own eyes
and made the eyes of the Golden Temple into his. This reveals the captivating nature of
beauty, which possesses one who gazes at it and one becomes powerless and dominated.
Another thing that Mizogochi realizes about beauty is that the more one is drawn
towards beauty, one becomes attached to it and the darkest thoughts come out. Beauty
has dual nature – something that is good and something that incites evil. It is
captivating and at the same dangerous because it does not only cause strife and division,
it draws selfishness. It moves one to possess beauty in whatever means. However,
beauty can never be possessed by anyone; instead, it possesses the one who wishes to
possess it.

As soon as Mizogochi realizes this, he recognizes beauty as a deadly enemy and he

rejects Kashiwagi’s notion of beauty as an illusion that has been consigned to
knowledge. Mizogochi, then, is transformed into a Nansen, a man of action who is
resolved to burn down the Golden Temple. He believes that by doing so he will be free
just as Nansen killed the cat which was the cause of all conflict. By burning the temple
down, it proves whether beauty is indeed immutable or evanescent. However, since
beauty is first created in the mind, it is impossible to take it off just as simply as
extracting a decayed tooth.

These are just few of the vivid powerful images depicted in The Temple of the Golden
Pavillion. This shows beauty in all its forms.