POST-WAR JAPANESE CONSUMER SOCIETY IN SEARCH FOR AN IDENTITY (A WAY TO APPROACH YUKIO MISHIMA’S THE TEMPLE OF THE GOLDEN PAVILION)
POST-WAR JAPANESE CONSUMER SOCIETY IN SEARCH FOR AN IDENTITY (A WAY TO APPROACH YUKIO MISHIMA’S THE TEMPLE OF THE GOLDEN PAVILION)

Summary/Abstract: The paper brings into focus the tensions arising from the modernization of Japan,following the Second World War, and the changes that fragmented the Japanese way oflife. The manner in which Yukio Mishima decided to treat these changes in his novel TheTemple of the Golden Pavilion is central to the exploratory nature of the article. Throughthe inner unrest and emotions of the main character the novel speaks of the dilution of theJapanese traditional spirit when faced with Western ideals. The loss of confidence in thecore values which permeates the book seems to underlie Mishima’s own view of adisrupted Japanese identity (shown against a brief biographical background). Followingone of the readings of the novel, which claims the Temple is a microcosm isolated fromsociety, the article concludes that the final act in the novel is both a way of breaking withthe past and an attempt to reconstruct society from the ruins of the destroyed work of art.

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