The Place of Gold

Death is pure, it removes the complexities and ambiguities of life like nothing else can, and so perhaps any pursuit of purity is like a pursuit of death or destruction. It was certainly the case for the young man depicted in Enjo (炎上, "Conflagration"), a 1958 film by Kon Ichikawa based on a book by Yukio Mishima. That book, in turn, was based on a real life event, the 1950 burning of Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, the "Golden Pavilion", so named for the gold leaf that covers its exterior. The temple that had stood for centuries undisturbed had survived World War II only to be destroyed by arson. The arsonist was a 22 year old novice monk who attempted suicide after the burning. He survived and went to prison--he was released due to his mental illnesses, persecution complex and schizophrenia. To his story, Mishima added his own aesthetic philosophy about sex and beauty. Ichikawa made a film lighter on sex but with a very simple narrative and a clear psychological framework.

Mishima changed the novice monk's name to Goichi (Raizo Ichikawa VIII) and we meet him in Ichikawa's film just as he's arriving at the temple. The abbot, played by Ganjiro Nakamura II, hastily applies makeup he keeps hidden in a drawer before Goichi arrives. Later we learn the abbot regularly goes into town to visit a favourite geisha.

Again and again, we're shown the pieces of impurity and hypocrisy that Goichi can't deal with. He obsesses over a memory of catching his mother having sex with someone who's not his father--and his father calmly leading the boy away from the scene. When a woman pregnant with an American soldier's child tries to enter Kinkaku-ji, Goichi violently prevents her from violating the place with her presence.

He befriends a crippled man played by Tatsuya Nakadai and, despite his scruples, watches as Nakadai uses his injury to manipulate women into sleeping with him.

The cause and effect between Goichi and his actions are crystal clear, clear enough that Ichikawa avoids any explanations at the end and simply lets events unfold.

It's not so much a black and white movie as it is a black and murky green movie. This seems to be normal for Ichikawa's films before he switched to colour. In this case, it helps convey the narrow psychological space of Goichi's mind.

Enjo is available on The Criterion Channel under the title of Conflagration. Also available on The Criterion Channel is Mishima, a movie directed by Paul Schrader about the author's life--I reviewed that movie back in 2013 and was very impressed.

So, on Friday last week, I was pleased to have the opportunity to visit Kinkaku-ji with my friend and her boss.

Reconstruction was finished in 1955 and the gold leaf covering it, I hear, is much denser than the original. It's beautiful in any case, and just as beautiful are the surrounding gardens, carefully maintained to aesthetically complement the structure.

The trees look like clouds, giving the impression of being in the sky.

Fittingly, a golden phoenix sits atop the building.