The Temple of Dawn by Yukio Mishima Plot Spoiling Deep Read

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:15][music] >> Hello fellow lovers of the liminal and the weird and welcome to another video by Liminal Spaces. Today we're going to be talking about the Yukio Mishima book The Temple of Dawn.

[00:00:28]This is of course the third book in his Sea of Fertility tetralogy. Here you can see the first two, Spring Snow, Runaway Horses. Both of these I've covered on the channel before. I'll put links in the description below if you want to watch those videos as well. And now we are on to the third one. And this is going to be a bit of an interesting video because I am not a huge fan of this book.

[00:00:59]>> [snorts] >> So I it's really strange. I don't recommend this book. This wouldn't be a book that I would say, "Hey, you want to hear about Yukio Mishima? Read this one."

[00:01:10]Whereas these [snorts] two, I absolutely would recommend as a first Yukio Mishima read. They're incredible. Also, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, another great Mishima book. There's a lot of great Mishima books that I would recommend. This is not one of them. I feel like this is for me kind of a Mishima dud. And we'll get into that a little bit more as we go on. However, [snorts] it's kind of weird because I feel like the book in the tetralogy after this, The Decay of the Angel, which is the last book in this tetralogy and the last book that Yukio Mishima ever wrote. He He committed ritual seppuku publicly after that, is really good.

[00:01:53]So you have this random dud in here in the middle of an incredible [snorts] tetralogy that is well worth it. So in a weird way, I do recommend you read it.

[00:02:05]You kind of have to in order to complete the tetralogy. It'd be really weird to read the first, the second, and then skip to the fourth. You'd be missing stuff and it just wouldn't work as well.

[00:02:14]So yeah, The Temple of Dawn by Yukio Mishima. Let's talk about it a little bit.

[00:02:19]>> [snorts] >> Before I jump into the plot of it, I'm going to talk a little bit about the first time I read it, which was way back when I was an undergrad in college, which which is where I first discovered Mishima. And I really tore through these two. Spring Snow is probably my favorite Yukio Mishima book. I absolutely loved it the first time I read it. Runaway Horses also really loved. I just thought that what Mishima was doing was such a brilliant idea. And this is a bit of a spoiler for the entire tetralogy, but if you're watching me talk about the third book, you're you're fine with this small spoiler here.

[00:03:01]This idea that Mishima was had created a character in Spring Snow that would embody the spirit of the age in which he grew up and that he would die young so he could only embody the spirit of that small time that he was [snorts] alive. I thought that was brilliant. And then to take the further step of having that character reincarnated book after book so that each So in the second one, we get another young man, a reincarnation of the young man in this one. But in this one, he embodies the spirit of a different age. And of course they die at the end of each of these novels. So [snorts] Yukio Mishima set up a logic that we were following.

[00:03:51]This idea of this reoccurring or this reincarnating character that would embody the spirit of their entire generation. And the first time I started reading this book, I was very excited because everything had been very male-focused from these first two novels, which was awesome. I didn't mind that at all. That was a lot of fun. But Yukio Mishima introduces at the beginning of this book that we are going to be dealing with a reincarnation that is a woman this time.

[00:04:26]And that was really exciting to me because the ability that Yukio Mishima has to focus in on extreme characters, characters that we don't necessarily like, but who are incredibly extreme. He He has like a psychologist's edge to him. He really gets into the brains of these characters. And I was very excited to see this from number one, the perspective of a woman, see him show the age of Japan at that time through a woman. But number two, in a really interesting move, the reincarnation this time is a a woman from Thailand. So she's not even from Japan. And we There's a connection of course to Spring Snow. There's two Thai princes that are exchange students in Japan that are friends with Kiyoaki and Honda in this book. So now the reincarnation has come from one of them. And of course there's been a link through all of them.

[00:05:35]Iinuma was Kiyoaki's servant and then Iinuma is the father of the young boy that's that's Kiyoaki reincarnated in this one. So yeah, there's been a link. Like he's known everybody that's reincarnated through some connection from this first book. So yeah, I was I was very excited to see him take on the era that he grew up in.

[00:06:06]So these first two books are about eras that Mishima wasn't really familiar with. This one This one he was kind of familiar with.

[00:06:15]This would be where he grew up in his young teens probably. But this book is like early 50s, late 40s actually, early 50s, late 40s, late 40s, which means [snorts] this is the generation that that Mishima was like 20 years old in. He was born in 25. So this book takes place when he would be like 22. So I was really excited to see him talk about his own generation. Right?

[00:06:48][snorts] He spoke beautifully about earlier generations. Kiyoaki was the embodiment of the mix of Westernization and old Japanese politics after the Meiji Restoration. Iinuma in this one was the embodiment of the samurai spirit and nationalism and emperor worship coming back in this one. And And now on the third one, I wanted to really see what he would say about his own generation. I was excited to hear about Japan in the 50s. So I had three things that I was very excited about. And I feel like Yukio Mishima dashed all of them and just didn't really do them. So this story opens.

[00:07:40]Honda, who is the friend of Kiyoaki and the person that is we've we kind of been watching see all these reincarnations through.

[00:07:50]He's the one character that goes through all these novels. So Honda is now a lawyer and he's very famous. Well, not famous. He's He's He's very high up in society and and is doing very well financially. And he's working on a case that is dealing with stuff in Thailand.

[00:08:11]So he's in Thailand and he gets word that there's this Japanese princess who was born to one of the princes from this first book that believes that she is a reincarnation of a Japanese person. She's just a kid, little.

[00:08:30]But she believes and talks about constantly how she has lived two lives in Japan and that she she's not a Thai princess, that she doesn't need to be there. So of course Honda has to meet her. And all this is beautiful. The way Mishima describes this is beautiful. And then he goes and meets this princess and he straight-up asks her questions like, "What was the date that Isao Iinuma took his own life?" And she's just like, "Bam!" and knows the date. Right away, it's super obvious that she is a reincarnation.

[00:09:09]And I don't know why Mishima did that.

[00:09:11]Because the crux of this novel becomes him needing to see the moles on the side of her her on her side because all the reincarnations have three moles in a very specific pattern.

[00:09:29]And so he goes out on an outing with the princess.

[00:09:34]Literally they go swimming in the river.

[00:09:36]She is young so she's not wearing any clothes when she swims in the river and he doesn't he can't really see the moles on her. So he's like, "Does she have these moles?" This was good so far. I was I was enjoying it. I was really excited with this introduction.

[00:09:51]And then he leaves Thailand. The princess begs to go with him. She so much wants to go with him.

[00:10:01]She's from Japan. She knows she's Honda.

[00:10:04]She knows she remembers Inuma and all this kind of stuff, but he I mean he can't do that. There's no way he can take the princess with him. That's impossible. So, he leaves and he then goes to India and a huge chunk of this book, an early chunk of this book is a travel diary of of India.

[00:10:30]And honestly, the first time I read this, I was so angry I wanted to throw it across the room. This time, it wasn't so bad because I knew it was coming. The first time I read it, I was like, "Oh my god, the princess, like what's going on with her?" Right? Because these two books, once the reincarnation is introduced, large chunks and chapters are from the point of view of the reincarnation characters. I expected that with the princess, whose name is Ying Chan. I don't know if I'm saying that right. I apologize if I am not. But no, he just he goes away. And then we get this huge description of his travels in India and his serious interest in reincarnation, which makes sense.

[00:11:14]>> [snorts] >> And then there is it's almost an essay about reincarnation and Buddhism and India. And I I I still see it this time, too. It kind of feels like he tells this introduction story about Ying Chan and then he didn't really know how to pass the time, so he grabbed a travel diary, which could have just been Mishima visiting India. I don't know. He grabs the travel diary and puts that there and then he grabs an essay on reincarnation and specifics specific types of Buddhism in India and throws that there. That's what it felt like to me. I could be completely wrong.

[00:11:57]I have no evidence to back this up.

[00:11:58]That's just what it felt like as I was reading it. This time it wasn't nearly as bad. Everything felt shorter. When I read this the first time, these things felt so long. This time it felt a lot shorter. Anyway, eventually after this talk of India and all this, we jump into the future into the '50s and we see Honda retired and he has gained this property from one of his cases, so he's very well-to-do.

[00:12:35]He's built this beautiful house and he has these parties. Still, we have never had a chapter from the perspective of Ying Chan, which drove me nuts because these books, we dive deep into the head of Kiyowaki and Isao, but Ying Chan just disappeared. She's she's not I mean for like half the book, she's not even there. But he finds out eventually that Ying Chan has come to Japan as a foreign exchange student. And eventually he is able to meet her.

[00:13:12]>> [snorts] >> And she doesn't remember anything. She doesn't remember meeting Honda in the past. She doesn't remember she was reincarnated from people from Japan. She says, "Yeah, I was really crazy when I was a kid, but I'm I'm fine now." So, she just doesn't remember any of that.

[00:13:29]She is obviously just a teenage girl. Just like Kiyowaki was a teenage boy and Isao was a teenage boy.

[00:13:39]We see in both of these the childishness and that is one of the most incredible parts about Mishima is how well he was able to write from these youthful perspectives.

[00:13:51]But Ying Chan is just disappearing constantly. He's very rarely in the book and instead we are given Honda and Honda, it turns out now that he's no longer a judge, has become a voyeur, a pervert. He likes to watch other people making love and he has created a peephole in his library that looks into a guest room that he has at this house. And he throws these parties kind of debaucherous parties and then watches people in the guest room through this peephole that nobody knows about.

[00:14:35]He also has a tendency to go out into the parks and watch people in the parks as well.

[00:14:42]And Mishima really tries to come at this from a philosophical perspective and I think he does in the this concept of how in a weird way a judge has to look into the dirtiest crimes and judge them. In a weird way, a judge is peeking into the worst of humanity and judging it.

[00:15:07]And now he he he wants to continue to look into the most compromising positions of humanity is the best way that I can describe what Mishima is describing, I think. I think the problem that I had with this is that number one Ying Chan, we don't know at all at all.

[00:15:33]We've we've almost read this entire book and we don't know the reincarnation. In these two books, they are the most important part. Honda is an afterthought. Like why in this book did he just give up and not talk about her at all? Number two, where is the stand-in that is the heart of the generation that she's a part of. I I don't understand. I read I read reviews afterwards and somebody said this is a book about the debauchery of the generation after World War II.

[00:16:14]Okay. Okay. I can I can get behind that, but why didn't he present this in the same way he did the other two? Why aren't we in the head of Ying Chan seeing the debauchery? Why isn't she the embodiment of this debauchery? And [snorts] I think the answer is Honda becomes absolutely obsessed with her. He thinks he's in love with her and [snorts] he really really really wants to spy on her and see her in the nude.

[00:16:50]Like like this is the driving force of this novel once it finally gets a driving force is that he wants to see Ying Chan nude. And I don't feel that he respects the fact that this was Kiyowaki or this was Isao.

[00:17:12]When in the second one Isao being Kiyowaki was huge. That was so important to Honda. Now he's just like, "Oh, I want to see that girl in the nude."

[00:17:23]Right? I didn't There was There was none of that power there and it really drove me nuts. Yeah, I I'm sorry. I have been telling the plot of this novel like a review. Spoilers from here on out.

[00:17:38]There was kind of actually I mean I I I went through a huge chunk of the novel, but this is a really hard novel to spoil. But now I'm going to really spoil the end. So, spoilers from here on out. So, he's he's he's madly in love, he says, with Ying Chan and wants to see her in the nude. He's got this neighbor named Keiko, who is this kind of party girl, debaucherous older woman that is dating American soldiers and stuff like that.

[00:18:08]And she is helping him realize this dream. And she doesn't know that he has a peephole that he just tries to get people to stay in the guest room so he can watch him through the peephole. She doesn't know any of this, but she's trying to help him with his relationship. He She knows how he feels about her and she's trying to help him. And at first, she thinks that he wants her to lose her virginity so that he can then be her lover. So, they do this crazy idea where she brings in her nephew, who's a total playboy, and tries to to get him to hook up with Ying Chan. And he's watching through the peephole and he comes [snorts] in and tries to make love to Ying Chan and Ying Chan is not about it. Gets him out of the room and then literally climbs out on the roof and disappears. And she doesn't really care much for Honda after that, but Honda is still in love with her. So, Keiko's like, "Let me get this all worked out." And we end with him throwing He's got a pool and he it's like the first private pool in the area, super big deal. So, a bunch of people come over to swim. Ying Chan comes over to swim and she stays the night, but her and Keiko have to stay in in the same room, which makes him very sad. He wanted Ying Chan to be alone in the room so that she would be more likely to strip and change her clothes.

[00:19:41]But what he sees in reality is Ying Chan and Keiko making love. That is the huge twist in this novel is that Ying Chan is a lesbian and has no interest in men whatsoever and is really in love with Keiko. Um, she carries a picture, a nude picture of Keiko around with her, which I thought was awesome. That's a great twist. And of course, Yukio Mishima wrote uh Confessions of a Mask, which is a novel about being gay in Tokyo, right? This is This is something that he understands, not specifically lesbian, but uh but he knows what it means to be gay. Uh so I really I thought this was a a great twist.

[00:20:27]And [snorts] then Honda's house burns down. And then it just jumps to a few months later when Ying Chan is back in Thailand and she gets bit by a cobra and she dies. The problem that I had with this is that in my opinion, Mishima chose the most boring antagonist possible.

[00:20:51]We don't want to read about Honda. We want to read about these reincarnations that are supposed to be the heart and soul of the generation that they are a part of. That's what he set up in the first two books. And then all of a sudden in the third book, like I believe staying with Ying Chan as our protagonist would have been an incredible story. I think she would have told a great story. And I I I think that her story of dealing with men like Honda would be way more interesting than Honda creating this love affair in his brain that doesn't exist with a teenage girl.

[00:21:35]That is nowhere near as interesting as Ying Chan. And that's the problem that I I had with this book is is he broke his own structure for a reason I don't understand. Is it because this time it was a woman?

[00:21:52]Is Is he not good at writing female characters? Right? I mean, every I I I I must say every character that I've read of his that has been groundbreaking for how psychologically deep he gets into the character has been a male character.

[00:22:08]So, perhaps he can't find his way into the mind of a of a woman, so he chose not to do it. In that case, I would say he should have made it another man, made the man gay, and made that the story.

[00:22:24]Right? So that we could have it from his perspective. Or maybe he really hated his own generation and wanted to use this kind of getting older Honda voyeur character as a way to just say, "Look at how disgusting the generation that I'm a part of is." I don't know. It's It's It's very baffling to me uh how much I feel like he dropped the ball on this one. I really do. I I know that that's going to make some people mad. Some people might really love this book. Uh but this is just kind of my interpretation of it. It drove me up a wall. The second read was a little better, a little better, because I knew what I was getting into. But even then, like I really had to push myself through this. I really did. It didn't have any of the dynamics of these first two, and these first two were so good.

[00:23:23]Um but yeah, this one just kind of fell flat. It really did. It didn't It didn't work for me.

[00:23:29]>> [snorts] >> Um if it worked for you, let me know.

[00:23:31]Tell me in the comments uh if you have a different interpretation of this, I would love to hear it. Uh and thank you for reading along with me, for those of you that are. And I'm really looking forward to the last book. It's a much quicker read uh and has a really big uh explosion at the end uh that I think wraps up this tetralogy nicely.

[00:23:54]All right, thank you very much for watching, and I will see you on the next one.