A Study of Manuscript of Yukio Mishima's Kinkakuji : Kashiwagi, Roushi, and Kinkaku

Yukio Mishima's own manuscript of his best known work Kinkakuji is now in the possession of the Mishima Yukio Literature Museum in Yamanakako village of Yamanashi prefecture. The purpose of our study is to develop a new reading of Kinkakuji by examining traces which were added and deleted in the manuscript and investigating them in detail. At the beginning of our study of the manuscript of Kinkakuji, in this paper, we examined three motifs: the hero Mizoguchi's friend Kashiwagi, the head priest of Kinkakuji Roushi, and Kinkaku which Mizoguchi is to set fire to at the end of the story. In each case, we analyzed the ways in which Mishima modified the manuscript, and clarified the feature that Mizoguchi consciously and deliberately sets fire to Kinkaku in the story