The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is Yukio Mishima's novel based on the real burning of Kinkakuji, shaped as the confession of Mizoguchi, a young acolyte burdened by stuttering and self-loathing. It traces the inner logic by which a young man who sees the temple as absolute beauty comes to believe that he must destroy it.

A major Mishima novel in which longing for and hatred of the beauty of Kinkakuji lead a young man toward ruin.

San no Tori is a novel in which Mantaro Kubota brings a dramatist's sensibility to the life and moods of Tokyo's old downtown. It evokes a changing city, the joys and sorrows of people connected to performance, and the loneliness beneath everyday life with a deeply atmospheric style.

Within the air and human warmth of old downtown Tokyo, the loneliness of a changing age comes through.