Temple of Dawn

Mishima’s literary powers are on full display in his penultimate novel, a meditation on reincarnation and Buddhist philosophy.

Honda, a brilliant lawyer and man of reason, is called to Bangkok on legal business. He is granted an audience with a young Thai princess known as ''Moonlight'', an encounter that radically alters the course of his life. Convinced she is a reincarnated spirit, he undertakes a long, arduous pilgrimage to the holy places of India. There he encounters her again. But the princess has become one more embodiment of all that Honda cannot possess.

''An elegy to the loss of pureness in the Japanese national spirit'' Japan Times