Temple of the Golden Pavilion Chapter 6

I think Mizoguchi believes that the notice, on a sign regarding the illegality of destruction of the Golden Temple, exists because at one time someone thought of doing such destructive things. The sign had to be created as a physical reminder of the consequence of such actions in order to prevent destruction. When Mizoguchi is with Kashiwagi playing the flute, Mizoguchi is exposed to a softer side of Kashiwagi that Mizoguchi did not know existed. It is Mizoguchi's belief that Kashiwagi only finds things to be beautiful if the objects beauty is only temporary, otherwise they are boring. When Kashiwagi says that "there is more to killing than that, you know," I think he is suggesting that in order to really kill someone you have to destroy their mind and spirit, and that it is not all about the physical kill. Kashiwagi believes that beauty is something that can cause pain and wrongdoing. For example, when he refers to "Nansen kills a Kitten," he says that the kittens beauty made men fight because they all wanted to keep the kitten. Kashiwagi seems to be trying to help Mizoguchi by setting him up with the flower lady, but the reason he believes he must do this is unclear. I don't know why the flower lady felt compelled to expose her chest to Mizoguchi. Mizoguchi thinks that now he has seen the real thing up close, it has lost some of its exciting beauty because her breast is only flesh. And when her breast finally appears beautiful to Mizoguchi again his mind wanders back to the image of the Golden temple. Mizoguchi thinks that the Golden Temple is keeping him from a normal life because it is trying to save him from all of the evil things in the world but in reality this sheltered feeling only drives Mizoguchi to do more evil things than most people.