The Other as the Self

—On Tsurukawa and Kashiwagi as Self-Projections of Mizoguchi in The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

In The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, the characters of Tsurukawa and Kashiwagi hold special significance for the protagonist Mizoguchi, serving as illustrations of Freud’s tripartite structure (id, ego, superego) and the mechanism of projection: the former represents Mizoguchi’s superego projection of goodness, equality, and moral ideals, while the latter embodies his id projection of evil and instinctual desires. Neither is an independent other; rather, both are mirrors of Mizoguchi’s split personality. From relying on the superego to perform goodness, to actively allying with the id and accepting instinctual desires, and finally to the collapse of the superego with Tsurukawa’s death, Mizoguchi’s spiritual trajectory reveals the individual’s spiritual dilemma torn between morality and desire, demonstrating the profound depth of psychoanalytic expression in Japanese literature.