Events

Time and Location

September 11-20
Japan Society (New York, NY)

About

Japan Society is proud to premiere its commission, KINKAKUJI, a new work of theater from New York-based American director, writer, and actor Leon Ingulsrud, together with rising young Korean-American actor Major Curda, and Berlin-based, internationally acclaimed visual artist Chiharu Shiota. 

KINKAKUJI realizes Yukio Mishima’s feverish 1956 literary masterpiece as a chilling stage spectacle.  Based on a horrific true event in postwar Kyoto, Mishima’s novel recounts the deliberate act of arson against the gold-leaf clad 14th century Kinkakuji temple by an alienated young Buddhist monk. The story explores the mind of its protagonist, Mizoguchi, a faltering outcast studying to become a Zen Buddhist monk who develops an obsessive fascination with the sacred temple’s aesthetic perfection. Led down a path of increasingly destructive behaviors as he struggles to reconcile his artistic aspirations with past trauma and personal demons, the monk’s obsession evolves into a violent desire to possess beauty by destroying it. 

Under Leon Ingulsrud’s direction, Major Curda depicts the monk’s psychological unraveling as a staged monodrama, shifting between frenzied narration of disembodied episodes, cold self-analysis and euphoric revelation in the shadow of Shiota’s haunting, suspended scenic design.  At the height of his distress, tormented by Kinkakuji’s imposing beauty, his own perceived ugliness and the escalating cruelty of his reality, the monk, portrayed by Curda, burns the ancient temple to the ground.

Significantly, KINKAKUJI brings Chiharu Shiota’s internationally lauded stage design to a U.S. venue for the first time. Her starkly beautiful environments create a profound sense of wonder, where familiar objects become evocative in unexpected ways and the delicate appears titanic. In KINKAKUJI, Shiota’s signature red, black and white yarn structure creates an unprecedented level of otherworldly, three-dimensional immersion within a shimmering Mishima dreamscape.

For more info, please visit: Yukio Mishima’s KINKAKUJI — Japan Society
For tickets: Yukio Mishima KINKAKUJI — Japan Society

This event is supported through the JFNY Grant for Arts and Culture.