Yûji Yamazaki

A popular poet, Goku, becomes depressed when his editor jokingly suggests that he is a sell-out.

In-depth look at the twilight years, spent training apprentices, of temple builder Nishioka Tsunekazu, who was called the "devil" as he devoted his life to temple architecture. His insistence on the gargantuan timescale of linking life to the next millennium emerges from people who knew him. Remarkable as well for showing the unknown backstage of temple architecture. Nishioka, known as "the last temple carpenter," handled the major Showa-era repairs of Horyuji temple, and in 1990 was at the scene of the reconstruction work for Yakushi temple.

A young man reaches adolescence and escapes the nunnery where he survived a tortured upbringing; the world outside suddenly seems even more frightening than before.