M W , 'URASAKI SHIKIBU , 973?-1014?, in writing Genji Monogatari ffi, and Mishima Yukio _ 1925-1970, in writing Kinkakuji i*@,, fashion elaborate narratives around the beautiful and the nature of desire as it relates to beauty. Each sees a disturbance in this relationship. A notion of the 'negative' is a critical mediating factor for both writers regarding this relationship, but differences in theory require of them different conclusions about the possibility of encountering beauty, and the potential of literary effort to that purpose. The present article will argue that Murasaki and Mishima come close to one another in how they narrate desire and describe compelling beauty, even though they differ on the function of a 'negative' within their aesthetics. In both cases, this 'negative' darkens the vision of beauty; both authors explore beauty's insubstantiality as well as links with anguish and death. But Murasaki's 'negative' is essentially Buddhist. In Genji Monogatari, she describes the destructiveness of Hikaru Genji YiuR (and others) in the pursuit of his objects of desire; that is, she set desire under the Buddhist rubric of that which is the source of suffering. This belief, together with a deep sense for the fleeting nature of beauty, contributes significantly to her sophisticated version of mono no aware. In her writings, the Buddhist teaching of the radical emptiness of material existence consistently threatens to subvert the magnificence of the heart yearning for the material finery of the world in which her narratives are set. Hikaru Genji is magnificent, but he ages and his light inevitably vanishes altogether. Mishima, on the other hand, constructs a world in Kinkakuji where violence is a compelling, if not root, component of desire and one's relationship to