Hojoki (An Account of My Hut)
A literary work of the early Kamakura period in which the author, in his small hut, ruminates about the transient nature of the world and his way of living
Hojoki is a one-volume collection of literary jottings of the early Kamakura period written by Kamo no Chomei and completed in 1212.
Not long after the Genpei War (1180-1185) between the Taira and Minamoto clans, Chomei, toward the end of his life, lived as a recluse in a grass hut 3.3 meters square that he built in Hino (present-day Fushimi Ward in Kyoto). He experienced and wrote about the chaos of the late Heian period, including such events as the Angen era great fire, the Jisho era cyclone, the move of the capital to Fukuhara, the Yowa era great famine, and the Genryaku era great earthquake. With the opening of Hojoki—"The flow of the river is ceaseless, and its water is never the same"—Chomei famously gives expression to the transience of things of this world.
While in the first half of the Hojoki he wrote of the five disasters listed above, in the second half he wrote about the unfortunate turn of events in his life, his becoming a priest, and his taking up the life of a recluse in Hino, and he praises the quiet life free from the vexations of the secular world. But toward the end of the work, he pivots and asks himself whether his attachment to his present lifestyle is not in fact a denial of Buddhism and an obstacle to enlightenment.
This is Japan's first superb literary work written in a style of Japanese that mixes literary Japanese with Chinese loanwords. Chomei wrote with an undertone of the Buddhist worldview that everything in the world is transient, and in his graceful style, he made apt use of parallel structure and metaphor. As has been pointed out, the concept behind Hojoki follows that of Yoshishige no Yasutane's Chiteiki (Pavilion on the Pond Memoir). Chomei's work had considerable influence on later medieval literature, such as the Heike monogatari (Tale of the Heike), and along with Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), is an outstanding example of medieval recluse literature. Hojoki, along with Makura soshi (Pillow Book) and Tsurezuregusa, is one of Japan's three great collections of literary jottings and is its first work of disaster literature.
Among manuscripts, that held by Daifukuko Temple in Kyoto is considered to be in Chomei's own hand. It is uncertain whether the Ryakuhon Hojoki (Abbreviated Hojoki), which lacks the section on the five disasters, is Chomei's own work or a forgery by someone who came later.
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所在地は東京都千代田区。出光興産の創業者・出光佐三が蒐集した美術品を展示・公開するために創設。明治から昭和にかけて活躍した画家・小杉放庵の「鴨長明方丈居」「方丈の草庵」を所蔵。
所在地は京都市日野。鴨長明が「方丈記」を著わしたと伝えられている場所。
京都市左京区にある下鴨神社の摂社・河合神社の境内にある方丈庵。鴨長明が暮らした方丈を復元したもの。
External Links
京都大学貴重資料デジタルアーカイブ 「方丈記」。京都大学図書館所蔵。
References
- 稲田利徳, 山崎正和 [著],新潮社
- 小学館
- 集英社