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徒然草画帖 / 東京国立博物館

Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness)

Along with Makura soshi (Pillow Book), one of the two best classic collections of Japanese miscellaneous essays

Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), written by the monk Kenko (ca. 1283-after 1352), is a collection of miscellaneous essays (zuihitsu) of the late Kamakura period. There are several theories as to when it was completed, but the date is still uncertain. The work is usually divided into 244 passages, some short, some long. These passages, recording his experiences and reflections, cover a diverse range of topics.

 

With an undercurrent of the medieval Buddhist outlook that life is transient, the passages touch on everything from human psychology and the subtleties of human behavior to nature, hobbies, personal refinement, and practical ways to get along in the world—all skillfully woven together in concise fashion. Tsurezuregusa, together with Makura soshi, is considered one of the best classics of the miscellaneous essays genre. The book title comes from the opening of the preface: "Tsurezure naru mama ni" (Having some spare time on my hands).

 

Kenko, the author, had the secular name Urabe Kaneyoshi before becoming a monk. He was a steward for the aristocrat Horikawa Tomomori and later served at the imperial court before becoming a monk at around age 30. He studied waka poetry under Nijo Tameyo and later was counted among the four best waka poets, along with Ton'a, Keiun, and Joben.

 

Tsurezuregusa came down to us as follows. The oldest manuscript copy is that made by the poet Shotetsu in 1431. Other manuscript copies are the To Tsuneyori manuscript and the Hosokawa Yusai manuscript. But only in the Edo period (1603-1867) did the book come to be widely read. In 1613 a revision by Karasuma Mitsuhiro was published using early movable type technology, but the edition that brought the most copies into circulation was one in the early Edo period that published Tsurezuregusa, together with Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise), as early-modern Japanese literature. Today the most popular editions of Tsurezuregusa printed with movable type technology belong to the Karasuma lineage.

Related People, Things and Events

Books

Edo period annotated editions, etc.

Works derived from Tsurezuregusa (“Essays in Idleness”)

Related Works

Past Exhibitions

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Institutions Holding Related Materials

  • The National Diet Library (NDL), founded in 1948, is the library which belongs to the Diet. The NDL assists the activities of the National Diet. The Library collects and conserves materials and information both from Japan and abroad, serving as a foundation of knowledge and culture and providing library services to administrative and judicial entities and Japanese citizens.

  • The National Archives is an organization for preserving, as historical materials, public records and archives of importance transferred from state organs, and providing them for public use, with the aim of achieving appropriate preservation and use of such public records and archives that are kept in the National Archives or state organs as historical materials.

  • As Japan’s representative museum, Tokyo National Museum collects, preserves, displays, and researches the cultural properties of Asia with a focus on Japan, and also provides educational programs.

  • 伊勢神宮に仕えた皇女・斎王とその居所・斎宮をめぐる歴史や文学、そして斎宮跡の発掘調査の成果を展示・映像をとおして紹介する県立の博物館。

  • 兼好法師を祀る草蒿寺跡の「兼好法師遺跡公園」内に所在。住所は、伊賀市種生1131。草蒿寺跡には「兼好法師終焉の地」の石碑が建ち、森の奥には「南朝忠臣兼好法師」と刻まれた顕彰碑と、木々に囲まれた塚がある。

External Links

  • サントリー美術館の所蔵品をWEBで見られるギャラリー。海北友雪筆「徒然草絵巻」が公開されている。

  • 公益財団法人阪本龍門文庫が公開する「 阪本龍門文庫善本電子画像集」の一。天正15年(1587)書写の写本(東常縁本系統の1本)の高精細画像が公開されている。

References

  1. 島内裕子 著,笠間書院
  2. 小学館「徒然草」解題。
  3. 「徒然草」の項目。
  4. 「徒然草」の項。
  5. 「徒然草」の項。