Essays in Idleness and Hōjōki

This book is a collection of two literary classics of 12th and 13th century Japan; the Essays in Idleness written by Yoshida Kenkō (1283-1350 CE) and Hōjōki by Kamo no Chōmei (1153?-1216 CE).

Hōjōki is a contemplation by Chōmei on his life as a hermit, the impermanence of human existence, and the transient nature of things through the record of events such as natural disasters that struck the capital of the time, Kyoto, and its citizens.

Essays in Idleness is a collection of anecdotes, philosophical ruminations, humorous stories, observations from everyday life and advices by Yoshida Kenkō. “What strange folly, to beguile the tedious hours like this all day before my ink stone, jotting down at random the idle thoughts that cross my mind…” – Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness; 1330-1332

“Kamo no Chōmei was born into a family of Shinto priests in around 1155, at at time when the stable world of the court was rapidly breaking up. He became an important though minor poet of his day, and at the age of fifty, withdrew from the world to become a tonsured monk. He died in around 1216.

Yoshida Kenkō was born around 1283 in Kyoto. He probably became a monk in his late twenties, and was also noted as a calligrapher. Today he is remembered for his wise and witty aphorisms, ‘Essays in Idleness’.”

(Meredith McKinney, Penguin Classics; 2013)

Size: L19.8 cm x W13 cm x H1.3 cm