KAMO NO CHOMEI鴨の長明（1155-1216）

ZUIHITSU随筆

ACCOUNT OF THE FIVE GREAT DISASTERS (五大災厄)THAT BEFELL THE CITY OF

HEIAN KYO

AT THE END OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY:

THE GREAT FIRE OF 1177 (大火)、

THE WHIRLWIND OF 1180 (辻風)、

THE MOVING OF THE CAPITAL TO FUKUHARA (福原遷都) IN 1180、

THE GREAT FAMINE (大飢饉)OF 1181-82, AND

THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE
(大地震)OF 1185.

ACCOUNT OF THE TEN FOOT SQUARE HUT AT MT. HINO, NEAR KYOTO.

SAMPLE SECTIONS GIVEN BELOW ARE REFERENCED TO THE KEENE ANTHOLOGY OF JAPANESE LITERATURE MENTIONED ON OTHER PAGES. AN ALMOST COMPLETE TRANSLATION OF THIS SHORT WORK IS GIVEN THERE. A MORE MODERN TRANSLATION, ALSO COMPLETE, MAY BE FOUND IN:

MORIGUCHI, YASUHIKO AND JENKINS, DAVID TRS. HOJOKI: VISIONS OF A TORN WORLD (STONE BRIDGE PRESS, 1996)

MAIN POINTS:

LATE HEIAN SENSE OF THE END OF THE WORLD

MAPPO (THE LATTER DAYS OF THE BUDDHIST LAW)末法思想

AESTHETIC OF MUJO (無常感)

THEME:

PAIN OF LOSS OF MATERIAL LIFE AND WELFARE

LITERARINESS:

FIRST OF MANY MEDIEVAL ACCOUNTS OF WITHDRAWAL FROM
THE WORLD - LIVING IN RECLUSIVE RETIREMENT (隠遁生活)

SAMPLE SECTIONS:

"The flow of the river is ceaseless and its water is
never the same...."
行く川の流れ絶えずしてもとの水にあらず。(Keene 197-98)

"When I first began to live here I though it would be
for just a little while,
but five years have already passed." (Keene 209-210)