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Summary
The Hojoki is a Japanese essay written in the Kamakura period (1185-1333) by the Zen priest Kamo Chōmei. The work depicts the life of a human being living in harmony with nature and contains the teachings and Buddhist ideas of the Zen sect.
The Hojoki is a philosophical work that delves deeply into fundamental human issues such as nature, human relationships, life and death, and time. It is also known as one of the most highly regarded literary works of the past and present because of its beautiful expression and thoughtfulness, and as a work that has greatly influenced Japanese culture and aesthetics.
Here, we will discuss the Hojoki based on NHK’s 100 Minutes de Meisaku “Hojoki” (100 Minutes of Great Writings).
What is the Houjouki?
The Hojoki is a classic that many people are familiar with, often appearing in Japanese language textbooks. It begins as follows
The flowing river is not the water it was before. The songtaka floating in the stagnant waters, they disappear and are tied together, never to remain for a long time. So it is with all people and places of residence.
The river flows on and on, but its waters are not the waters they were. The bubbles on the surface of stagnant water disappear and then arise, never remaining in their original form for long. The same is true of human beings and their homes.
The same is true of human beings and their dwellings. The beginning of the book is very impressive, but there are many people who remember only this part and do not remember reading the rest of the book or do not know what is written in it. The greatest misfortune of the Hojoki is that its famous beginning makes people think they have read it, but they have not read the rest of the book. The beginning of the book says, “The flowing river is not the same as the water it flows through. As the first sentence says, everything in this world is in transition.
The Hojoki is often thought of as a “literature of impermanence” because of this beginning, but if you continue reading, you will find that it is not a philosophical view of impermanence, but rather a description of the “wonders of the world,” or five disasters that struck the Heian-kyo capital, vividly and vividly described, as if they were a potage, to explain how the world is in the transient state it is in. The five plagues that befell Heian-kyo are vividly and vividly portrayed.
The Hojoki is not an ordinary essay. It is often referred to as one of the “Three Great Essays,” along with Sei Shonagon’s “The Pillow Book” and Kenko Hoshi’s “Tsurezuregusa,” but essays are written as the brush strikes it and the mind wanders off on its own, and each chapter in both “The Pillow Book” and “Tsurezuregusa” is very short and the entire book is like a scrapbook. The “Hojoki” is basically a complete story on a single theme, and since it contains only one story, it is not very voluminous, and if converted to manuscript paper with 400 characters, it would only take up about 20 pages. The theme of the “Hojoki” is “the way of the gods.
The theme of the “Hojoki” is “self,” and it is a “personal history” in which he writes about himself in the form of an exhaustive, one-person narrative, including his own experiences, his own way of living, his own view of life, his own ideas, his own feelings, and so on. This is what makes them so different from the “Pillow Book” and “Tsurezuregusa.
They are also Kamo Chomei’s “tweets” or “blurbs,” which in today’s terms would be like the words of a Twitter account. Such personal writings will not return to posterity unless they are very famous. They will not be commercialized and sold by publishers, nor will they be advertised, as is the case today. We can only hope that people who want to read them will appear and copy them so that they will be passed on to the world. In the case of Machina, in particular, there was no new garden backup, and the work was not written at the request of an influential person, so it is a very outstanding work that survived only by “word of mouth.
Chomei had high aspirations for literature from his youth, composed many poems and compiled a collection of poems. Although Chomei was a prominent figure in the underground circle of artists from his youth, it was only in his old age that he came into the limelight of the central poetry circles, and after that he once again fell into a life of decline. It is also possible to say that his life at the bottom became the lifestyle described in Houjouki, and that his artistic sensibilities were refined and perfected.
In addition, it was a time when the world was in its final days, a time of impermanence, which made it easy for readers to accept the work. The years 1212 and 1212-3, when the Hojoki was written, were Kamo no Chomei’s greatest opportunity to “write now or never. The fact that he did not miss such an opportunity is thought to have been due in part to his keen instincts as an artist. The Hojoki was born at the most opportune time, with the best motivation and literary mastery of the writer.
Interestingly, the Hojoki is being read by people today with unprecedented familiarity. Chomei’s words can be seen as a kind of Twitter, perfectly suited to the current era. The year 2012 marks the 800th anniversary of the writing of the Hojoki, and many people are taking this opportunity to follow Chomei’s words. This year is the 800th anniversary of the writing of the Hojoki, and this may be an opportunity for many people to follow Chomei and change their values.
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