Hojoki: Visions of a Torn World (Rock Spring Collection of Japanese Literature). This item is unavailable.Hojoki: Visions of a Torn World (Rock Spring Collection of Japanese Literature)

A luminous translation of the classic Buddhist poem

Japan's capital city of Kyoto was devastated by earthquake, storm, and fire in the late 12th century. Retreating from "this unkind world," the poet and Buddhist priest Kamo-no-Chomei left the capital for the forested mountains, where he eventually constructed his famous "ten-foot-square" hut.

From this solitary vantage point Chomei produced Hojoki, an extraordinary literary work that describes all he has seen of human misery and his new life of simple chores, walks, and acts of kindness. Yet at the end he questions his own sanity and the integrity of his purpose. Has he perhaps grown too attached to his detachment?

Written by a recluse Buddhist priest, Kamo-no-Chomei, in the early 13th century, this work is a social chronical prompted by a series of calamities, personally observed by the author, that overtook the old capital of Kyoto. By secluding himself in the forested mountains to the east, Chomei sought escape. By eliminating desire he believed he would be spared the suffering and loss that had befallen the townspeople through starvation, fire, earthquake and typhoon. His literary witness can be read as a scathing commentary on the human condition, but at the end we find Chomei consumed with self-doubt, questioning his own sanity and the integrity of his purpose.