Read this when
Hōjōki (An Account of My Hut)
Fire, tornado, famine, earthquake, then a 10x10 hut in the mountains. The original 'I'm moving to a cabin' post, from 1212. 🛖
Who it's for
In a few pages Chōmei moves from eyewitness accounts of fire, whirlwind, famine and earthquake to the quiet of a ten-foot-square hut, so a reader shaken by instability can follow a path from chaos to calm.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Hōjōki is a short reflective prose work (zuihitsu) written in 1212 by the Japanese poet and recluse Kamo no Chōmei, and is regarded as Buddhist literature. It opens with an image of a river whose water is never the same to introduce the impermanence of people and their dwellings.
Where to find it
Several translations circulate freely online. Meredith McKinney's Penguin Classics edition ('Essays in Idleness and Hōjōki') and Yasuhiko Moriguchi and David Jenkins's 'Hojoki: Visions of a Torn World.
Before you start
Heads up: Disaster deaths and famine corpses.
Age: Ages 12+
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Pain”
