In Praise of Solitude

Early Japanese literature is replete with protagonists who exchange urbane comforts and lofty status for lives of solitude, well removed from the drama and dross of the city. This book presents two classic works of Japanese recluse writing from the 10th and 13th centuries. The first, Chiteiki (982), is the memoir of Yoshishige no Yasutane, a mid-level civil servant, deeply disillusioned by the urban decay of the imperial capital. Intent upon simulating the eremitic life, he builds a walled residence in the city’s south. Inside, he indulges romantic notions about a life apart, lost in the pleasures of literature and religious devotion. The second work, Hōjōki (c. 1213), is Kamo no Chōmei’s personal account of a life-long journey toward increasingly remote modes of living. This masterpiece of Japanese renunciate writing exemplifies a medieval Japanese ethos colored by a pervasive mindfulness about the evanescence of existence. Although both works are unmistakably inspired by a Buddhist worldview from a different place and time, their messages are universal.

These all-new translations of Chiteiki and Hōjōki are accompanied by the primary Japanese source texts, detailed scholarly annotations, and original maps and illustrations.

Translated and annotated by Matthew Stavros

Illustrations by Reginald Jackson