Essays in Idleness (Paperback)

by Professor Donald Keene (Translator) "It is not enough, it would seem, to have been born into this world for a man to desire many things..." (more)
Key Phrases: major counselor, middle counselor, cloistered emperor, Mount Hiei, Heike Monogatari, Emperor Go-Toba (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
A most delightful book, and one that has served as a model of Japanese style and taste since the 17th century. These cameo-like vignettes reflect the importance of the little, fleeting futile things, and each essay is Kenko himself. -- The Asian Student

Product Description
The Buddhist priest Kenko clung to tradition, Buddhism, and the pleasures of solitude, and the themes he treats in his Essays, written sometime between 1330 and 1332, are all suffused with an unspoken acceptance of Buddhist beliefs.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 235 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (April 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231112556
• ISBN-13: 978-0231112550
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #125,529 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kenko's Time-capsule: A Cultural Survey, April 8, 1999

By	negu (Athens, GA USA) - See all my reviews

Anyone interested in or studying Japanese history/literature/culture should read this book. It contains a series of short essays (zuihitsu) and reads much like Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book. These essays range from Kenko's moral opinions about various aspects of life to his aesthetic tastes and thoughts about beauty. These essays are Kenko's opinion, yet they can be taken as the opinions of Japan's society at the time of the writing. Therefore there is a great deal of interesting cultural information and meaning behind Kenko's words. So if you are interested in Japanese Buddhism or religion, this book's a must.

If you are interested in Japanese aesthetics- aware: the idea that beauty is transient/fleeting, wabi-sabi: by becoming aged and through use, an object's history and experience bestow upon it greater value than an object that is new, the idea that uncertainty/non-uniformity/ and incompletion can inspire imagination- by all means read this.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A delicious little book, March 7, 2001

By	Catherine McDonnell (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Essays in Idleness (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature) (Paperback)

The Wordsworth Classics here presents a nice translation by G.B. Sansom of a classic, the Tsurezuregusa of Yoshida Kenko, written around 1330 by a Japanese monk. The format of the work is reminiscent of the Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon - short observations, bits of memoir, commentary on the manners and morals of people around him.

There's a minimum of footnoting and the translator's style is smooth and readable. It's a dipping book which will appeal to modern Buddhists and pensive readers alike. As Kenko himself says:

"To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations - such is a pleasure beyond compare."

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quiet and quirky, November 12, 2003

By	wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Much of this little book works as well today as seven hundred years ago, when it was written. The observations on people and their manners sound a little old-fashioned, but still applicable.

At another level, this book is credited with the first clear statements of esthetic principles that guide modern Japanese design. The translator's footnotes show how it draws on works from Confucius, Lao Tzu, and other Chinese classics in building a uniquely Japanese text. I believe the translator missed an allusion to Chuang Tzu in essay number 42, but that does not detract from the generally high quality of scholarship in this presentation. This is a remarkable, first-person statement of the sources of Japanese culture.

Finally, these essays are uniquely products of their place and time. Kenko's view, as a monk, of the secular world affects nearly every essay.

Shonagon's 'Pillow Book' introduced me to traditional Japanese literature. This book, with all its similarities and differences, is a wonderful way to continue that friendship.