Essays in Idleness [Paperback]

Yoshida Kenko (Author), George Bailey Sansom (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1596050624 | ISBN-13: 978-1596050624 | Publication Date: April 15, 2005

Yoshida Kenko (c. 1283-1352) was a Buddhist priest, a reclusive scholar and poet who had ties to the aristocracy of medieval Japan. Despite his links to the Imperial court, Kenko spent much time in seclusion and mused on Buddhist and Taoist teachings. His Essays in Idleness is a collection of his thoughts on his inner world and the world of Japanese life in the fourteenth century. He touched on topics as diverse as the benefits of the simple life ("There is indeed none but the complete hermit who leads a desirable life"), solitude ("I am happiest when I have nothing to distract me and I am completely alone"), lust ("What a weakly thing is this heart of ours"), the impermanence of this world ("Truly the beauty of life is its uncertainty"), and reading ("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"). To enter Kenko's world is to enter a world of intimate observations, deceptively simple wisdom, and surprising wit.

Editorial Reviews

Review

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

(Asian Student )

If you enjoy things briefly told, if you want to try the prose equivalent of waka and haiku, if you already know Montaigne and would like to meet a spiritual kinsman, then you might want to take an evening and read Essays in Idleness.... [A] superb translation.

(Washington Post )

A sensitive, personal reading.

(Journal of Asian Studies )

The Tsurezuregusa is a key instrument in attempting to teach the classical Japanese tradition to the modern Western student.... This is indeed a welcome volume.

(Monumenta Nipponica ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Japanese --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Cosimo Classics (April 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596050624
• ISBN-13: 978-1596050624
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #428,636 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 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

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Essays in Idleness (Paperback)

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.

21 of 23 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."

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars My error with this purchase, January 18, 2008

By 

P. Nickels (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Essays in Idleness (Paperback)

I originally studied this book in college and loved it, and bought it this time for a friend. My mistake was not checking who translated this edition, as it is quite different from mine. I prefer the translation by Donald Keene, as it is more whimsical and meant for everyone to understand.