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31 pages 1 hour read

Kamo no Chōmei

Hōjōki: Visions of a Torn World

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1212

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Symbols & Motifs

The Hut

Chōmei’s titular hut is the centerpiece of the essay. It symbolizes his ascetic lifestyle, as well as the themes of Impermanence and Isolation.

Chōmei describes his hut as “peculiar.” He notes its incredibly small size—"ten feet square and less than seven feet high” (13)—and explains that he purposely built it with hinges, so that he could move locations easily if the mood struck him. This contrasts with his descriptions of the homes built within Kyoto, which were extremely difficult to dismantle and move to Fukuhara. Those homes were intentionally built to last, which was “foolish” in Chōmei’s eyes since they rarely ever did. Chōmei, on the other hand, purposely built his hut with impermanence and asceticism in mind. In doing so, he asserts his enlightened understanding of the world: the fact that change is inevitable and a home should reflect the transience of life.

In Buddhism, the hut also symbolizes the self. Chōmei’s life mirrors that of the monk’s in “Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage,” a poem by Chinese Zen monk Shih-t’ou (700-790). In the poem, a monk lives in a 10-foot square hut and contemplates existence, enjoying his daily naps and simple life. He has achieved freedom and has no need for society. The poem is a metaphor for living within the self. It ends: “If you want to know the undying person in the hut,/ Do not separate from this skin bag here and now” (“Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage,” Daily Zen, 22 Dec 1999). The “skin bag” is the body, and Chōmei notably still struggles with his mortality and attachment to his simple life.

Water

In “Hōjōki,” water symbolizes impermanence and the flow of time. Chōmei opens with this exact concept: He comments that, just as the water in a rushing river is always changing, so too are people and their homes. Although people may settle in one place, the way water sometimes gathers in pools, they are ultimately “unenduring as the foam on the water” (1), and over time, they die, move away, or otherwise lose their houses. To Chōmei, people and their houses are just as transient as water, which speaks to the underlying truth that nothing in the world truly lasts.

Chōmei restates this idea through comparisons to dewdrops on flowers. He criticizes the effort people put into building homes that they will lose, either through death or destruction: “The dew may fall and the flower remain, but only to wither in the morning sun, or the dew may stay on the withered flower, but it will not see another evening” (1-2). In this metaphor, the dew symbolizes a person while the flower symbolizes a home. Though a beautiful home may last after a person dies, it will ultimately fall into disrepair; alternatively, a person may lose their home after a short while. Chōmei stresses that it is impossible to know which will outlast the other, but that inevitably, both will disappear.

Buddhism

The motif of Buddhism is prominent throughout “Hōjōki.” This reflects Chōmei’s background as the son of a priest, as well as the prominence of Buddhism within Japanese culture.

Chōmei makes numerous references to Buddhism in his writing. He explicitly refers to bodhisattvas like Amida, Fugen, and Fudō Myō-ō both in his personal life and as familiar elements of daily life in Japan. Japanese funeral practices have long been based in Buddhism. When Chōmei talks about the monks who marked the foreheads of corpses during the Famine of Yōwa, he explains that this is meant to help the dead reach Amida’s paradise—but he does so because this is a deviation from tradition, not because he expects readers will not understand why monks were present. He mentions reciting Buddhist invocations and reading sutras as part of his daily routine, and he allocates precious space in his tiny hut for his shrine to Amida, which illustrates Chōmei’s lasting devotion to his Buddhist orders.

Chōmei also references specific sutras. When pondering his fondness for his hut, he says, “Is my dwelling but a poor imitation of that of the Saint Vimalakirrti while my merit is not even equal to that of Suddhipanthaka the most stupid of the followers of Buddha?” (20). Vimalakirti features in the Vimalakirti Sutra. Here, Chōmei references a scene where Vimalakirti hosts a large group of visitors in his small room and reveals he's pretended to be sick in order to teach them about the transcendent soul and detachment from one's physical body. This reference supports the theme of Impermanence, as Chōmei worries that, in enjoying life in his small hut, he has grown too attached and failed to uphold his teachings.

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