Essays in Idleness: And Hojoki by Kenko & Chomei

Author:Kenko & Chomei
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literary Collections, Essays, Asian, Japanese, Medieval
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 2013-12-05T05:26:53+00:00

which the accompanying preface states was written of the withered festival aoi leaves left in the reed blinds surrounding the inner chamber. Another preface from an old poem goes, ‘Sent between faded aoi leaves’. And in The Pillow Book Sei Shōnagon writes: ‘Things that make you feel nostalgic – a dried sprig of aoi’,257 which is a wonderfully tender image. In his Tales of the Four Seasons258 Kamo no Chōmei writes: ‘the remnant aoi hangs there yet upon the blind’. Sad enough that it should fade, surely – how could one throw it out without a thought?

The herbal balls hung on the curtained dais in the fifth month stay there until replaced by the ninth-day, ninth-month chrysanthemums,259 so the iris plants hung with them ought to remain until chrysanthemum time. Ben no Menoto, on seeing the faded iris and herbal balls in the old inner chamber after the Biwa Dowager Empress had died, wrote of ‘weeping to leave hanging / these roots out of their time’, to which Gō Jijū wrote in response, ‘though yet the irises remain’.260

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