Writing and Renunciation in Medieval Japan Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies Number 21 Center for Japanese Studies The University of Michigan Writing and Renunciation in Medieval Japan The Works of the Poet-Priest Kamo no Chomei Rajyashree Pandey Center for Japanese Studies The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, 1998 Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/ Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. 1998 The Regents of the University of Michigan Published by the Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 202 S. Thayer St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608 Distributed by The University of Michigan Press, 839 Greene St. / P.O. Box 1104, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1104 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Pandey, Rajyashree, 1953- Writing and renunciation in medieval Japan : the works of the poet- priest Kamo no Chomei / Rajyashree Pandey. 199 p. 23 cm. — (Michigan monograph series in Japanese studies : 21) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-939512-86-6 (alk. paper) 1. Kamo, Chomei, 11537-1216?—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. II. Series. PL791.2.Z5P36 1998 895.6'422—dc21 98-12208 CIP Jacket illustration: Bunsei, Landscape (detail), Japanese, mid-15th century, Muromachi period. Hanging scroll, ink and light colors on paper (05.203). Chi- nese and Japanese Special Fund. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Jacket design: Seiko Semones This publication meets the ANSI/NISO Standards for Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives (Z39.48-1992). Published in the United States of America ISBN 978-0-939512-86-7 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-472-03828-2 (paper) ISBN 978-0-472-12793-1 (ebook) ISBN 978-0-472-90189-0 (open access) The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ To the memoiy of Ai Contents Preface ix Introduction 1 Chapter One 9 "Wild Words and Fancy Phrases": Debates on the Role of Literature in the Heian and Kamakura Periods Chapter Two 56 Kamo no Chomei: Court Poet and Buddhist Priest Chapter Three 82 The Way of Poetry: Mumyosho Chapter Four 112 Suki and the Attainment of Religious Awakening: Hosshinshu Chapter Five 139 The Sukirnono as Recluse: Hojoki Appendix One 173 The Kamo no Chomei Incident (An Excerpt from Minomoto lenaga nikki) Appendix Two 177 Selected Translations from Hosshinshu Bibliography 184 Index 193 Preface My first encounter with classical Japanese literature came through a chance reading of Arthur Waley's translation of Geryi monogatari. A student of English and French literature in India, I had hitherto had little contact with other Asian cultures—my formal education bore all the marks of its colonial origins. Waley's Genji offered me a first and beguiling glimpse of a world that shared something of the Indian religious sensibility but expressed itself in an aesthetic mode quite alien to that found in Indian literary writing. It was with a desire to pursue this newfound "Japan," from the perspective of an Indian steeped in the Western tradition, that I embarked upon my study of Japanese language and literature. Friedhelm Hardy offered enthusi- astic support in the early days of this new venture. My interest in classical Japanese literature was sustained and encouraged by a number of fine teachers. Dr. James McMullen at Oxford University inspired me with his academic rigor and his knowledge of classical Japanese literature. Subsequently, Professors Robert Morrell and Thomas Rimer, then at Washington University in St. Louis, guided me through a study of a variety of classical Japa- nese texts. Working with them paved the way for my engagement with popular medieval narratives, particularly those inflected with strong Buddhist overtones. The idea for this book first germinated when I completed my doctoral dissertation on the works of Kamo no Chomei at the Australian National University in 1989. My decision to focus on Kamo no Chomei was guided by the fact that, although he was a major literary and intellectual figure of the medieval period, he had received surprisingly little systematic attention outside of Japan. I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my dissertation advisor and friend, x Preface Dr. Tom Harper, who simultaneously advised, listened, and offered help, while at the same time encouraged me to find my own path. He pointed me to a wide range of medieval literaiy texts that had been little explored outside of Japan. In the course of this research, I was struck by the persis- tence with which the question of the value and legitimacy of writing was debated in medieval Japanese writing, and by the way in which the question of writing came to be formulated and addressed from within a Buddhist epistemic framework. I found that Kamo no Chomef s works acquired greater significance and richness once they were read in conjunction with other medieval texts, many of which were bound by a common thread: the imperative to work out the relationship between writing, a profoundly worldly activity, and re- nunciation, which was central to the attainment of Buddhist enlightenment. During a number of research trips to Japan, I had the good fortune to work with Professor Yamada Shozen at Taisho University and Professors Mizuhara Hajime and Yasuaki Nara at Komazawa University. I cannot thank them enough for the generosity with which they gave of their time and their knowledge. Dr. Michael Cooper pro- vided much encouragement and support during my stays in Tokyo. I also owe a deep debt of gratitude to Mrs. Sonoe Matsui and her fam- ily, who adopted me into their home and looked after me as one of their own. There are many friends who have contributed to the making of this book: my thanks to Dipesh Chakrabarty, Frieda Freiberg, Leela Gandhi, Aruna Hardy, Iso Mizue, Pauline Nestor, Bee Chin Ng, and Vanita Seth. I would also like to thank Professor Andrew Gerstle for his many useful comments. I am grateful to Dr. Sandra Wilson for her meticulous reading of the manuscript and her many sugges- tions. My thanks also to an extremely rigorous anonymous referee, whose many suggestions and criticisms I have tried to incorporate. Needless to say, all shortcomings of the work are my responsibility. I cannot thank Sanjay Seth enough for his companionship and his unstinting generosity in reading successive drafts of the book and refusing to be easily persuaded by its arguments. The good hu- mor and cheerfulness of my son Nishad did much to alleviate the depression of bad writing days. Finally, I would like to thank the following institutions for their support: the Japan Foundation for a dissertation fellowship, the Australian National University for a dissertation scholarship, and La Trobe University for a semester's sabbatical leave to complete the Preface xi manuscript. Chapter three draws upon material previously published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society under the title, "Love, Po- etry and Renunciation: Changing Configurations of the Ideal of Suki." I am grateful to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for permis- sion to use this material. Introduction In Japan there was no written literary tradition predating the ad- vent of Buddhism, and the introduction of a written script from China went hand in hand with the encounter with Buddhist ca- nonical writing. The earliest attempts to grapple with the written word took the form of reading Buddhist sutras written in Chinese. Thus, from the beginning, the aesthetic tradition that emerged was already being shaped by Buddhist ideals and practices. The emergence of this religio-aesthetic tradition, in which aesthetics could not be defined outside of Buddhism, did not take place, however, in an unproblematic and unselfconscious manner. A potential conflict manifested itself when Japanese writers sought to consider what the implications of the act of writing, seen as a funda- mentally worldly pursuit, were for the goals of detachment and re- nunciation central to the experience of Buddhist enlightenment. Doubts about the value of "worldly" writings, as well as the possibility of the resolution of these doubts, had already been de- bated by litterateurs in China. Their writings played no small part in the Japanese understanding of the possibilities and limitations of literary endeavor within a predominantly Buddhist context. Thus the history of literary writing in medieval Japan is punctuated by a series of explorations of this tension between writing, which was seen as a form of attachment, and the goal of renunciation. The engagement with this problem, and the conscious attempt to over- come it, generated an aesthetic that could not be understood out- side the realm of the religious. However, the reconciliation was never a given and was achieved only through considerable debate regarding the relationship between the two and through theoriz- ing about both their separation and their indivisibility. 2 Introduction In this work I seek to explore one such moment of engage- ment with the question of the nature, role, and validity of artistic pursuits, posed in relation to an ideal Buddhist vision, through a study of one of the most important literary figures of medieval Japan, Kamo no Chomei (1155-1216). There has thus far not been a monograph-length study of Kamo no Chomei in any Western language; this despite the fact that one of his works, Hojoki (An Account of My Hut), forms part of the Japanese literary canon and is essential reading for all Japanese high school students even today. Thomas Hare's lengthy article on the works of Kamo no Chomei in the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies is an important contribution to an otherwise neglected area of research.1 Chomei has left behind a wide range of writings: his per- sonal collection of poetry, Kamo no Chomei shu; a treatise on po- etry called Mumyosho (Nameless Notes); a collection of exemplary Buddhist tales, Hosshinshu (Collection of Tales of Religious Awak- ening); and a "personal" account of his life as a recluse, Hojoki.