Kamo no Chōmei

Kamo no Chōmei (1153 or 1155 – 1216) was a Japanese author, poet, and essayist. He lived in Kyoto during a time of warfare, civil strife, and natural disasters resulting in disease and famine. Although being sponsored by the emperor as a writer, he left society, took Buddhist vows, and became a hermit, living outside the capital. He wrote about his life as a recluse and his perspective of society in Hōjōki (variously translated as An Account of My Hut or An Account of a Ten-Foot-Square Hut). Along with the poet-priest Saigyō he is representative of the literary recluses of his time, and Hōjōki is representative of the genre known as “recluse literature” (sōan bungaku).

His birth name was Kamo no Nagaakira. He was the second son of Kamo no Nagatsugu, sho-negi or superintendent, of the Lower Kamo (Shimogamo) shrine. The exact year of his birth is unknown, but thought to be either 1153 or 1155. From an early age, he studied poetry and art.

At the time, the Upper and Lower Kamo Shrines owned large amounts of property around the Kamo River in northeast Kyoto, holding great power and prestige among the aristocracy. During Heian times, the Kamo Festival (Aoi Matsuri) was considered the most important Shinto event.

In 1160, his father was promoted to junior fourth rank, lower grade, which ultimately led the seven-year-old Chōmei to being promoted to fifth rank, junior grade; these were high positions within the Kamo Shrine hierarchy. Unfortunately ill health and political maneuvering led his father to retire in 1169. Chōmei’s father died in the early 1170s, when he was in his early teens. Though in line for his father’s position, Chōmei was passed over for his cousin. It affected his whole life, he even wrote about it in Kamo no Chōmei-shū.

Life as a poet and musician

After his father’s death, Chōmei turned to poetry and music. His poetry mentors were Shōmyō (1112-1187), who taught him the finer techniques and styles of court poetry; Kamo no Shigeyasu, the head Shinto priest of the Upper Kamo Shrine, who invited Chōmei to his poetry contests and helped him publish a book of poetry, Kamo no Chōmei-shū (“Collection”) in 1181; and  the poet priest Shun’e. Through his poetry circle, known as Karin’en (Grove of Poetry), an amalgam of people, including Shinto and Buddhist Priests, low- to mid-ranking courtiers, and court women, shared their writings. The tales from these meetings filled a large part of Chōmei’s Mumyōshō.

Music played a significant role throughout Chōmei’s life. His musical mentor was Nakahara Ariyasu and Chōmei, known as Kikudaifu by his audience, was considered very skillful.

In his thirties, Chōmei enjoyed moderate success in poetry contests and inclusion into anthologies, such as the Senzaishū. With inventive phrasing to describe nature, such as “semi no ogawa” to describe the Kamo river, Chōmei caused a bit of controversy. Entering the poem, with this phrase, into the Kamo Shrine’s official poetry contest, he lost because the judge thought he was writing about a river that did not exist. Chōmei insisted, however, that the phrase had been used before and was included in the records of the shrine. Chōmei apparently offended his cousin, the one who had be given the position that Chōmei’s father held. Obviously Chōmei still held a grudge against his cousin and the poem with this phrase was later included in the Shin Kokinshū.

In his mid-forties, Chōmei enjoyed the patronage of the cloistered emperor Go-Toba working at the court. Go-Toba wanted to create an anthology (Shin Kokinshū) to rival the famous poetry anthology Kokinshū, from the early Heian Period. Go-Toba organized the Imperial Poetry Office, with numerous elite courtiers and literati, among whom Chōmei was assigned as a lower level member. As a member of this organization, Chōmei enjoyed benefits that would otherwise not have been given to him, including visits to the Imperial Garden to view the cherry blossoms in bloom. Chōmei worked for the Imperial Poetry Office until he decided to become a recluse in 1204

It is not known exactly why Chōmei’s decided to become a recluse. He left court society, took Buddhist vows, and built a small hut alongside a mountain, living alone. In Hōjōki, Chōmei states that he was able to leave the world behind because he was not attached to society by marriage or offspring.

Life as a recluse

He spent the next five years in Ohara, at the foot of Mount Hiei, but considered his time here as a failure, and so he moved to Hino, in the hills southeast of the capital, where he spent the rest of his life. The design of the hut he built in Hino was inspired by the dwelling of the Buddhist recluse Vimalakirti. The Vimalakirti Sutra exerted a profound influence on Hōjōki. Chōmei wrote Mumyōshō, Hosshinshū, and Hōjōki while living as a recluse.

Chōmei’s most famous work, Hōjōki (An Account of My Hut or An Account of a Ten-Foot-Square Hut), is a story about Chōmei’s life as a recluse and about the tension of the dichotomy of his desire to pursue artistic pursuits and his desire to renounce the world to seek salvation as a Buddhist monk. It is a pessimistic book recounting a time of war, famine, floods, death, and earthquakes. In Hōjōki he wrote about the various natural and social disasters he witnessed firsthand at the capital from 1177 to 1182. He contrasted the chaos in the capital with his peaceful life as a secluded Buddhist monk. Chōmei had a socio-historical perspective that was rare in court poets. His account coincides with the spread of Buddhism to the general populace; and his careful depictions of the natural surroundings of his hut and of the natural and social disasters in the capital form a unique view of life during those days.

Attention to nature and self-reflection characterize the genre known as recluse literature (sōan bungaku), and Chōmei was its pre-eminent author.

Works

Kamo no Chōmei shū

Hōjōki

Mumyōshō

Hosshinshū