The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 3: Medieval Japan

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THE TRIBUTE SYSTEM AND JAPAN 439

records were sent to Japan. A set of the hon tally records was also

placed in the Chekiang provincial governor's office (which handled

popular and financial affairs).

When a ship went from Japan to China, it sailed with the proper hon

tally, which was then checked against the record book at the Board of

Rites in Chekiang and Peking. When the checking was completed, the

tally was collected. The converse, Ming ships going to Japan bearing

nichi tallies, did not in fact occur. None of these tallies exists today, but

according to a sketch in the Boshi nyumin-ki, the "hon character num-

ber i" was stamped in red ink on the tally sheet. On the reverse side

were various pieces of information, such as the number of tribute

items presented, the auxiliary gifts for the envoy and members of his

party, and the cargo, number of ships, and sailors of the "official

merchants" (those merchants recorded on the tally). These writings on

the reverse side were called

p'i-wen

or pieh-fu.

Over the century and a half from Ashikaga Yoshimitsu to 1547,

nineteen missions were sent to the Ming.

I03

The fourth Ashikaga sho-

gun, Yoshimochi, severed relations with Ming China, and in the latter

half of the Yung Lo emperor's reign, the wako incursions became

severe. The sixth shogun, Ashikaga Yoshinori, restored the tribute

relationship with the Ming. The Muromachi bakufu monopolized

trade until the eighth mission in 1401, but starting with the ninth

mission to Ming in 1433, temples, shrines, and daimyo joined in. The

eleventh mission during the tenure of the eighth shogun, Yoshimasa,

was the largest in the course of Japan-Ming relations. On this occa-

sion, the Ming concluded the Hsuan Teh treaty, which stipulated that

from then on there could be one mission every ten years, each consist-

ing of three ships and three hundred people.

A conflict regarding the Ming trade developed between the

Hosokawa and Ouchi houses, based respectively in Sakai and Hakata.

This confrontation became severe during the sixteenth and seven-

teenth missions to the Ming in 1511 and 1523, and on the latter

103 Here I follow Tanaka, Chusei laigai

kankeishi,

pp. 159-60. There are many other studies of

Japan-Ming relations after Yoshimitsu's time. See Kayahara Shozo, "Nichimin kango boeki

ni okeru Hosokawa Ouchi nishi no k6so," Shigaku zasshi 25 and 26 (September-October

1914,

February-March 1915); Akiyama Kenzo, Nisshi

kosho

shiwa (Tokyo: Naigai shoseki

kabushiki kaisha, 1935); Fujita Motoharu, Nisshi kdlsu no kenkyu,

chu-kinsei

hen (Tokyo:

Fuzambo, 1938); Akiyama Kenzo, Nisshi

koshoshi

kenkyu (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1939);

Makita Tairyo, Sakugen nyuminki no kenkyu (Kyoto: Hozokan, 1959); Sakuma Shigeo,

"Mindai chuki no taigai seisaku to Nitchu kankei," Hokkaido

daigaku

jimbun kagaku ron-

shu,

no. 8 (1971); Kobata Atsushi, Kingin boekishi no kenkyu (Tokyo: Hosei daigaku

shuppankyoku, 1976). See also the short but useful guide by Sakai Tadao, "Mindai bunka

no Nihon bunka ni ataeta eikyo," Rekishi kyoiku 11 (October 1963).

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440 JAPAN AND EAST ASIA

occasion the struggle reached a peak, resulting in the Ningpo distur-

bance. The eighteenth and nineteenth missions in 1540 and 1549 came

during a period when the Ouchi monopolized the trade, and with their

defeat, trade with the Ming was abolished. Thus, the dispatch of ships

to Ming China is a wonderful barometer of the rise and fall of the

Muromachi bakufu's power.

CHANGES IN THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF

EAST ASIA

The Kyushu tandai after the dismissal of Imakawa Ryoshun was

Shibukawa Mitsuyori (priestly name Dochi), but the real focus of

relations with Choson was Ouchi Yoshihiro, known as the "head of the

six countries of Japan." Yoshihiro attempted in the name of the sho-

gun or bakufu to subdue the wako and to acquire such items as the

Buddhist Tripitaka. As "King of Japan," Ashikaga Yoshimitsu carried

on relations separately from the Ouchi,

104

and we know about the

shogun's relations with Choson until the mission dispatched by

Ashikaga Yoshiaki in the mid-sixteenth century. From the Korean

point of view, Japan participated in the Ming-centered East Asian

relationship as an equal with Choson, but Japan's warrior government

viewed itself as superior to the Korean government. Moreover, deal-

ings between Japan and Korea were not conducted solely between the

two central authorities, as in the Japan-Ming situation. Instead, a

number of local lords in western Japan, as well as the Muromachi

bakufu, had connections with the Yi government, the sole interest on

the Korean side. The bakufu was only one of the traders and did not

direct the entire trade. Jepanese-Korean relations were not like the

one-dimensional Japan-Ming relationship predicated on Japan's sub-

ordinate position. Furthermore, the Ming dynasty would not recog-

nize any relation with vassals of the king of

Japan.

On the other hand,

Japan and Choson were on an equal footing within the tribute system.

The Yi dynasty understood Japan's political situation. It did not re-

gard the shogun's power

the only force able to control the

wako,

and

it knew that the bakufu was limited by the differences in the produc-

tive capacity of the different areas (especially the west) and ciasses.

The Yi government initiated a variety of policies to bring the wako,

under control and achieved great success during the reigns of T'aejo,

104 For accounts of relations with Japan in the Yijo sillok, see Nihon shiryd shusei hensankai,

ed., Chugoku-Chosen no shiseki ni okeru Nihon

shiryd

shusei, Richojitsuroku no bu, vols. 1-5

(Tokyo: Kokusho kankokai, 1976-81).

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CHANGES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 44I

T'aejong, and Sejong. One was a conciliatory policy toward the wako

wherein the Yi government granted official posts, rice lands, and other

property to those who surrendered. However, as a result, the number

of defectors became so large that the Yi had to limited trading areas to

the ports of Pusan-p'o and Naei-p'o. In 1426, the system was relaxed

to include Yon-p'o as well. The Japanese who lived in these three ports

were referred to as "permanently resident Japanese" (hangko waein).

There were others living in Japan who received appointments from the

Yi government and came once a year to trade in Korea; these people

were called "appointment-receiving Japanese" (jusik waein). In 1407

trading vessels (called

hungnison

or "profit-raising ships") from various

Japanese daimyo were made to bear passports (gyqjo or fumihiki) as

proof of their origin. The Yi government also established rules for

people on the vessels.

105

The issuance of these documents became the

exclusive monopoly of the So family of Tsushima. This was the initial

step allowing the So to occupy a special position in Japan-Korea trade

until the middle of the nineteenth century and was one of the primary

causes leading to their complete control of Tsushima.

The Yi dynasty also undertook military action, in the form of an

attack on Tsushima in 1419, to annihilate the wako. In Japan this

attack is known as the Oei invasion.

106

However, after the primary

agent behind the attack, King T'aejong, died, his successor King

Sejong moved Japanese-Korean relations toward normalization, and

for about a century the two countries remained comparatively peaceful

trading partners.

107

However, all the various classes in Japan wished to

expand their trading with Korea unilaterally. The Yi dynasty contin-

ued to be mindful of checking further occurrences of wako raids and

tightened control by consecutively adding restrictive regulations. This

trade policy emerged in the first years of Sejong's reign and was virtu-

ally complete by Songjong's rule. A senior Yi official in charge of

foreign affairs, Shin Suk-ji, wrote the Haedong Chegukki (A record of

countries to the east), which brought together all the existing rules and

105 For the Yi dynasty's limitation regulations, see Nakamura, Nissen kankeishi no kenkyu, vol.

106 See the following works on the Oei-period pirates: Miura, Nihonshi no ketikyii, vol. 2, pp.

1086-1121;

Takagi Shintaro, Oei gaiko

no zengo

(Tokyo: Yagi shoten, 1942); and Nakamura,

Nissen kankeishi no kenkyu, vol. 1. pp. 227-310.

107 Among the works on Japanese and Korean trade are Nakamura, Nissen kankeishi no kenkyu;

Tanaka, Chusei taigai kankeishi; and Tamura, Chiisei Nitcho boeki no kenkyu. Tamura

Hiroyuki has also compiled three useful works of source materials on Japan's relations with

the Koryo and Yi dynasties: Nichirai kankei

hennen shiryo

(Kyoto: Mine shobo, 1967); Taiso-

Teiso-Taiso

jitsuroku Nitcho kankei hennen shiryo (Kyoto: Sanwa shobo, n.d.); and Seso

jilsuroku Nitcho keizai shiryo (Tokyo: Koseikaku, n.d.).

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442 JAPAN AND EAST ASIA

agreements concerning association and trade.

108

It includes data on

internal conditions in Japan and the Ryukyu Islands as well as histo-

ries of these nation's relations with Korea.

Choson adopted a policy combining favorable treatment of Japanese

travelers with restrictive legislation. The main restrictions consisted of

control by granting official tally seals, edicts, passports, limitations on

the number of ships per year, and a system of communication seals.

109

The first bronze seals to be used bore the name of the recipient and

were known in Japan as tally seals

(kangoin).

This system was initiated

at Japan's request and is first recorded in documents in 1418. The

recipients of these seals were called juto

shotnin.

Edicts, the second

measure, were confirmations stamped with the seals. This measure

was implemented through the position and influence of the Kyushu

tandai

and the So family lord of Tsushima. It originated in 1419 as a

request from Choson to the Kyushu tandai Shibukawa Mitsuyori.

After that date, simple trading vessels could no longer travel between

Japan and Korea: Trade was instead carried out as a subsidiary busi-

ness of the official vessel traveling under the ambassador's name.

Under the system of passports, missions not bearing passports from

the So lord of Tsushima were treated as pirates. This system first

appeared in 1426 at the request of

Sadamori. It was organized after

1435 and firmly established in 1436.

The fourth item was a system for limiting the number of official

ships that could visit annually, which began in 1424 with a suggestion

by Kyushu tandai Shibukawa Yoshitoshi that there be two ships per

year.

110

In 1443 the famous Kyehae (Kakitsu) treaty established the

right of the So to send

fifty

ships annually and to dispatch special ships

when necessary. This was the culmination of Korea's control policy;

the treaty confirmed the So's monopolistic position regarding trade

with Korea and thus represented the very heavy restrictions on trade

for Japan as a whole.

Japanese traders required permission to trade, from someone like the

"King of Japan" (the Ashikaga shogun or the head of the Ouchi fam-

108 Shin Shuku Shu, Kaito

shokokki

(Tokyo: Kokusho kankokai, 1975).

109 Nakamura, Nissen kankeishi

kenkyu, vol. 1. pp. 112-14.

no For the Kyushu tandai in Japanese-Korean relations, see Akiyama Kenzo, "Muromachi

shoki ni okeru wako no choryo to Kyushu tandai," Rekishi chiri 57 (April 1931),

"Muromachi shoki ni okeru Kyushu tandai no Chosen to no

kotso,"

Shigaku zasshi

42 (April

1931),

and "Muromachi shoki ni okeru wako no choryo to Oei gaiko jijo,"

Shigaku zasshi

(September 1931); Kawazoe Shoji, "Kyushu tandai to Nitcho kosho," in Seinan chiikishi

kenkyu, vol. 1 (Tokyo: Bunken shuppan, 1977), and "Kyushu tandai no suimetsu katei,"

Kyushu bunkashi

kenkyusho

kiyo,

no. 23 (March 1978): 81-130.

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CHANGES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 443

ily).

Communication seals, the fifth control, were used to prevent the

forgery of such permission. In addition to the aforementioned restric-

tions,

Korea instituted the port restrictions mentioned earlier, desig-

nated a special route to the capital, and issued stipulations regarding

the reception of envoys.

In the article dealing with envoys in the "Choping ungjopgi" ("Rec-

ord of reception for court visitors") of the

Haedong

chegukki,

four

categories of Japanese travelers involved in trade were enumerated: (i)

envoys of the king of Japan (Ashikaga shogun); (2) envoys of the

various daimyo, called

koch'u

or "great chieftain," (3) envoys from the

Kyushu

chuldosa

tandai

- or lord of Tsushima; and (4) Tsushima

people and jusikin. The envoys of the second category - the various

daimyo - were actually traders. Japanese-Korean trade took three

main forms. The first was trade via the ceremonial exchange of tribute

goods and gifts; the second was official trade in which the Yi govern-

ment traded with government goods; and the third was private trade

carried out under the Yi government's supervision. Outside these le-

gally established forms, there was an illicit trade that could not be

eliminated despite stringent controls. When private trade was out-

lawed, it flourished all the more.

According to the Yijo

sillok,

which records Japanese-Korean trade

relations in comparative detail, there

were,

on the average, twenty-two

missions per year in the first half of the fifteenth century, but in the

second half of the century, the number more than tripled, reaching

sixty-seven."

The amount of cargo per shipment was small, and the

prices were low in comparison with those of the Japan-Ming trade,

but the number of ships and missions, that is, the total amount of

trade, far outstripped that between Japan and China.

Japanese-Korean trade held a very important place in Japan's over-

seas relations in the fifteenth century. The main items exported from

Japan to Korea included cinnabar and other Southeast Asian dyes,

medicines, sulfur, and spices; metals such as brass, gold, tin, and lead;

and military and cultural items like swords and folding

screens.

South-

east Asian items were imported in large quantities to Choson directly

from the Ryukyus or via Hakata."

Merchant ships from the Ryukyus

and Southeast Asia frequently put in at Hakata; with many traders

from Choson and Ming, the port prospered as an international city.

111 Tanaka, Chusei taigai kankeishi, p. 167.

112 For the details of this affair, see Arimitsu Yugaku, "Chusei koki ni okeru boeki shonin no

doko,"

Shizuoka daigaku jimbun gakubu jimbun ronshu, no. 21 (January 1971).

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444 JAPAN AND EAST ASIA

Japanese-Korean trade clearly formed an important link in the East

Asian trading sphere.

The kinds of goods imported into Japan from Korea included such

things as tiger skins, boar skins,

floral-patterned

woven mats, ginseng,

and honey. In the beginning, trade was largely in ramie and hemp

cloth, but later cotton cloth became more important. Cotton was not

yet being produced in Japan, and so became the central item in

Japanese-Korean trade, as Japan's strong demand for cotton coin-

cided with an increase in Korea's cotton production. Besides these

items,

a considerable number of Buddhist sutras and religious items

were imported, primarily by those people referred to as "great

chief-

tains"

(the

shugo

daimyo).

If one considered the Japanese-Korean trade relationship by stages in

accord with Tanaka Takeo's scheme, it would be as follows:"

The

first period (1392-1419) lasted from T'aejo to the Oei raid in Sejong's

first year. It was the era after the height of the wako attacks, when

trade relations with Korea finally got started and traders from differ-

ent parts of Japan could cross over to Korea freely. Having already

opened Japanese-Ming relations, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was actively

pursuing trade.

The second period (1419-50) corresponds to the latter part of

Sejong's rule. This was the era in which the Muromachi bakufu de-

emphasized the importance of Korean trade and the So family of

Tsushima enhanced its position through the restoration of amity after

the Oei raids. Sejong adopted a policy of equality based on peaceful

relations, set up a number of trade controls, and put relations between

Tsushima and Choson on course.

The third period (1450-1510) runs from Munjong's reign to the

first year of Chungjong and the Three Ports disturbance. Continuing

in the same vein as the previous stage, the controls on trade were

consolidated, but the discrepancy in Japan's and Korea's stages of

economic development influenced trade, which subsequently

foundered. The outbreak of violence in the Three Ports, involving the

permanent Japanese residents, proved to be a turning point in trade

relations between the two countries.

The fourth period (1510-92) lasted from the Three Ports distur-

bance until the outbreak of the Bunroku campaign (Hideyoshi's inva-

sions of Korea). Although Japanese-Korean relations revived early in

113 Tanaka, Chusei laigai

kankeishi,

p. 166.

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CHANGES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 445

this period through the efforts of the So family, contacts became less

frequent because of declining interest on the part of the Japanese.

Relations were totally severed with the invasion. This period in East

Asian history witnessed the failure of the Ming policy forbidding over-

seas travel, the arrival of European vessels, and wako incursions, all of

which strongly influenced Japanese-Korean relations.

The Ryukyu Islands (present-day Okinawa) also was a link in the East

Asian trading sphere."

After engaging in a three-cornered struggle,

the three Ryukyu kingdoms of Hokuzan, Chuzan, and Nanzan were

unified by Sho Hashi in 1429. This unification hinged on the issue of

offering tribute to Ming China. The Ryukyus had been sending about

one tribute mission to the Ming annually since 1372. At the outset

they presented such southern products as spices and pepper, and also

Japanese swords and fans, but later their tribute was limited to horses

and sulfur produced in the Ryukyus. From the Ming, Okinawa re-

ceived pottery, iron, textiles, and coins. Because Okinawa sent stu-

dents to study in Ming China and received some thirty-six Ming immi-

grant families from Fukien, the Chinese cultural influence in the is-

lands was significant.

The Ryukyus enjoyed trading relations with Southeast Asia from at

least the latter half of the fourteenth century, and from then through

the sixteenth century they advanced to such places as Siam (present-

day Thailand), Palenpan, Java, Malacca, Sumatra, Patani, Vietnam,

and Sunda, with the Siam trade being especially brisk. This trade was

actively pursued only by the Ryukyu side, and it was mainly official

trade directly controlled and managed by the kingdom. This was some

150 years before Japan's venture into the south. The demand for, and

expansion of trade in, products from the south in Ming, Choson, and

Japan was supported largely by the Ryukyus' relationship with the

various countries of Southeast Asia.

The Ryukyus' relations with Choson began in 1389 when the

Ryukyu's sent back some Koryo people captured by wako, along with

offerings of sulfur, pepper, and sapon wood."

Even after the establish-

114 See the following studies of the Ryukyu foreign trade: Akiyama, Nisshi kosho shiwa;

Higaonna Kanjun, Reimeiki no kaigai kouushi (Tokyo: Teikoku kyoikukai shuppanbu,

1941);

Miyata Toshihiko, "Nichimin, Ryumin kokko no kaishi,'WiAon rekishi, nos. 201—3

(February-April 1965); Kobata Atsushi, Chusei nanto tsuko

boekishi no

kenkyu (Tokyo: Toko

shoin, 1968); and Miyagi Eisho, Okinawa no rekishi (Tokyo: Nihon hoso shuppan kyokai,

1968).

115 Kobata Atsushi, Nihon keizaishi no kenkyu (Kyoto: Shibunkaku shuppan, 1978), pp. 559-

79-

446 JAPAN AND EAST ASIA

ment of the new Yi dynasty by T'aejo Yi Song-gye, the Ryukyus

continued to send envoys to Korea, trading Southeast Asian and Chi-

nese goods. But this was unilateral, active trade by the Ryukyus; the

Korean side remained inactive. The Ryukyus dispatched envoys to

Choson who traveled on the merchant ships from Hakata, Tsushima,

or other ports in Kyushu. Sometimes the Kyushu merchants them-

selves became Ryukyu envoys. But this kind of trade was ended by

Satsuma's invasion of the Ryukyus in 1609.

Japan and the Ryukyus opened mutual trading relations through the

medium of Ming tribute. For the Ryukyus, Japan and Korea were

places to resell items imported from China, and later they became

trading partners to which Okinawa could reexport trade goods from

Southeast Asia. It was a classic case of intermediary trade. Thus,

Ryukyu boats called at such ports as Bonutsu, Obi, and Hakata in

Kyushu; Hyogo and Sakai in the Kinki region; and Matsura in

Musashi Province of eastern Japan. The Muromachi bakufu appointed

a Ryukyu commissioner to administer and control the trade. The

Ashikaga shogun and the king of the Ryukyus exchanged documents

written in Japanese kana, and they had a superior-subordinate rela-

tionship based on a common script and common race.

Because the

Onin-Bunmei War in Japan brought an end to the visit of

the

Ryukyu

ships to Hyogo, Sakai merchants seeking trade began instead to ven-

ture to the Ryukyus. However, the Hakata merchants, backed by the

Ouchi, opposed these Sakai merchants, who were supported by the

Muromachi deputy shogun of the Hosokawa house, and restrained

their activities. They were able to confine the Japanese mainland base

for the Ryukyu trade to Kyushu, where Bonotsu and Hakata became

the principal centers.

The Ryukyu Islands were able to carry out such extensive trading

activity because Chinese traders were hampered by the Ming policy of

forbidding overseas travel. But when this policy broke down, illicit

international trade focusing on the southeast China coast commenced.

Oceangoing traders engaged in this illicit trade increased in number,

and the period of the great wako raids of

the

Chia-ching (1522-67) era

ensued. However, when European vessels began to arrive, the

Ryukyus' glory based on its extensive trade came to an end.

116 Tanaka Takeo, "Muromachi bakufu to Ryukyu to no kankei no ichikosatsu," Nanto

shigaku,

no.

16 (November 1980).

CHAPTER 10

CULTURAL LIFE IN MEDIEVAL JAPAN

THE KAMAKURA PERIOD AND THE END OF

BUDDHIST LAW

After senior retired emperor Toba died on the second day of the seventh

month of 1156 (the first year of Hogen), fighting and strife began in Japan,

and the country entered the age of warriors.

This laconic statement came from the brush of the Buddhist priest

Jien (1155-1225), the author oiGukansho, an early-thirteenth-century

history of Japan. Jien was a member of the ascendent northern branch

of the Fujiwara and wrote Gukansho in part to justify the historical

success of his family as regent-rulers at the Heian court. But Jien is

probably best remembered as the first historian in Japan to view the

past in distinct terms of cause and effect and as a progression from one

stage to another. Although earlier writers had not been totally oblivi-

ous to historical causality, none had sought to analyze Japanese history,

as Jien did, within an overall, interpretive framework.

Jien's emphasis on the progress of history was not an aberrant view

but, rather, emerged from a heightened awareness of the momentous

historical changes that he himself witnessed. As observed in

Gukansho, Japan in the late 1100s was transformed from a compara-

tively peaceful and tranquil country under the rule of the imperial

court to a tumultuous, strife-filled "age of warriors." Yet the anguish

that Jien and other members of the courtier elite experienced as a

result of this transition was accepted fatalistically because of

belief in

its inevitability: They were convinced that the period of

mappd,

"the end of the Buddhist law," had already begun a century before.

According to this pessimistic notion, which set the dominant tone for

the outlook of the medieval age, Japan had entered into a final, cata-

clysmic stage of its history, in which people ceased to follow the Bud-

dhist law, turmoil replaced order in society, and life became sub-

1 Okami Masao and Akamatsu Toshihide, eds., Gukansho, vol. 85 of Nihon koten bungaku taikei

(Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1967), p. 206.

447

448 CULTURAL LIFE

merged in darkness and suffering. Under such circumstances, it was

hardly surprising that warriors should arise to reimpose, even by bru-

tal force, some semblance of order in the land.

The mappo concept of historical decline, strongly held in the early

medieval age, was nurtured by the traditionally keen sensitivity of the

Japanese to the mutability and evanescence of all things. The central

ideal of beauty in Japan had always been a beauty of perishability,

found most typically in the changes in nature brought about by the

passage of the seasons. Buddhism, with its belief that the world is in

constant flux, deepened and rendered more poignant this native feel-

ing for change. Thus, when we read the following passage:

The flow of the river is ceaseless and its water is never the same. The bubbles

that float in the pools, now vanishing, now forming, are not of

long

duration:

so in the world are man and his dwellings. It might be imagined that the

houses, great and small, which vie roof against proud roof in the capital

remain unchanged from one generation to the next, but when we examine

whether this is true, how few are the houses that were there of

old.

. . . The

city is the same, the people are as numerous as ever, but of those I used to

know, a bare one or two in twenty remain. They die in the morning, they are

born in the evening, like foam on the water.

we are struck by its poetic imagery and the profoundly sad vision it

presents of the fleeting nature of humans and their works.

Standing alone, this passage provides no clue to the period of its

composition: It expresses feelings that the Japanese have always been

wont to articulate. In fact, it is the opening to Kamo no Chomei's

Hojoki (An account of my ten-foot square hut), a brief miscellany

written in 1212, and is prelude to a narrative that is characteristically

medieval in it description of the sufferings of this life and the pension

for salvation in Amida's Pure Land paradise after death.

Chomei (115 3-1216) was a member of the lower-court aristocracy

whose family served as Shinto priests at the Kamo Shrine in Kyoto. A

gifted poet, he was nevertheless denied - probably because of his infe-

rior social standing - full membership in the literary salon at court;

and in middle age he took Buddhist vows and withdrew from life in

the capital, eventually moving into reclusive retirement in a meager,

"ten-foot square" hut on Mount Hino on the city's outskirts.

The first half of Hojoki describes the grief and hardships of life in

this world and relates a series of calamities, including earthquake, fire,

and famine, that afflicted Kyoto during the late 1170s and early 1180s.

2 Donald Keene, ed., Anthology of Japanese

Literature

(New York: Grove Press, 1955), p. 197.