Suki and Religious Awakening. Kamo no Chomei's Hosshinshu

Abstract

H osshinshu 5,L' ('A Collection of Tales of Religious Awakening') is attributed to the prominent literary figure of the Kamakura period, Kamo no Chomei T%A, 1156-1216. He wrote this collection of setsuwa &GM, brief tales or anecdotes, after he received the tonsure and retired from the capital to lead a life of solitude on Mt Hino. Both Hosshinshu and Hojoki 1 Chomei's better-known literary piece, then, were composed some time after the year 1208, when he moved to Hino to devote himself exclusively to the Buddhist path. Hosshinshu is a collection of exemplary tales about monks and wandering holy men (hijiri f) who have renounced the world and its temptations. Through these tales Chomei probes the conditions conducive to the awakening of the bodhi-mind (hosshin), which then ensures rebirth in the Pure Land. In the preface, he argues that while the Buddha's teachings as propagated through the various sutras are undoubtedly without compare, they are of little use to someone like himself whose mind has not attained to this ideal. It is for this reason, he claims, that he does not aspire to the study of profound doctrinal teachings, but instead simply collects and records fleeting events that he has seen or heard. As he notes, 'Through these trivial tales that I have picked up by the wayside I wish merely to experience, at least a little, the religious awakening of my mind.'1 It is striking that while Hosshinshu dates from his 'Buddhist' period, so to speak, Chomei nonetheless chooses to include several stories that hark back to a world of elegance and grace, that is, the world of the court. He singles out the practices of music and poetry, both of which had played a critical role in his life as a courtier, and accords them a special place in his tales of religious awakening. This aspect of Hosshinshu becomes particularly significant when