1.
Essays in Idleness
A collection of short essays by the monk 兼好法師 (Yoshida Kenkō), written around 1330. Its 243 sections range over impermanence, taste, manners, and odd anecdotes, and it is one of the three great classical essay collections along with 枕草子 and 方丈記.
The title comes from the first words, つれづれなるままに ("having nothing to do"), and つれづれ has kept that sense of idle leisure in modern Japanese.
Common expressions
- つれづれなるままに、日ぐらし硯に向かひて: "With nothing to do, facing my inkstone all day" — the opening line
- 少しのことにも、先達はあらまほしき事なり: "Even in small matters, one wants a guide" — often quoted
- 兼好法師: the author, also called 吉田兼好
Cultural note
Kenkō praised the beauty of things that are incomplete or passing, such as cherry blossoms before they bloom or after they fall. This taste became a pillar of the Japanese aesthetic.