Monk Kenk? Reading by Lamplight late 17th century Painting by Unidentified A fluid sketch painting, against a completely blank background, captures the appearance of a hunched-over elderly monk reading an unfurled scroll by a lampstand; behind him is a round, tiered, red-lacquer box. The inscription on the left in delicate script, mostly kana, is rendered in alternating long and short columns that gradually descend in height to create a triangular shaped composition that echoes the hunched-over posture of the figure. The identity of the subject as Monk Kenk? (1284–1350), the famous recluse-lit
Monk Kenk? Reading by Lamplight late 17th century Painting by Unidentified A fluid sketch painting, against a completely blank background, captures the appearance of a hunched-over elderly monk reading an unfurled scroll by a lampstand; behind him is a round, tiered, red-lacquer box. The inscription on the left in delicate script, mostly kana, is rendered in alternating long and short columns that gradually descend in height to create a triangular shaped composition that echoes the hunched-over posture of the figure. The identity of the subject as Monk Kenk? (1284–1350), the famous recluse-literatus of early medieval Japan, is revealed by the inscription, which transcribes the opening lines of Chapter 13 of Essays in Idleness (Tsurezuregusa), a literary miscellany created by the monk around 1330. The inscription reads:??????????? ??????????????????????????????????Hitori, tomoshibi no moto ni fumi no moto ni o hirogete, minu yo no hito o tomo to suru koso, koyon? nagusamu waza nare “The pleasantest of all diversions is to sit alone under the lamp, a book spread out before one, and to make friends with people of a distant past whom you have never known.”(Trans. after Donald Keene)In the passage that follows, not transcribed here, Monk Kenk? goes on to say that he particularly enjoys Chinese classics such as Wenxuan (Japanese: Monzen, a sixth-century Chinese anthology of prose and poetry), the Collected Poems of Tang-dynasty poet Bai Juyi, and the writings Daoist philosophers Laozi and Zhuangzi. He also says he is moved by the literature of Japanese writers of the past, and imagine that he indulging in a manuscript version of one those. The zeitgeist of Essays in Idleness is shaped by a fundamental asceticism and Buddhist-informed perception of the world and all mortal affairs as impermanent. Yet the presentation of his meditations on life are related with a droll wit that has made this medieval literary miscellany (zuihitsu) required reading for all students of
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