CHAPTER II
KENKŌ AND THE "TSURE-DZURE-GUSA"[1]
If there are many arid wastes in Japanese literature, there are also some pleasant oases, and of these the Tsure-dzure-gusa is surely one of the most delightful. It is a collection of short sketches, anecdotes, and essays on all imaginable subjects, something in the manner of Selden's Table Talk. The author is known to us as Kenkō-bōshi, bōshi being an honorific epithet something like our Reverend. He was a man of good family, and traced his descent through various distinguished personages from the Shinto deity Kogane no Mikoto. For many years in the service of the Mikado Go Uda no In, his writings show an intimate acquaintance with the ways and customs of the Imperial palace. On the death of his master in 1324, Kenkō became a Buddhist monk, and retired from public life, spending the remainder of his days in various secluded spots in the neighbourhood of Kiōto. The date of his death is not positively known, but there is nothing improbable in the statement that he died in 1350, in his sixty-eighth year.
Very contradictory views of his character have been taken by native writers. Some call him a profligate, unscrupulous, common priest, and quote an old scandal
- ↑ Translated by Rev. C. S. Eby, in the Chrysanthemum, vol. iii.
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