Kamo Chomei

Kamo Chomei

(born 1155, Japan—died July 24, 1216, Kyoto) Japanese poet and critic. He is best known for An Account of My Hut (1212), a poetic diary describing his life in seclusion written after he left a court office to take Buddhist orders and become a hermit. His poetry is representative of the best of an age that produced many poets of the first rank. His Nameless Notes (1208/09) is an extremely valuable collection of critical comments, anecdotes, and poetic lore.

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Kamo Chomei 

Born 1153; died 1216. Japanese writer.

Kamo Chomei lived at a time when the power of the Japanese aristocracy was crumbling under the assaults of military feudal families. An aristocrat by birth, he was a court poet; he later took monastic vows. He became famous after writing the book of essays Notes From a Ten-foot-square Hut (1212), which is permeated by Buddhist ideas about the fragility of the world and is considered a model of prose in the classic Japanese style of zuihitsu. His poems are included in imperial anthologies. He was also the author of Nameless Notes (1210—12), which contained comments on poets, poetry, and prosody.

WORKS

In Russian translation:
“Zapiski iz kel’i.” Translated by N. I. Konrad. In N. I. Konrad, Iapon-skaia literatura v obraztsakh i ocherkakh. Leningrad, 1927.