Essays in Idleness

2 vols; Around the year 1330, the Japanese poet and Buddhist monk named Kenkō wrote Essays in Idleness (Tsurezuregusa)—an eccentric and gemlike assemblage of 243 essays capturing his thoughts on such topics as life, death, weather, manners, aesthetics, nature, drinking, conversational bores, sex, house design, and the beauties of understatement and imperfection. Each essay is accompanied by a black-and-white illustration by an unspecified artist(s). The essays of Tsurezuregusa display a perceptiveness and wit that have delighted readers since the 14th century. Lamentations over the passing of old customs express his conviction that life had sadly deteriorated from its former glory. One or two essays are relatively informational. One essay, for example, reads in its entirety: “You should never put the new antlers of a deer to your nose and smell them. They have little insects that crawl into the nose and devour the brain.”

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Lionel Katzoff, Baltimore, MD [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 2023, by bequest.