Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō

Between 1330 and 1332 the Buddhist priest Kenkō, having, as he put it, "nothing better to do," turned to his inkstone and brushes. He jotted down his thoughts, observations, and opinions; anecdotes that he found interesting, amusing, or instructive; accounts of customs and ceremonies-everything that seemed to him worthy of preservation. Donald Keene's complete translation admirably presents this extraordinarily influential Japanese classic.