A CUP OF SAKE BENEATH THE CHERRY TREES by Kenkō (Translated by Meredith McKinney)
Yoshida Kenkō at work – just to prove that he didn’t just sit around all day doing nothing!
Kenkō was a Japanese Buddhist monk who was probably born in 1283 and probably died in 1352 (nobody knows for sure).
This pocket-sized book is one of eighty 80p ‘Little Black Classics’ and is a much reduced version of his Essays In Idleness.
Despite its 14th century provenance it has a remarkably contemporary application. It illustrates that the vanity of human wishes change little from century to century or from country to country. Continue reading
