A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees by Yoshida Kenko (吉田兼好)
I know what you’re thinking: you saw that this was written in the fourteenth century, you read the two words “Buddhist monk” and then “essays” and you’re now either ready to run away as far from this blog as possible or you’re seriously questioning what type of books I like to read on the beach. Yet, you would be surprised at how accessible A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees is.
A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees- how can you not be attracted to this title? By reading it you are already tempted by the serenity, but at the same time exoticness, it suggests. If the © Penguin Books editors are the ones that created this title then I tip my hat for this collection of essays is exactly “a cup of sake beneath the cherry trees”: slightly fuddled in their loose-lippedness, yet ever so retrospective and composed thoughts in a soothing setting. Soon enough, once having opened the pages of this book, those palm trees surrounding you metamorphose into cherry orchards and next thing you know that (virgin) mojito by your side will become a cup of sake.
Having lived almost eight hundred years ago, our knowledge of Yoshida Kenko’s life remains quite vague. The son of an administration official, he was an officer of guards at the Imperial palace and then became a Buddhist monk and hermit later in life. The reasons for this are unknown but his unhappy love for the daughter of the prefect of the Iga Province or the death of Emperor Go-Uda (後宇多天皇, 1265-1324) could have influenced this choice. Kenko did in fact write poetry and entered numerous poetry contests held by the imperial court but his fame essentially lies in his posthumously published Essays in Idleness which became very popular in the 15th century and was considered a classic from the 17th century onward.
A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees doesn’t have a unifying theme even though the transient nature of life, a principle that is deeply rooted in the Japanese society, is a concept that we can find in many of these essays. It is difficult to describe what the collection of essays is about since it deals with pretty much everything and nothing: Kenko writes about his thoughts about death, the beauty of nature, Buddhism, human relationships along with some anecdotes that he tries to extract a moral from. In my opinion, you won’t find anything notably epiphanous in Essays in Idleness but you will be constantly surprised by Kenko’s small pearls of wisdom and philosophy. He makes you see familiar things in a different light. For example, Kenko says that the point of a festival is not to enjoy the performances but is to afterwards see the empty stage since it is only in that moment that we get “a poignant sense of the brevity of worldly things”. Isn’t that just beautiful?
What I personally find the most interesting about these essays are their ability to make you feel a profound calmness within you while reading. I found myself at times meditatively staring at the wall in front of me, my eyes having wandered off the pages of the book and my thoughts having bounced off one of Kenko’s aphorisms. I believe this to be due to the genre of these essays called “zuihitsu” (随筆) which, according to the reading of these kanji characters in Chinese, means “follow-the-brush”. This style is famously used in The Pillow Book (枕草子, Makura no Soshi) (which is actually mentioned in one of Kenko’s essays) which consisted of an array of observations and musings written by Sei Shonagon (清少納言, 966-1017/1025) during her time as court lady to Empress Fujiwara no Teishi (藤原 定子, 977 –1001). “Zuihitsu” is a writing style where the author casually writes his drifting thoughts in no succinct form which, in my opinion, gives an airy and almost dreamlike effect to the essays. Kenko’s Essays in Idleness are not difficult to read since you are picked up by the steady flow of his writing which was, in my case, very addictive.
As I just said, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees is, I assure you, definitely not a difficult read. You probably presume that it is because of the large century-gap between the time in which it was written and today, but the fact that it was written in 14th century Japan was, at least for me, something that made this read even more interesting and appealing. Additionally, because of the “zuihitsu”, we could say that these essays have an intimate and diary-like feel to them which makes discovering 14th century Japan through Kenko’s eyes absolutely fascinating. I also found the cultural differences to be amusing since the maxims themselves are still applicable to this very day but the examples Kenko uses to illustrate his dictums are anchored in a completely different and unknown world (e.g. literary citations, references to scholars but also to “sake” or different festivals such as the “Kamo festival”).
To finish this review, I must say that an aspect of this book that I ever so enjoyed was Kenko’s poetic writing style that renders every single one of his essays even more enjoyable to read and even more beautiful due to the vivid images that he manages to make us, the reader, see. For instance, my favorite quote from A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees is most probably:
A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees is a delicacy, a true gem in Japanese literature. Opening the pages of this book, we dip into medieval Japan and, taken by the current of Kenko’s lulling sentences, we let ourselves be surprised by his reflections on life, death and human interactions. Yet, thanks to its approachable and simple style, you can still casually read this on a hot summer day by the pool.
That is it for today’s review! I hope that you enjoyed it! If you’re interested, I have a create writing Tumblr account (http://theinscrutableescapee.tumblr.com/) and I am happy to say that I have created an Instagram account for this blog which I encourage you to follow in order to be notified when there’s a new post on this blog and if you want to get a glimpse at what I’ve been reading (https://www.instagram.com/theyoungreadersreview/). Thanks for your support and see you next time for a brand-new review! ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
© Margaux Emmanuel 2018
Comments
Post a Comment