Yoshida Kenkō, G. B. Sansom (translator) · c. 1330–32 · EPUB · Calibre ID 2833
Resurfaced in The Sheen of Antiquity (2026-10-16).
Role in the triad
Ancestor and hinge: the native source of Tanizaki’s taste for the worn and incomplete, and the Buddhist position from which Ruskin’s anxious preservation looks like attachment.
Why this book
§81 ‘an air of age’, §82 ‘It is incompleteness that is desirable’ and the palace’s unfinished place, §22 regret for the past, §13/§191 lamplight; the preface’s ‘without order or purpose’ grounds the zuihitsu/architextuality link.
Quotations
Verified against the book’s own text on the day of the reading.
- “To while away the idle hours, seated the livelong day before the ink-slab, by jotting down without order or purpose whatever trifling thoughts pass through my mind, verily this is a queer and crazy thing to do!” (preface)
- “Truly the beauty of life is its uncertainty.” (§7)
- “In all things one looks back with regret to the past. Modern fashions appear to be growing from bad to worse.” (§22)
- “What one wants are things with an air of age, not showy and expensive, but of good quality.” (§81)
- “To leave a thing unfinished gives interest, and makes for lengthened life. They say that even in building the palace an unfinished place is always left.” (§82)
- “Are we only to look at flowers in full bloom, at the moon when clear?” (§137)
Themes
air of age · Buddhist recluse · impermanence · incompleteness · lamplight · regret for the past · zuihitsu