Hōjōki (方丈記), variously translated as "An Account of My Hut" or "The Ten Foot Square Hut", is an important short work of the Kamakura period (1185–1333) in Japan by Kamo no Chōmei. Written in 1212, it describes disasters that befall the people of Kyoto from earthquakes to famine and fire. Chōmei becomes a Buddhist monk and moves farther and farther into the mountains, eventually living in a 10-foot square hut. It belongs to the zuihitsu genre.
The opening sentence of Hōjōki is famous in Japanese literature as an expression of mujō, the transience of this world:
The current of the flowing river does not cease, and yet the water is not the same water as before. The foam that floats on stagnant pools, now vanishing, now forming, never stays the same for long. So, too, it is with the people and dwellings of the world. (Chambers)
Compare with the "panta rhei" (everything flows) characterizing Heraclitus, which uses the same image of a changing river, and the Latin adages Omnia mutantur and Tempora mutantur.
The text was heavily influenced by Yoshishige no Yasutane's Chiteiki (982).[1] In addition, Chōmei based his small hut, and much of his philosophical outlook, on the accounts of the Indian sage Vimalakīrti from the Vimalakīrti Sūtra.[2]
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While Chōmei's original manuscript is no longer extant, numerous copies have been copied and circulated. These are divided into two major categories: kōhon (complete) and ryakubon (incomplete). The kōhon category is further subcategorized into kohon (old) and rufubon (popular), while the ryakubon is subcategorized into Chōkyō, Entoku, and Mana. The Chōkyō and Entoku editions are named after the era date in the afterward and both include extra passages. The Mana editions are written entirely in kanji replacing the kana in the kohon editions.[3]