To understand
the world of today,
hold it up
to the world
of long ago.
– Kamo-no-Chomei The Hojoki
The recent tragedy in northern Japan has brought to the forefront of all our minds just how vulnerable these islands are to natural disaster. Here in western Japan, even as we assure our friends and families overseas that we are safe, we know full well that it could just as easily have happened here. Historically, such tragedies have occurred many times across the archipelago and no doubt they will again. Clearly we should remember this and prepare ourselves accordingly. Kyoto too has been visited by more than its fair share of catastrophes in the past. Can we learn anything from the experiences of our forebears that can help us to manage this current trauma?
One Kyoto resident who witnessed all too many disasters in his life was the poet Kamo-no-Chomei. Born in 1155, he lived in a time of political turmoil and war, but it was man’s vulnerability to the forces of nature that most greatly affected him. In response to disaster he fled, not from Japan, but from “the world†of city life and into nature, where he lived alone in a little hermitage. Written in 1212, his great work The Hojoki is literally “An Account from a Hut Ten-Foot Squareâ€. It is a poem in three parts. In the first he describes the calamities he has witnessed in his lifetime. The second part is a short meditation on the human condition. The third part is an account of his simple life of non-attachment in the mountains. From his forest refuge he looks back on his life and tell us,
In the forty years or so
since I reached the age
to understand the heart of things,
I have witnessed
many awful happenings…
He then writes personal accounts of tempest, fire, flood, famine, and plague, but of all these it was the earthquake of 1185 he described as “the most terrifying of eventsâ€. His description resonates powerfully with us today:
Mountains fell
and filled the rivers.
The seas heaved
and flooded the land.
The earth itself split
and water gushed out.
Giant rocks cracked
and rolled down
into the valleys.
Boats along the shore
were helpless in the waves.
….Around the capital
not one temple or pagoda
remained intact…
…Earth shaking,
houses breaking
sounded like the crash
of falling thunderbolts.
Caught inside
a house might crush you.
Outside the ground was torn apart.
Without wings
you could not fly away.
Only a dragon
may ride the clouds! [Read more…]