A Collection of Tales About the Awakening of the Heart (Hosshinshū) in the Setsuwa Tradition
https://doi.org/10.55105/2658-6444-2024-2-115-137
Abstract
The hermit poet Kamo-no Chōmei compiled a collection of tales about the awakening of the heart (Hosshinshū, c. 1216), continuing and updating the tradition of setsuwa collections of didactic tales. The peculiarities of the collection can be explained on the basis of the changes in the life of the Japanese Buddhist community that took place at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. The main characters of the tales are hermits, “escapees from the world,” and different aspects of their lives are discussed in the thematic sections of the collection. In addition to the tales, the book contains discussions of difficult questions of Buddhist preaching: how to treat death and love, one’s own body, the poetic word, and what a person can rely on if he or she wants to try to follow the Buddha’s path in the “evil age”. In addition to the Lotus Sutra, which gave the book its title and one of its narrative forms, the sources of the Hosshinshū include the sutras about the Pure Land and Genshin’s Ōjōyōshū, as well as several other sutras and treatises that were common property of various schools in Japan. Chōmei includes both good and bad examples from the life of the Japanese Buddhist community in his book, with only occasional reference to India and China, and confines himself mainly to events recent and contemporary.
Supporting agencies: I thank Lyubov Borisovna Karelova for the rare gift of an edition of Hosshinshū which became the basis for this study.
About the Author
N. N. Trubnikova
Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
TRUBNIKOVA Nadezhda Nikolaevna – Doctor of Sciences (Philosophy), Senior Researcher
82, Vernadsky av., Moscow
References
1. Digital Dictionary of Buddhism. Ed. by Muller, Ch.A. Retrieved from http://www.buddhism-dict.net/ddb/
2. Goreglyad, V. N. (1997). Yaponskaya literatura VIII–XVI vv. Nachalo i razvitie traditsii [Japanese Literature of the 8th–16th cc. The Beginning and Development of Traditions]. Saint Petersburg: Petersburgskoe Vostokovedenie. (In Russian).
3. Hare, T. B. (1989). Reading Kamo no Chōmei. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 49 (1), 173–228.
4. Kamo-no Chōmei. (1651). Hosshinshū. Vols. 1–8. Kyoto: Nakano Kozaemon. Retrieved from: https://www.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kotenseki/html/bunko20/bunko20_00411/index.html (In Japanese).
5. Kamo-no Chōmei. (1956). Zenshū [Collected Works]. Ed. by Yanase Kazuo. Tokyo: Kazama shobō. (In Japanese).
6. Kamo-no Chōmei. (1975). Hosshinshū. Translated into modern Japanese by Yanase Kazuo. Tokyo: Kadokawa shoten. (In Japanese).
7. Kamo-no Chōmei. (1988). Zapiski iz kel’i [Notes From the Cell]. Trans. by N. I. Konrad. In Klassicheskaya Yaponskaya proza XI–XIV vekov [Classical Japanese prose of the 11th–14th centuries] (pp. 297–312). Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literatura. (In Russian).
8. Kamo-no Chōmei. (2000). Zenshū [Collected Works]. Ed. by Ōsone Shosuke, Kubota Jun. Tokyo: Kichōhon kankōkai. (In Japanese).
9. Kamo-no Chōmei. (2015). Zapiski bez nazvaniya. Besedy s Shotetsu [Untitled Notes. Conversations With Shōtetsu]. Trans. by M. V. Toropygina. Saint Petersburg: Giperion. (In Russian).
10. Kamo-no Chōmei. (2016). Hōjōki; Hosshinshū [Notes From a Cell; Collection of the Awakened Heart]. Ed by Miki Sumito. Tokyo: Shinchōsha. (In Japanese).
11. Kochetova, K. V. (2010). Yaponskaya zhitiinaya zhivopis’ na svitkakh XII–XIII vekov (stanovlenie i razvitie) [Japanese Hagiography on Scrolls of the 12th–13th Centuries (Formation and Development)]. Candidate of Art History dissertation. Moscow State University. (In Russian).
12. Matsuo, K. (1997). What is Kamakura New Buddhism? Official Monks and Reclusive Monks. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 24 (1–2), 179–189.
13. Matsuo, K. (2010). Death and Buddhism in the Japanese Middle Ages: From the Standpoint of the Official Monks / “Secluded” Monks Paradigm of Japanese Buddhism. The Eastern Buddhist, 41 (2), 71–96.
14. Meshcheryakov, A. N. (2012). Razmer imeet znachenie: evolyutsiya ponyatiya “ostrovnaya strana” v yaponskoi kul’ture [Size Matters: The Evolution of the Concept of “Island Country” in Japanese Culture]. Voprosy filosofii, 8, 72–84. (In Russian).
15. Morrell, R. E. (1987). Early Kamakura Buddhism: A Minority Report. With a Foreword by Minoru Kiyota. Fremont: Asian Humanities Press.
16. Munechika, S. (2020). Kamo-no Chōmei “Hossinshū” ni okeru Zenchishikikan [A Look at “Beneficent Friends” in Kamo-no Chōmei’s “Collected Tales of the Awakening of the Heart”]. Ronsō kokugo kyōiku-gaku, 16, 36–53. (In Japanese).
17. Pandey, R. (1992). Suki and Religious Awakening: Kamo no Chomei’s Hosshinshu. Monumenta Nipponica, 47 (3), 299–321.
18. Pandey, R. (1998). Writing and Renunciation in Medieval Japan: The Works of the Poet-Priest Kamo No Chomei. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
19. Pandey, R. (2005). Desire and Disgust: Meditations on the Impure Body in Medieval Japanese Narratives. Monumenta Nipponica, 60 (2), 195–234.
20. Petrova, A. A. (2022). Buddiiskie i mirskie syuzhety v proizvedenii Ooe-no Masafusa “Joku honchō ōjōden” [Buddhist and Worldly Plots in the Work of Ōe-no Masafusa Joku Honchō Ōjōden]. In History and Culture of Japan 14 (pp. 166–172). Moscow: Higher School of Economics. (In Russian).
21. Pigeot, J. (2014). Récits de l’éveil du Coeur. Traduit du japonais et commenté par Jacqueline Pigeot. Paris: le Bruit du temps. (In French).
22. Rodin, S. A. (2014). Otnosheniya mezhdu lichnost’yu i gosudarstvom v drevnei Yaponii (po materialam zhizneopisanii italcheskoi khroniki “Shoku Nihongi”) [Relations Between the Individual and the State in Ancient Japan (on the Materials of Hagiographies of the Historical Chronicle “Shoku Nihongi”)]. Voprosy filosofii, 2, 63–73. (In Russian).
23. SHH. (1913). Senjūshō, Hosshinshū, Hōbutsushū. Tokyo: Bussho kankōkai. (In Japanese).
24. Shōchū Hōjōki Hosshinshū. (1952). Ed. by Tsugita Uruu. Tokyo: Meiji Shoin. (In Japanese).
25. Sutra o beschislennykh znacheniyakh. Sutra o Tsvetke Lotosa Chudesnoi Dkharmy. Sutra o postizhenii deyanii i Dkharmy bodkhisattvy Vseob”emlyushchaya Mudrost’. (1998). [The Sutra of Countless Meanings. Sutra on the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. Sutra on the Comprehension of Deeds and Dharma of Bodhisattva Comprehensive Wisdom]. Edition prepared by A. N. Ignatovich. Moscow: Ladomir. (In Russian).
26. Sviridov, G. G. (1981). Yaponskaya srednevekovaya proza setsuwa (struktura i obraz) [Japanese Setsuwa Medieval Prose (Structure and Image)]. Moscow: Nauka. (In Russian).
27. Tabata, Mami. (2021). ‘Shimmyō-o oshimazu’ to iu koto – “Hosshinshū” daishichi no jyūni no moto-ni [‘Not to Spare Body and Life’ – based on tales 7–12 from “A Collection of Tales on Awakening the Heart”]. Toyama daigaku jimbungakubu kiyō, 74, 1–19. (In Japanese).
28. Tanaka,M.(2006–2011).Hosshinshū noBuppō toōbo[TheLawoftheBuddhaand the Law of the Sovereign in “A Collection of Tales on Awakening the Heart”]. Ch. 1. Mozu kokubun, 2006, 17, 67–78, info: doi: 10.24729/00005092; Ch. 2. Mozu kokubun, 2007, 18, 45–56, info: doi: 10.24729/00005085; Ch. 3. Gengo bunkagaku kenkyū [Journal of Language and Culture], 2011, 6, 51–66, info: doi/10.24729/00002594. (In Japanese).
29. Trubnikova, N. N., Babkova, M. V. (2014). Obnovlenie traditsii v yaponskoi religiozno-filosofskoi mysli XII-XIV vv. [Renewal of Traditions in Japanese Religious and Philosophical Thought of the 12th – 14th Centuries]. Moscow: Politicheskaya entsiklopediya. (In Russian).
30. Trubnikova, N. N., Gunskii, A. Yu. (2019). “Vyborka predanii o Svyatom” i traditsiya monasheskikh zhizneopisanii v Yaponii [“Selection of Legends About the Sacred” and the Tradition of Monastic Hagiographies in Japan]. Italko-filosofskii ezhegodnik, 34, 63–101. (In Russian).
31. Trubnikova, N. N. (2021). Buddizm i yaponskaya poeziya v “Sobranii pesen o probuzhdenii serdtsa”. Sobranie pesen o probuzhdenii serdtsa [Buddhism and Japanese Poetry in “A Collection of Songs About Awakening of the Heart”. A Collection of Songs About Awakening of the Heart]. Trans. and comments by N. N. Trubnikova. In Italya i kul’tura Yaponii 13 [History and Culture of Japan 13] (pp. 32–77). Moscow: Higher School of Economics. (In Russian).
32. Trubnikova, N. N., Gorenko, I. V. (2021). Predaniya o chudesakh v smertnyi chas v “Dialogakh” Sv. Grigoriya Dvoeslova i “Yaponskikh zapiskakh o vozrozhdenii v krayu Vysshei Radosti” [Legends of Miracles at the Hour of Death in the “Dialogues” by St. Gregory the Dialogist and the Japanese “Notes on Rebirth in the Land of Supreme Joy”]. Vestnik PSTGU. Series I. Theology, Philosophy, Religious Studies, 96, 79–94. (In Russian).
33. TSD. (1924–1934). Taishō shinshū daizōkyō [Big Collection of Sutras, Newly Compiled in the Years of Taishō]. Ed. by Takakusu junjirō. Vols. 1–100. Tokyo. Retrieved from https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/index.html (In Japanese).
34. Tsujimoto, S. (2019). “Hosshinshū”, “Shasekishū”, “Tsurezuregusa” to Tendai hongaku shisō [“Collection of the Awakened Heart,” “Collection of Sand and Stones,” “Essays in Idleness,” and the Philosophy of Primordial Enlightenment of Tendai School]. Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū, 68 (1), 92–95. (In Japanese).
35. Ury, M. (1972). Recluses and Eccentric Monks: Tales From the Hosshinshū by Kamo no Chōmei. Monumenta Nipponica, 27 (2), 149–173.
36. Yamamoto, H. (2018). Hosshinshū to chūsei bungaku – shutai to kotoba [“Collection of Tales About the Awakening of the Heart” and Medieval Literature: Subject and Word]. Osaka: Izumi shoin. (In Japanese).
37. Yanase, K. (1958). “Konjaku monogatari” to “Hosshinshū” – chokuetsuteki kankei-no hitei [“Anthology of Tales Old and New” and “Collection of the Awakened Heart”: There Is No Direct Connection]. Kokubungaku, 17, 60–66. (In Japanese).
Review
For citations:
Trubnikova N.N. A Collection of Tales About the Awakening of the Heart (Hosshinshū) in the Setsuwa Tradition. Russian Japanology Review. 2024;7(2):115-137. https://doi.org/10.55105/2658-6444-2024-2-115-137
Views:
2514
Email this article 