Japanese Literature Discussion Chapter

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Japanese Literature

One of the questions that the prudent reader will consider while reading this excerpt from Kamo No Chomei's manuscript, an Account of a Ten-Foot-Square Hut, is how does the author utilize aspects of nature to reinforce his theme of the impermanence of life?

The answer to this question is: by invoking the power of nature as a force which is ungovernable. There are several instances in this brief excerpt in which the author refers to nature in this way to emphasize the transience of the world in which we live. His reference to a fire that destroyed a substantial part of a city is an excellent example of this tendency of the author. Fire, of course, is a force of nature, one of the fourth natural elements of which man has little control over. The author alludes to this fact by detailing how the aforementioned fire devastated the city in which it raged. Man has very little control over fire, especially once a true inferno starts which is just the sort of thing that the author describes in this portion of his narrative.

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It is key to understand that the fire was aided by another natural element -- the wind -- which further reinforces the idea that nature plays a significant part in the impermanence of the world. The subsequent quotation alludes to this fact. "Distant houses choked on smoke; nearby, wind drove the flames against the ground. In the sky, ashes blown up by the wind reflected the light of the fire, while wind-scattered flames spread through the overarching red in leaps of one and two blocks." Both the fire and the wind that helped it to grow out of control destroyed several houses and people in this city, thereby demonstrating the fact that there is an innate impermanence associated with this world -- since things can easily be destroyed by a fire and no longer….....

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