Now, I would like to talk about section 10 and section 11, for those sections are related.
Kenko states about a house in section 10, "how delightful it is to find one that has harmonious proportions and a pleasant atmosphere. In section 11, he talks about the house which he found on the way to the mountain village beyond the place called Kurusuno which is a suburb of Kyoto. The house described as "a lonely-looking hat" was a perfect house for him, in the perspective of Wabi-sabi culture (わび・さび文化), which represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection.
In this viewpoint, the aesthetics are sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete". However, he disappointed when he saw the fence surrounded the house. The owner of the house is afraid that people steal his mandarin orange. Strictly speaking, it is not tangerine, but it is mandarin orange. He is disappointed ungenerous, cheap attitude of the owner of the house. Because, as you can see from the statement in section 10, previous section, he states, "A man's character, as a rule, may be known from the place where he lives". Thus he found a nice house, but a cheap owner. After he talked about the desire for social success in section 1, he talked about sexual desire in section 8, and then talked about the desire for the place to live in section 10 and 11.
The reason the translator uses the words "the tenth month" instead of using the word "October", is that the original text uses the synonym of Japanese old calendar to describe the month. October in an old calendar called "Kannazuki (神無月)", which can be translated literally as "the month when there are no gods". Different from Christian God, Japanese Shinto considers there are millions of different kind of gods exist everywhere. In October, in Shinto tradition, it was said that myriads of gods in Japan left their shrines and congregated annually at Izumo Taisha Shrine, as a result, all the shrine in Japan except Izumo Taisha Shrine become empty because of the absence of gods. That's why it is called "the month when there are no gods".
To be continued on Part 5
