Now, let's take a look at section 137. At first, let me explain some words in this section.
Toribeno (鳥辺野) is the field in Toribeyama (鳥部山) which appeared in section 7. As I mentioned already, this place was a crematorium. Funaoka (舟岡) was also the place for the crematory. Mamagodate (継子立) is a kind of counting-out game arisen in Japan, and is similar to the Josephus problem.
I think that this section has the magical power to attract the reader, for each subject develops from the next to another while the subjects described in this section are closely related, and each sentence seems to have full of discovery.
In this section, Kenko talks about the Festival. He states, "By the time it is growing dark you wonder where the rows of carriages and the dense crowds of spectators have disappeared to. Before you know it, hardly a soul is left, and the congestion of returning carriages is over. Then they start removing the blinds and matting from the stands, and the place, even as you watch, begins to look desolate. You realize you with a pang of grief that life is like this. If you have seen the avenues of the city, you have seen the festival".
In these sentences, he says that the festival encompasses the stillness after the Festival. After "the dense crowds of spectators have disappeared", busy street again becomes empty, and the bustle and noise are still hanging over in the air like a phantom, and he sees that it is the part of Festival.
He states, "You realize with a pang of grief that life is like this". This sentence symbolizes the transitory nature of life. People might live day-to-day as if nothing happened after one has gone, and even the presence of oneself is going to disappear. Comparing with his earlier sections, we can obviously see that he views death more seriously and almost reaches to the ultimate meaning of life.
Finally, let's take a look at section 149.
Antlers of a deer were used as a revitalizer. He seemed that he tried to ensure healthy since he lived alone. Thus, he was interested in medicine and often talked about medicine in Essay in Idleness.
As I mentioned so far, we see the young figure of him in earlier sections, and it is gradually gaining the aspect of sentimentality, and then, though he said in section 7, "To die, at the latest, before one reaches forty, is the least unattractive", the section 149 indicates that he was careful about his health.
Kenko wrote about the fact around him raising the example of the relationship between human thought and the natural event. While he displays a common point of view, he always presents a different perspective at the same time, and he shows that there are multiple views on it. He wrote the beauty of nature, the transience of life, traditions, friendship, and other abstract concepts, and developed his thought and described a true delicacy of spiritual perception.
I am very happy that modern high school in Japan has been incorporated Essay in Idleness, a more accurate translation would be "Harvest of Leisure", over the century. And his work even journeys across the ocean, and now I read his work in English.
