In the year 1212, a failed courtier and poet named Kamo no Chomei withdrew to a ten-foot-square hut on a wooded mountain east of Kyoto. From that small shelter he wrote one of the most beloved works of Japanese literature — a meditation on impermanence, disaster, and the strange freedom of having almost nothing. This modern edition renders Chomei's classic essay in clear, present-day English that preserves the quiet power of the original. His account of the great fire, famine, and earthquake that devastated Kyoto in his lifetime is as vivid today as it was eight centuries ago, and his reflections on solitude, simplicity, and the limits of detachment speak directly to modern readers seeking a calmer way of living. Faithful to the meaning and spirit of the original, this edition includes an introduction, a glossary, and notes to help today's readers enter Chomei's world. Part of The Founding Texts Library.