Yoshida Kenk (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Yoshida Kenk was a Japanese author and Buddhist monk. His most famous work is "Tsurezuregusa" ("Essays in Idleness"), one of the most studied works of medieval Japanese literature. Kenko wrote during the Muromachi and Kamakura periods. Kenko was probably born in 1283, the son of an administration official. His original name was Urabe Kaneyoshi. He became an officer of guards at the Imperial palace. Late in life he retired from public life, changed his name to Yoshida Kenk, and became a Buddhist monk and hermit. The reasons for this are unknown, but it has been conjectured that either his unhappy love for the daughter of the prefect of Iga Province or his mourning over the death of Emperor Go-Uda caused his transformation.