Kamo no Chōmei

Kamo no Chōmei, by Kikuchi Yōsai

Kamo no Chōmei (鴨 長明, 1153 or 1155-1216) was a Japanese author, poet (in the waka form), and writer. He saw a series of natural and social disasters, and, having lost his political backing, was passed over for promotion within the Shinto shrine connected with his family.

He decided to turn his back on society, took Buddhist vows, and became a hermit, living outside the capital. This was somewhat unusual for the time, when those who turned their backs on the world usually joined monasteries. Along with the poet-priest Saigyō he is representative of the literary recluses of his time, and his celebrated essay Hōjōki ("An Account of a Ten-Foot-Square Hut") is representative of the genre known as "recluse literature" (sōan bungaku).