by Yoshida Kenko
Translated from the Japanese by Geoffrey Bownas
Produced by Terence Tiller with authentic medieval and modern Japanese music
Cast in order of speaking: with Tom Lake and Allan McClelland
To be repeated on January 8
The Grass of Idleness comprises a series of essays and letters by a fourteenth-century Japanese courtier and public official turned recluse. Having retired from public life, Yoshida Kenko devoted the rest of his years to writing the poetry practised by every Japanese of rank and essays that present a vivid and rather satirical picture of social and religious conditions, compared nostalgically with Japan's golden age.
The illustration is from Hokusai't picture book 'One Hundred Views of the Fuji'