RECLUSE LITERATURE, MEDIEVAL TRADITION (1) Yoshida Kenko makes a critically important link between impermanence and beauty

that is considered quintessential to Japanese aesthetics. Discuss this connection and give examples. What are the elements the components of Japanese beauty or the ultimate in artistic taste, according to Kenko? (2) Kenko thought that a good man (as opposed to merely an artistic or cultivated man) would possess what specific moral or human qualities? (3) Yoshida Kenko nostalgically viewed the classical court as the last fortress against historical, social and political mobility. His was a world seen as being rife with social degeneration and disorder associated with what was regarded as the period of the Latter Age of Buddhist law. How does he express what he saw as a more ideal world? Discuss the human and/or political ideal that can be glimpsed, with specific references to and citations from the text. (4) How does the Hojoki express certain contradictions inherent in the reclusive miyabi lifestyle adopted by Choomei? Could too much emphasis be placed on artistic development and SELF pursuit and did/could these take one away, in the end, from the quest for the truth of Buddhism and the higher self? How exactly is this dilemma express and how is it resolved, if at all? Be specific in citing the text and backing up your assertions. (5) What does the hut symbolize in Hojoki? Carefully analyze this symbolic image which is at the same time the writers real and tangible means of refuge.