He was a nationalist who took pride in Japan's aesthetic and cultural traditions, though he was not very interested in politics. I find that not surprising in that the current politics of his time was very distant from Japanese culture of the past.
In his commentary on the Sarashina Diary,
- Provides personal reflections and poetry from the author's life
- Focuses on the role of reading, religious belief, and travel in the author's life
- Unique structure that weaves seemingly random fragments into a cohesive whole
- Discusses the family background of Takasue no Musume and the transmission of the diary through the manuscript of Fujiwara no Teika
- Includes personal reflections on love for tales and grief over the deaths of loved ones
- Explores the narrator's contemplation of nature, loneliness, court service, and regrets
- Provides historical and scholarly background of the Sarashina Diary
- Discusses allusions, historical events, and personal experiences mentioned in the diary
- Contains a bibliography of Japanese literature works and translations
- Includes a list of translations of classical East Asian texts
So for the traditionalist, even if you are not Japanese in particular, I think there are many things you could learn from Yojūrō Yasuda.
Fascinating guy.
He was a nationalist who took pride in Japan's aesthetic and cultural traditions, though he was not very interested in politics. I find that not surprising in that the current politics of his time was very distant from Japanese culture of the past.
In his commentary on the Sarashina Diary,
- Provides personal reflections and poetry from the author's life
- Focuses on the role of reading, religious belief, and travel in the author's life
- Unique structure that weaves seemingly random fragments into a cohesive whole
- Discusses the family background of Takasue no Musume and the transmission of the diary through the manuscript of Fujiwara no Teika
- Includes personal reflections on love for tales and grief over the deaths of loved ones
- Explores the narrator's contemplation of nature, loneliness, court service, and regrets
- Provides historical and scholarly background of the Sarashina Diary
- Discusses allusions, historical events, and personal experiences mentioned in the diary
- Contains a bibliography of Japanese literature works and translations
- Includes a list of translations of classical East Asian texts
So for the traditionalist, even if you are not Japanese in particular, I think there are many things you could learn from Yojūrō Yasuda.