Passwords: The Japanese Zuihitsu or Running Brush with Kimiko Hahn

The zuihitsu, for which there is no Western counterpart, is a Japanese genre sometimes described as a prose miscellany or random notes. Kimiko Hahn discusses the zuihitsu’s history, including its precursors, The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon and Kenko’s classic, Essays in Idleness, its subversion of form, and its links to a contemporary poetic aesthetic.