Written in March 1212, the work depicts the Buddhist concept of impermanence (mujō) through the description of various disasters such as earthquake, famine, whirlwind and conflagration that befall the people of the capital city Kyoto.

The opening sentence of Hōjōki is famous in Japanese literature as an expression of mujō, the transience of things:The flow of the river never ceases, And the water never stays the same.

[3] Chōmei introduces the essay with analogies emphasizing the impermanence of nature, setting a pessimistic view for the rest of this work.

[4] He recalls the devastating fire of the Fourth Month of Angen 3 where homes and governmental buildings "turned to ash and dust".

Chōmei goes on to recount a great whirlwind that raged on from Nakanomikado and Kyōgoku to Rokujō during the Fourth Month of Jishō 4.

[8] In the Yōwa era, there was a two-year famine caused by the onslaught of droughts, typhoons, floods and the fact that grains never ripened for harvest.

[9] Chōmei reveals that he was born in this age, and he recounts that one of the saddest occurrences is when loved ones died first by starving to feed their family or lovers.

Chōmei also gruesomely describes, "I also saw a small child who, not knowing that his mother was dead, lay beside her, sucking at her breast.

"[10] The priest Ryugo of Ninna Temple grievingly marked the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet on the foreheads of the dead to link them to Buddha.

He counted their bodies lining from Ichijō of the north to Kujō of the south and Kyōgoku of the east to Suzaku of the west totaling in 42,300 Corpses, although there were more.

[11] A devastating earthquake happened, which caused the mountains to crumble, water to flow onto land, and shrines to be destroyed.

This was during the Saiko era (around 855), when many significant events occurred: the great earthquake, and the head falling from the Buddha at Tōdai Temple.

[12] Chōmei describes the dissatisfaction that is felt by people of lower rank in relation to their status: they face cruel hardships and they are never able to find peace.

[13] Chōmei describes how he built a water shelf to place offerings on, bamboo shelves with Japanese poetry, and hung a painting of Amida Buddha.

[17] Kamo no Chōmei experienced the change of the aristocratic Heian era to the tumultuous Shōgun rule at the age of thirty.

Cyclic cosmology foretold of its decline in which aristocrats enacted the move from city life to reclusion in nature for religious Buddhist pursuits.

This can be seen in Chōmei's work as follows: "All human endeavors are foolish, but among them, spending one’s fortune and troubling one’s mind to build a house in such a dangerous capital is particularly vain.

"[21] Chōmei, who came from a respected lineage of Shinto priests, strove to obtain a post at the Kamo Shrine, where his family had an established legacy.

He describes, "Using what comes to hand, I cover my skin with clothing woven from the bark of wisteria vines and with a hempen quilt, and sustain my life with asters of the field and fruit of the trees on the peak.

Because I do not mingle with others I am not embarrassed by my appearance..."[29] "Of all the follies of human endeavor, none is more pointless than expending treasures and spirit to build houses in so dangerous place as the capital."

The Sphere (kyogai) was originally a term that was used in Buddhism, but it was influenced by Japanese culture to involve the environment, circumstances, or surrounding things.

According to Li Chi's "The Changing Concept of the Recluse in Chinese Literature", men had various reasons to go into seclusion.

Some believed that in secluding themselves they would find some sort of personal ascension and a better understanding of life, away from the material drives of the world, and even more so after the rise of Buddhism.

Others found that seclusion would garner them more attention, status, and material gain, a direct contrast to the idea of personal and/or Buddhist piety.

Some men made the transition into the wilderness because their structured life had been so terribly destroyed by natural disasters that they had no other choice but to do so.

Recluses in Asian antiquity were revered for their writing because their works introduced those in society to a point of view not cluttered by the conformed ideals of societal life.

[33] Hōjōki is one of the earliest Japanese classical works that was brought to the attention of Western readership, mainly because of its Buddhist elements.

[34] However, the first English translation of the work was attempted by Natsume Sōseki in 1891, one of the most prominent Japanese literary figures in modern times.

[35] Later on William George Aston, Frederick Victor Dickins, Minakata Kumagusu, and many others translated the work into English again.

Notable modern translations were prepared by Yasuhiko Moriguchi & David Jenkins (1998), Meredith McKinney (2014), and Matthew Stavros (2020; republished by Tuttle Books in 2024).