[Section 34]
Kanko (the lid of a shell, used in blended incense) is the lid of a small shell shaped like a conch, with a long thin spout at the mouth. There were some at the bay called Kanazawa in Musashi, and the people there said, "We call it henatari."
[Section 119]
The fish called katsuo (bonito) in the sea at Kamakura is these days prized there as the finest of all. Yet an old man of Kamakura said, "Until we were young, this fish was never served before people of standing. Even servants did not eat the head; it was cut off and thrown away." Such things too, as the world declines, make their way even among the upper classes.
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Kenko is said to have gone down to the Kanto at least twice when young. One place he stayed was Kanazawa in Musashi, now Kanazawa Ward in Yokohama. In Kanazawa was Shomyoji, founded by the Kanazawa branch of the Hojo clan, and next to it the Kanazawa Library held precious Japanese and Chinese books. It is thought Kenko studied here and stayed with acquaintances.
A letter said to be in Kenko's own hand is kept at Shomyoji. The bay of Kanazawa, with its beautiful inlets and islands, was a scenic spot later painted by Utagawa Hiroshige as the "Eight Views of Kanazawa."
To Kenko, a man of the capital, the things of the east were novel. He notes the local name of a shell and is amused at how bonito has risen in the world. That curiosity and eye for detail shine throughout Essays in Idleness.