Hōjō hut

One jō square is about 9 square meters, a little larger than a four-and-a-half-mat room in the Kyoto measure. A thatched hut of this size was easy to put up and easy to take down, so monks and recluses favored it. In his last years Kamo no Chōmei built such a hut at Hino, outside the capital, and in 1212 he wrote Hōjōki, named after it. The first half records the great fire, the whirlwind, the moving of the capital, the famine, and the great earthquake that struck Kyoto; the second half tells of life in the hut. A Buddhist temple also calls its abbot's quarters hōjō: in the Vimalakīrti Sutra, the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī and all his company fit into Vimalakīrti's room one jō square, which gave rise to the idea that a small room holds the whole universe. Though a work of literature, Hōjōki has often been called a true book of architecture, for the question it asks about what a dwelling is.

Step into one of the huts, or stand in front of it, and measure one jō square with your body. What do you need there to sleep, sit, and work, and what could you let go?

If your life had to fit into one jō square, what would you bring in?