Ihara Saikaku

• Born: 1642
• Died: 1693
• Japanese: 井原西鶴 (Ihara Saikaku)

Ihara Saikaku is perhaps the most prominent novelist of the Edo period. He is known chiefly for his humorous stories featuring urban commoners and samurai, including a number of erotic works. Along with Ichikawa Danjûrô I and Chikamatsu Monzaemon in theatre, and Hishikawa Moronobu and the Torii school in woodblock prints, Saikaku, representing literature, is considered one of the key figures in the Genroku period, marking the emergence of new Edo period forms of popular culture which would go on to develop and mature later in the period.

Saikaku was born heir to a major merchant household in Osaka, and went on to become head of the household and of the family's commercial operations. However, after the death of his wife, he allowed the head clerk of the business to oversee operations, devoting his own time to poetry, literature, and adventures in the pleasure quarters. He was an active member in local cultural circles, and often took part in poetry circles and social gatherings; on one day in 1684, he engaged in a sort of fun challenge, in which he composed 23,500 verses of renga poetry in a single 24-hour period at the Sumiyoshi Shrine in Osaka.

Many of his books remain prominent examples of Edo period literature today, and in their original publications included illustrations by many of the most prominent ukiyo-e artists of that time, including Hishikawa Moronobu, Yoshida Hanbei, and Nishikawa Sukenobu.

many have been translated into English.

Selected Works

• Kôshoku ichidai otoko ("The Life of an Amorous Man", 1682)
• Kôshoku ichidai onna ("Life of an Amorous Woman", 1686)
• Yaoya Monogatari ("The Tale of Yaoya", 1686)
• Nanshoku ôkagami ("The Great Mirror of Male Love", 1687)
• Nihon eitaigura ("Eternal Storehouse of Japan," 1688)

References

• Albert M. Craig, The Heritage of Japanese Civilization, Second Edition, Prentice Hall (2011), 83.