The Japanese Family Storehouse: or the Millionaires' Gospel Modernised (University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, Series Number 3)

Literature & Fiction

SAIKAKU, IHARA

History & Criticism

Cambridge University Press

The Great Mirror of Male Love

âA welcome opportunity for wider comparison of the literary traditions and sexual conventions of Japanese and Euro-American cultures.ââJournal of Japanese Studies

Stanford University Press

The first complete translation of Nanshoku okagami by Ihara Saikaku (1642-93), this is a collection of 40 stories describing homosexual love affairs between samurai men and boys and between young kabuki actors and their middle-class patrons. Seventeenth-century Kyoto was the center of a flourishing publishing industry, and for the first time in Japan's history it became possible for writers to live exclusively on their earnings. Saikaku was the first to actually do so. As a popular writer, Saikaku wanted to entertain his readership. When he undertook the writing of Nanshoku okagami in 1687, it was with the express purpose of extending his readership and satisfying his ambition to be published in the three major cities of his day, Kyoto, Osaka, and Edo. He chose the topic of male homosexual love because it had the broadest appeal both to the samurai men of Edo and to the townsmen of Kyoto and Osaka, his regular audience. Homosexual relations between a man and a boy were a regular feature of premodern Japanese culture and carried no stigma. When a boy reached the age of nineteen, he underwent a coming-of-age ceremony, after which he took the adult role in relations with boys.

World Literature

First published in 1686, this collection of five novellas was an immediate bestseller in the bawdy world that was Genroku Japan, and the book's popularity has increased with age, making it today a literary classic like Boccaccio's Decameron, or the works of Rabelais.

Five Women Who Loved Love: Amorous Tales from 17th-century Japan

Contemporary

Tuttle+publishing

First published in 1682, The Life of an Amorous Man depicts the pursuits and follies of the most glorious age of Japan, when wealthy commoners could rise above the warrior caste and indulge in the free and easy life of Japan's pleasure houses. The hero, Yonosuke, whose name means "Man of the World," is followed from his precocious childhood to the close of his amatory career. His erotic escapades are chronicled, always with frankness and often with pathos. The character sketches of the women (and sometimes men) with whom he dallied are vividly portrayed.

Life of an Amorous Man

The Life of an Amorous Man depicts the pursuits and follies of the most glorious age of old Japan, when the new bourgeoisie, unfettered by the societal constraints of the traditional aristocracy, indulged in the free and easy life of Japan's celebrated pleasure houses. The hero of this novel is a composite of the many daijin (men of wealth) who spent their time in these flourishing establishments. The novel follows the hero, Yonosuke, or "Man of the World," from precocious childhood to the close of his amatory career. Along the way, Saikaku exploits the full gamut of sexual indulgence, always with frankness, often with humor, and occasionally with pathos - chronicling the erotic escapades of his hero and providing vivid character sketches of the women (and sometimes men) with whom Yonosuke dallied.

The Life of an Amorous Man

Charles E.Tuttle Co.

Book by Saikaku Ihara, David C. Stubbs, Masanori Takatsuka

This Scheming World

David C. Stubbs

Masanori Takatsuka

Tuttle Pub

Twenty-three stories satirize the world of seventeenth-century Japan, the failing of human nature, and grand formulas for finding wealth or happiness

Some Final Words of Advice (English and Japanese Edition)

Charles E.Tuttle Company

This Scheming World (Tuttle Classics of Japanese Literature)

Stubbs, David C.

Takatsuka, Masanori

Bookspan

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Books by SAIKAKU, IHARA

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by SAIKAKU, IHARA. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Japanese Family Storehouse: or the Millionaires' Gospel Modernised (University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, Series Number 3)

The Great Mirror of Male Love

The Great Mirror of Male Love

Five Women Who Loved Love: Amorous Tales from 17th-century Japan

Life of an Amorous Man

The Life of an Amorous Man

This Scheming World

Some Final Words of Advice (English and Japanese Edition)

This Scheming World

Life of an Amorous Man