The Life Of An Amorous Woman
(IHARA SAIKAKU)
Saikaku was also a haikai poet, but The Life of
an Amorous Woman is a selection of his short stories, taken from four
works published between 1686 and 1692. These are engaging and make a pleasant
entertainment ? many end unhappily and there is some grit in their realism, but
they are light-hearted, irreverent, ironic, and detached. Saikaku''s stories
also offer a fascinating picture of town life during the period, with characters
from all levels of society, from courtesans and merchants to servants and
beggars.
The stories from Five Women Who Chose Love, describing ill-fated
lovers, are based on actual events. In The Life of an Amorous Woman an
old woman tells tales of her erotic adventures as wife, courtesan, and secret
mistress of a priest, servant, seamstress, street prostitute, and more. The
Eternal Storehouse of Japan turns to commerce and the making and losing of
money, through means both legal and illegal. And Reckonings That Carry Men
Through the World has stories of debts and poverty and the settling of
accounts. (One drawback to the volume is that these works are not complete ? it
has three of the five stories in Five Women, fourteen of twenty-four
chapters of An Amorous Woman, and so forth ? which may be annoying for
those who end up reading more Saikaku.)
A fifty page introduction provides background on the Genroku period, on the
increasing wealth of towns and the artistic and erotic Floating World they
supported, and on Saikaku and his works and style. There are a hundred pages of
detailed notes, explaining names and cultural references, but the stories can
be read without ever consulting these. And a nice inclusion are some of the
black and white line drawings that were integrated with the original text.
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