Life of an Amorous Man

210 Pages·1964·1.37 MB·English

by  Saikaku Ihara

This book made available by the Internet Archive.

INTRODUCTION
Ihara Saikaku (1641-93) was undoubtedly one of the most uninhibited writers
that ever published a tale. Critics of the more sensitive school of belles-lettres
have downgraded him as "vulgar" because of his unabashed preoccupation with
life in the gay quarters. Others, concerned less with moralistic judgments than
with technique and objectivity in the storytelling art, have acclaimed him as a
great "realist" writer—largely, it would seem, because of his minute, true-to-life
delineation of characters, customs, and events of his day.
Saikaku belonged to the classical school of novelists and poets. The term
classical, as here applied, refers to that priceless bulk of indigenous literature,
both prose and verse, that had accumulated since the dawn of articulate history
until the introduction of Western literary forms in the 19th century, which
brought about a complete change in outlook, technique, and style upon the native
pattern.
What distinguishes Saikaku from the other two prose writers who share with him
the pre-eminent niche in the "classical" firmament is the fact that whereas Lady
Murasaki dealt with the ancient nobility (The Tale of Genji) and Kyokutei Bakin
with feudal lords and the *r samurai caste (The Eight Retainers ofSatomi),
Saikaku was <->
concerned solely with life among the common people.
In particular, Saikaku depicted in his writings the ft
pursuits and follies of the most glamorous period in ^ medieval Japan—the dawn
of the Genroku era—when the hitherto oppressed commoners first enjoyed the
fruits 5
^
fy of untrammeled security and ease. He was thus the first vital exponent of the
democratic spirit in the annals of ^ written Japanese literature.
^ Consider the times. The reigning Tokugawa dictator—
co ship, with its sumptuary laws and outspread strategy
co ship, with its sumptuary laws and outspread strategy
o designed to discourage rebellion among ambitious § princes and lords, had
brought prolonged peace to a
land hitherto wrecked by civil war. Samurai swords now rusted from disuse. The
commoners had no part in government, but merchants, craftsmen, shopkeepers,
moneylenders, and innkeepers in the great burgeoning cities began to thrive as
never before. They were the men with the goods, producers and sellers of
services. The samurai warrior caste produced nothing, but, with steady income
from feudatories, they became lavish spenders and fell into a state of innocuous
desuetude. The merchants set the pace of progress, literally thumbing their noses
at the ruling class.
This spectacular rise of the common people ushered in an era of unprecedented
prosperity, colorful luxuries, and irrepressible gaiety. Theaters, the arts, and the
entertainment quarters flourished. Freedom of expression in the world of art and
a new zest for living gave birth to a great number of talented artists, writers,
poets, dramatists, and sundry entertainers. And Saikaku was one of the
forerunners of this genre school. Thus, what such famous ukiyo-e woodblock
color print artists as Hokusai, Utamaro, Hiroshige, and Kiyonaga expressed in
pictures, Saikaku told in prose.
Himself originally a thriving merchant in the up-and-coming plebeian metropolis
of Osaka, Saikaku lost his wife and daughter long before his prime. The tragedy
moved him so deeply that he turned over his business to his manager and led the
life of a roving Buddhist monk. He traveled extensively, returning to Osaka once
every six months or so.
For some twenty-five years he devoted himself to the writing of haiku verse,
producing at about the same time a prodigious amount of prose work. As a poet,
Saikaku first studied under the aged master Nishiyama Baika and soon started
his own avant-garde school of haiku poetry. It was then that he adopted the pen
name Ihara Saikaku (his real name was Hirayama Togo). Possibly the most
prolific versifier of all time, he is said to have once composed as many as 26,500
poems at a single day's haiku competition. He probably merely recited them
extemporaneously, with someone else writing them down simultaneously for the
record.
A contemporary comment by Ito Baiu on Saikaku's prose work pictures him as a
man of deep understanding and sympathy. Saikaku, the comment says, had a
man of deep understanding and sympathy. Saikaku, the comment says, had a
refined, romantic-looking head and a figure that never seemed to age.
The present volume (Koshoku Ichidai Otoko) is Saikaku's first major work in
prose, published when he was forty-one years of age. It is remarkable less for the
gay adventures of the protagonist (a fictional composite of the many daijin, or
men of wealth, who visited the gay quarters) than for the superb character
sketches of the women he dallies with. It was Saikaku who immortalized the
famed tayu (courtesans) in entertainment houses, the prototype of the modern
geisha.
Moreover, he combined in this tale the ups and downs of human experience—
good and evil, luck and misfortune, misery and pleasure, stark realities and the
mystical, sin and repentance, the sordid and the beautiful. w As such, the book is
an excellent commentary on the 15 times—how prosperity and corruption went
hand in — hand among the rising commoners. ^
Saikaku wrote about what he saw, heard, or ex-JJ perienced without mincing
words, in a picturesque prose characteristic not only of his sensibilities but also
of his 7
^
Q outspokenness. His narrative is interspersed here and there with serious
introspective moods, like conscience ■^ sitting in judgment. As such, this is not
just another
^ medieval tale but a powerful social indictment.
co Translating Saikaku's archaic prose, with the ornate
o idioms, cadences, and stylistic literary norms of a
§ vanished era, and with no punctuation or paragraphing
^ so necessary for clarity and comprehensibility, is an
enormously difficult task—a challenge to modern linguists, if not to the Japanese
themselves of today.
The method which I have used is, therefore, a departure from the conventional
way of rendering word for word, phrase for phrase, line for line. For the most
way of rendering word for word, phrase for phrase, line for line. For the most
part, I have tried to convey the gist of his narrative, thought for thought, in
modern English, without unduly sacrificing the flavor of the original.
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