Saikaku Ihara - Life of an Amorous Man

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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" writerlargely, 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 Japanthe dawn of the Genroku erawhen 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

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 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 experiencegood 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 timeshow 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 taska 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 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.

Honolulu, Hawaii Kengi Ham ad a

PART I

OF STARS A-WOOING

Even the moon sets all too soon, beyond the shadows of Mt. Sayama. The cherry blossoms were dead, suggesting to him the evanescence of human life and filling his heart with a vague sense of grief. There was the silver mine. It was his. But he was already a man of means, and wealth, as such, held no fascination for him. The drab empty life, here in the province of Tajima, left his irrepressible yearnings unfulfilled. Overwhelmed at last by all this bleakness but hopeful of the joys to be found in romantic old Kyoto, he set out for the imperial capital. Ah, he mused expectantly, there he would pursue the charms of beautiful women and the pleasures of wine!

Yumesuke, "the Man of Dreams," they called him in Kyoto. For his sober, hard-working neighbors never saw him otherwise than sleeping or just awaking. Nightly he frequented the gay quarters of Shimabara with such fashionable, if dissolute, men about town as Nagoya Sansa and Kaga-no-Hachi.