Saikaku Ihara
Japanese Edo-period poet and novelist, prominent haikai poet who became a leading writer of ukiyo-zōshi (books of the 'floating world'). Known for vivid, often comic depictions of urban commoner life; notable work includes The Life of an Amorous Man.
Books
This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.
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1. The Life Of An Amorous Man
A rakish narrator recounts, with brisk wit and satirical eye, his lifelong pursuit of pleasure in the bustling pleasure quarters and streets of early modern Japan: beginning as an eager young seducer, he cycles through countless affairs, gambling, debts, and schemes, moving between cities and social ranks as he learns to seduce, manipulate, and be manipulated. The episodic memoir traces how appetite for amour brings both sumptuous pleasures and humiliating losses, illuminating the commerce of desire and the social life of the urban underworld while gradually exposing the emptiness and consequences of a life spent chasing fleeting erotic delights.
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