Original language:
Japanese Translated from: Russian
Authors: Ihara Saikaku
Translated by: Ferensienė, Goda
Full translated source bibliographical description:
Ихара Сайкаку, ИЗБРАННОЕ. М., «Художественная литература», 1974
Published in: Vilnius
Published on: 1983
Publisher: Vaga
This book is composed of four sets of short stories. They depict Edo period in Japan and its residents of different castes and professions. These are real stories of the seventeenth century Japanese daily life, about the pleasures of love, life’s comicality and dangers of passion, Japanese traditions, castes’ and genders’ relations. The characters of Saikaku’s works transcend the laws of society and religion, and for that are punished or killed. Author\’s ideal – a frugal, prudent trader, an industrious craftsman, a good father and son, a faithful wife and a dedicated daughter. However, he sympathizes with those whose deeds and feelings do not meet the rules of life, shows the tragedy of their lives.
The first collection of short stories Five Women Who Loved Love tells various stories of five lovers. They tell about a worker in a boutique and his master‘s sister‘s affair, false accusations of adultery and actual infidelity, about a young girl‘s and a noble samurai‘s forbidden love and about a monk who loved many men but who was seduced by a clever girl.
In a Life of a Sensuous Woman the author portrays the life route of an old lady and her romantic involvements, beginning as a young, physically attractive woman, and the obstacles found during her attempt to find love during her aging years.
The tales from the province is a compilation of narrated short stories gathered by the author while traveling throughout Japan. They are mostly true events and those which are not centered on real facts, are based on folklore and legends.
And the last selection Twenty Cases of Unfilial Children is a parody of the Confucian classic The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars that describes twenty-four cases of filial behavior. Saikaku‘s work is a complete opposite, it presents twenty cases of sons‘ disobedience, stories about crime and punishment.
Ihara Saikaku (born as Hirayama Togo, 1642-1693) – XVII century Japanese poet and creator of the floating world genre of Japanese prose (ukiyo-zōshi). In his teenage years he started composing and became a popular haikai poet. Shortly after his wife‘s death, Saikaku left behind his business and began traveling all across Japan. From then on he pursued career as a professional writer. Saikaku‘s work became extremely popular and is now celebrated for its significance in the development of Japanese fiction.