The Life of an Amorous Woman: And Other WritingsNew Directions Publishing, 1963 - 403 pages One of the great fiction writers of Japan, Ihara Saikaku (1623-93) wrote of the lowest class in the Tokugawa world--the townsmen who were rising in wealth and power but not in official status. The title story in this collection of 12 works, told by an again beauty whose highly erotic nature is her constant undoing, ranges over all of 17th century Japanese life. The narrator is successively wife, court lady, courtesan, priest's concubine, mistress of a feudal lord and streetwalker. Ivan Morris, chairman of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures of Columbia University has done a brilliant translation, an introduction, extensive notes, bibliography and two essays on social customs of the period. |
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Amorous Woman bathhouse beauty bill collectors Buddha Buddhist capital century ceremonial chōnin clothes coin coppers courtesan Daikoku daimyō dance Danrin Edo Period elegant equivalent famous fashion favour Festival Floating World gay quarters Gengobei Genji Genroku girl gold koban haikai hair hand heart heroine husband Ichidai Japan Japanese jōruri Kabuki kemari kimono koban Kōshoku Gonin Onna Kyōto lady lived look lovers maid merchant mistress Moémon momme Moon mountain night Nippon Eitaigura normally Oman Onatsu one's Ōsaka Osan pillow pleasure poem pray present present-day priest prose province Reference rice ryō Saikaku sakè samurai sash saying sedge Seijuro Setsubun Seven Lucky Gods Shimabara Shinroku Shrine silk silver sleeves Storehouse story style Tale of Genji tayū teahouse temple Teruoka things thought tion Tokugawa townsmen ukiyo ukiyo-zōshi Urabon various wife women words writing Year's Yoshiwara young