Parody, Irony and Ideology in the Fiction of Ihara Saikaku

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Contents Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Introduction The Dawn of Publishing in Tokugawa Japan Literary Precedents Literary Career, Reception Translations and Scholarship Aims of This Study Setting the Scene: Preliminary Observations Social Hierarchy, Censorship and Sumptuary Edicts Defining (Saikaku’s) Parody Parody, Paradox, Sexuality and Non-Duality Buddhism and “Floating World” Aesthetics The Way of Youths Chapter 1 Aspirations Above Their Station: The Life of an Amorous Man Introduction Part 1: Haikai, Parody and Social Mobility “The Sumptuous Poem-Coat” “A Kiss in a Cup in a Basket” “Taikomochi Letting Their Hair Down” “Fresh as First-Picked Tea” Part 2: Brothels High and Low “They Couldn’t Recognize a Stylish Man” “Her Backside Aimed in His Direction” Part 3: A Love with Illustrious Precedents: Shudō in Amorous Man “His Sleeves Damp from an Opportune Shower” “The Bedding in a Clay Hut” “The Whoosh from a Sword in a Dream” Part 4: The Plight of Women and of (Male and Female) Prostitutes The Roving Libertine “A Secret Stash of Cash” “Now They Call Her ‘Ma’am’” Part 5: Sailing Out “Dolls from the Capital” The Enlightened Libertine Chapter 2 Chōnin High and Low: Five Women Who Loved Love Introduction “The Story of Seijūrō in Himeji” “The Barrelmaker Brimful of Love” “What the Seasons Brought the Almanac Maker” “The Greengrocer’s Daughter with a Bundle of Love” “Gengobei, the Mountain of Love” Chapter 3 Paragons of Wickedness: Twenty Cases of Filial Impiety in Japan Introduction Brothel Quarter Wastrels A Serial Divorcée: “Her Trousseau Held in a Battered Trunk” Charismatic Villains “A Fine Kettle of Fish” “I Am a Traveling Monk, Wandering Through the Gathering Dusk” The Duty to Procreate “Girls and Cherry Blossoms Fallen in Their Prime” “Competitive Storytelling Was His New Amusement” “An Untoward Pride in His Own Strength” Chapter 4 The Brave, the Bad and the Ridiculous: Exemplary Tales of the Way of the Warrior Introduction Part 1: Samurai Behaving Badly “Climbing a Tree to the Height of Indiscretion” “The Four-Legged Walking Foot-Warmer” “A Swordsman Struck Down with Poisoned Saké” “He Took Her, Sight Unseen, Then Ran Amok on Their Wedding Night” “A Man’s Handwriting from a Woman’s Hand” Part 2: Shudō High and Low “Women Who Played the Bamboo Flute with Secret Intent” “Heartstrings Plucked on Lake Biwa” “Dueling Flames of Passion Raise Smoke on the Funereal Incense Altar” “A Youth in His Prime, Splendid as the Bush Clover in Miyagino” “’Tis Pity His Forelocks Have Scattered before the Wind off Mt. Hakone” “Koto Music in a Clay Hut Where One Would Expect to Hear the Pounding of a Stone Mortar Instead” “Hunting Early Mushrooms Sows the Seeds of Love” “The Investigation Turned Up a Striped Hakama” Samurai and Chōnin Afterword Bibliography Index