The Japanese Family Storehouse: Or the Millionaire's Gospel Modernised

by Saikaku Ihara, G.W. Sargent (Translator)

283 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Saikaku Ihara (井原 西鶴) was a Japanese poet and creator of the "floating world" genre of Japanese prose (ukiyo-zōshi).

Born the son of the wealthy merchant Hirayama Tōgo (平山藤五) in Osaka, he first studied haikai poetry under Matsunaga Teitoku, and later studied under Nishiyama Sōin of the Danrin School of poetry, which emphasized comic linked verse. Scholars have described numerous extraordinary feats of solo haikai composition at one sitting; most famously, over the course of a single day and night in 1677, Saikaku is reported to have composed at least 16,000 haikai stanzas, with some rumors placing the number at over 23,500 stanzas.

Later in life he began writing racy accounts of the financial and amorous affairs of the merchant class and the demimonde. These stories catered to the whims of the newly prominent merchant class, whose tastes of entertainment leaned toward the arts and pleasure districts.

Reviews

[Gwern · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moved to gwern.net.

[Dalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not for everyone, this is an interesting insight into Japanese traditional values and customs of ordinary people.

[David Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had learned a little about Ihara Saikaku during Japanese studies at university, and knew that “The Japanese Family Storehouse” was a work depicting the lives of merchants and townspeople. After reading a kids version of Jippensha Ikku’s “Hizakurige” with my son, I looked up the English translation at my local Tokyo library and also discovered a copy of this G. W. Sargent translation of Saikaku’s representative work too.

This was, from my perspective, quite a study to read, but completely worth it - lots of fantastic and fascinating insights into life in Japan in the 1600’s.

I am interested in modern day futures trading, and knew that rice futures were the first futures-like instrument in the world. You’ll read references to that here in these tales (the work consists of 6 volumes of five short stories each) as well as more general approaches for merchants to make (and lose) their fortunes.

There are also tales from around Japan, as far north as Sakata in present day Yamagata, and down south west in Nagasaki, and various other cities in between.

The writing style takes some getting used to - it is very different from your normal story tale. The introduction part of the book explains the origins of the style, but roughly each story is a collection of loosely collected anecdotes connected by a common theme.

This is likely a very niche read, but if one is interested in business and Japanese history and life in general 350 years ago, I totally recommend this book.