What do you think?
Rate this book
Some Final Words of Advice
Twenty-three stories satirize the world of seventeenth-century Japan, the failing of human nature, and grand formulas for finding wealth or happiness
- GenresJapanese Literature
250 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1980
1 person is currently reading
7 people want to read
About the author
Saikaku Ihara
103 books61 followersSaikaku 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 11, 2012
I have a strange relationship with Ihara Saikaku's work. Tantalized by the thick descriptions of everyday life in Tokugawa Japan, I often laugh at his jokes and am drawn into another time. The descriptions which demonstrate a shifting preoccupation with money and trade... a theme so prominent that I am almost tempted to file his work under a label of economic determinism.
But there is much more to the Ihara than this, and the breadth with which is work engages the social world can be demonstrated from my favorite selection from this book:"Ise, Where they Know you at a Glance." The narrative is focused on the famous pilgrimage to Ise shrine. Because of the numbers of pilgrims, the description on how the region copes with the influx of huge numbers of people is delightful.
"Especially in the spring, the pilgrims are like a mountain on the march, their packhorses bedecked in flowers and drawn in endless lines alongside them. Field trips arrive from every village and hamlet, with two or three hundred pilgrims from one of these villages alone, and since they are all placed in the charge of a single priest, pilgrims from east and west and a dozen different provinces mingle together in delightful confusion. But no matter which of the several priests these pilgrims are charged to, each of the fifteen hundred to three thousand worshipers receives equal treatment.
The kitchen facilities that feed so many people are a marvel of ingenuity. All the necessary utensils are carefully set at both the head table and the number two table. Although one might suspect that unless there were two hundred hired hands working in the kitchen the task of feeding two or three thousand people would be well nigh an impossibility, the entire task is performed by a mere twenty men. First, bowls and chopsticks are placed on individual trays and then plates and other utensils are arranged alongside, all of this being done by three men. Instead of having to wait for the water to heat, the men place the rice in screen baskets that they then lower into the boiling water. The fish that go into the broth are not cleaned and sliced on carving boards but are sliced directly over the large vats to avoid wasting time in carving."
While these details stir my heart with admiration, much of "Some Final Words of Advice," like "This Scheming World," is meant to provide financial advice. Some of these are also deeply interesting... but I eventually grow tired of reading warnings concerning villainous women as the main source of fiscal ruin. Wives and youth spend a fortune on combs, female servants 'seduce' masters in order to blackmail the family, wet nurses lie, and courtesans represent temptation causing 'upstanding' young men to squander their fortunes. The negative tone towards the female spirit wears on my anarcho-feminist sensibilities.
Ihara is worth reading, and remains an important figure in Japanese literature.
He just annoys the me enough at times that I need to throw his books.
But there is much more to the Ihara than this, and the breadth with which is work engages the social world can be demonstrated from my favorite selection from this book:"Ise, Where they Know you at a Glance." The narrative is focused on the famous pilgrimage to Ise shrine. Because of the numbers of pilgrims, the description on how the region copes with the influx of huge numbers of people is delightful.
"Especially in the spring, the pilgrims are like a mountain on the march, their packhorses bedecked in flowers and drawn in endless lines alongside them. Field trips arrive from every village and hamlet, with two or three hundred pilgrims from one of these villages alone, and since they are all placed in the charge of a single priest, pilgrims from east and west and a dozen different provinces mingle together in delightful confusion. But no matter which of the several priests these pilgrims are charged to, each of the fifteen hundred to three thousand worshipers receives equal treatment.
The kitchen facilities that feed so many people are a marvel of ingenuity. All the necessary utensils are carefully set at both the head table and the number two table. Although one might suspect that unless there were two hundred hired hands working in the kitchen the task of feeding two or three thousand people would be well nigh an impossibility, the entire task is performed by a mere twenty men. First, bowls and chopsticks are placed on individual trays and then plates and other utensils are arranged alongside, all of this being done by three men. Instead of having to wait for the water to heat, the men place the rice in screen baskets that they then lower into the boiling water. The fish that go into the broth are not cleaned and sliced on carving boards but are sliced directly over the large vats to avoid wasting time in carving."
While these details stir my heart with admiration, much of "Some Final Words of Advice," like "This Scheming World," is meant to provide financial advice. Some of these are also deeply interesting... but I eventually grow tired of reading warnings concerning villainous women as the main source of fiscal ruin. Wives and youth spend a fortune on combs, female servants 'seduce' masters in order to blackmail the family, wet nurses lie, and courtesans represent temptation causing 'upstanding' young men to squander their fortunes. The negative tone towards the female spirit wears on my anarcho-feminist sensibilities.
Ihara is worth reading, and remains an important figure in Japanese literature.
He just annoys the me enough at times that I need to throw his books.
Displaying 1 of 1 review