This Scheming World

by Saikaku Ihara, Masanori Takatsuka (Translator), David C. Stubbs (Translator)

Published in 1692, one year before the author's death, This Scheming World (Seken Munasanyo) represents the culmination of Ihara Saikaku's genius in realistically portraying the characters, customs, and events of his day. Most of the stories in the book are told as incidents or episodes relating to New Year's eve, when in those days it was the custom to balance all debits and credits for the year, and thus a time when the drama of life - its tragedies, comedies, and farces-reached its climax. Decidedly biased toward the debtors, Ihara has them slipping off to the homes of favorite mistresses, leaving town on "sudden" business trips, or becoming actors for the day in order to deceive the ever-persistent year-end collectors. Some of his characters are successful, while others are beset by even more troubles in trying to avoid the collectors. In humorously probing into the lives of the masses at the year's end, Ihara weaves a powerful social indictment of the old merchant centers of Edo, Osaka, and Kyoto as well as an absorbing series of tales.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Japan, Fiction, Short Stories, 17th Century, Asian Literature, Novels

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1692

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

[Ángel Agudo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Antología de relatos costumbristas sobre cómo se gastaba la gente el dinero en el período Edo y cómo eran algunos de sus tacaños. El autor prioriza las reflexiones y la ambientación sobre el argumento y los relatos acaban siendo estampas breves de algunas situaciones cotidianas. El valor del libro recae más en cómo refleja la época y sus costumbres que en otra cosa. Al final, me ha sabido a poco y me ha resultado bastante aburrido. Me quedo con el Saikaku de las historias de amoríos.

[Alex Pler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Los libros de este autor son una ventana al Japón Edo: historias llenas de detalles costumbristas, que debajo de mucho humor y sarcasmo atesoran un análisis universal del comportamiento humano. Al final el hilo argumental es lo de menos y lo fascinante viene por asistir a la vida de otra época casi como si fuera un documental.

[Smiley · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Reading this small book written by Ihara Saikaku as "a Japanese poet and creator of the 'floating world' genre of Japanese prose (ukiyo-zoshi)" (Goodreads webpage) in the title of “This Scheming World” (Tuttle 1965) translated by Masanori Takatsuka and David C. Stubbs since last November, I found it surprisingly nearly readable and wondered why, probably due to its counterpart entitled “Worldly Mental Calculations” (University of California Press 1976) translated by Ben Befu in which I was primarily interested and enjoyed reading his translation. Comparatively, while Mr. Takatsuka and Mr. Stubbs presented their approximate 10-page foreword, Mr. Befu wrote his 3-page preface with a haiku-like poem as follows:

New Year’s Eve:
A certainty
In this world of uncertainty
(Ihara Saikaku, 1682)

Evidently, their contents are different since we can see there’re 20 stories in the Tuttle text whereas there’re 5 books 20 stories in the UCP text. For example: Only the first 4 stories cited.

Tuttle text:
The Extravagant Wives of Wholesalers
Pawning an Old Halberd Sheath
When Ise Lobsters Were as Scarce as Crimson Leaves in Springtime
The Mouse Messenger

UCP text:
Book One
Wholesalers’ Spendthrift Wives
The Halberd was an Old Scabbard
Lobsters are like Crimson Leaves in Spring
A Trained Rat Delivers Letters

Moreover, I think an extracted paragraph taken from each text in the same context should suffice for readers to compare and decide which one they prefer and, ideally, some who can read the Japanese original could have a say and tell us more why.

Tuttle text:
People who refuse to pay their debts are no better than daylight burglars in disguise. In brief, because they make only a very rough estimate for the year, not figuring their income and outgo month by month, most people find their income insufficient to make both ends meet. But in the case of people who live from hand to mouth things are different. Can they improve their lot by taking pains to enter their expenditure in an account book? Why, even on the very eve of the New Year their daily life is not a bit different from what it is the other days of the year. How is it possible in such circumstances for them to celebrate the New Year? Their only expectation, poor chaps, lies in their pawning whatever they may happen to have at hand. (p. 25)

CUP text:
People who leave their bills unpaid are no different from thieves who steal in broad daylight and yet masquerade as good neighbors. It seems that all too many people content themselves with cursory computations for the year; and failing to keep up their monthly calculations, they are unable to make ends meet. People who live from hand to mouth, however, have so little to spend that they need not even bother keeping books.
For these poor folks in the tenements New Year’s Eve was no different from any other day, and as I wondered how they were going to tide themselves over the holidays, it became painfully evident that they had long decided to pawn their possessions. … (p. 38)

To continue …

[Nazmi Yaakub · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Scheming World bukanlah cerpen dalam bentuk yang kita terima pada masa kini tetapi ia lebih kepada anekdot yang diceritakan oleh seorang narator yang mengambil posisi serba tahu. Keseluruhan cerpen dalam karya klasik ini bergerak pada latar di ambang Tahun Baharu dalam kalendar Jepun apabila semua manusia berusaha untuk menutup akaun masing-masing termasuk pemungut hutang.

Telatah manusia yang dirakam oleh Ihara Saikaku atau nama sebenarnya Togo Hirayama sangat menarik untuk ditelaah - dengan musim dingin yang bakal menjelang, manusia didesak untuk memberikan nilai yang sangat tinggi pada wang, bahkan melebihi kemanusiaan itu sendiri.

Hampir-hampir saja, kita membaca kisah yang bukan berlaku pada abad ke-17 tetapi pada masa kini, ketika modernisme sangat menguasai, manakala materialisme menjadikan kita lain daripada dahulu. Hanya saja penggunaan mata wang dan elemen budaya mengingatkan kita betapa karya yang kita tatap bukanlah karya pada masa kini, tetapi karya yang membuktikan materialisme dan telatah manusia hampir-hampir tidak berubah sejak berabad-abad lama.

[Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read his “Comrade Loves of the Samurai”, “The Life of an Amorous Man”, “The Life of an Amorous Woman and Other Writings” and “Five Women Who Loved Love”, I was surprised to come across this book “Worldly Mental Calculations” (University of California Press, 1976) wondering if it has the same Japanese title as another book entitled “The Scheming World” (Tuttle, 1965). However, there’s a few differences in terms of the original, that is, the UPC text states ‘Seken munezan’yō’ while the Tuttle text maintains ‘Seken Munasanyo’ on which their accuracy awaits a verdict from some Japanese scholars.

[Desca Ang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ihara Saikaku has been one of my favourite Japanese writers for two reasons.
⠀
1. He triumphantly is able to portray and proclaim the humanity free from all the restraints of feudal morals.
⠀
2. His amorous stories like Five Women who Love Love, the Life of an Amorous Man, and his other works are too erotic and too wanton in the light of modern times - in my opinion. The portrayal of homosexuality, sex-voyeur represented in sexually liberated characters make Saikaku's erotica as a Japanese version of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron.
⠀
This Scheming World is one of the most consolidated of all his works. Most of the stories are told as series of incidents related to New Year's Eve, when in Saikaku's era it was common to balance all debits and credits for the year. On that particular day, Saikaku's nameless masses of players experience the drama of life to a climax: tragedies, comedies, farces, and other human incidents that cannot even be classified into any of the regular categories of stage-plays.
⠀
Coming to my personal opinion, this book is quite a little bit different from other Saikaku's works but it is still funny and entertaining. It is intriguing when Saikaku says;
⠀
"It's better on the whole...to give up dissipation in good time, for a roué is seldom happy in later life...even if life at home seems dry and tasteless,you'd better have patience with a supper of cold rice, potluck bean curd and dried fish. You can always have one of your tenants repeat for you the story of Lord Itakura's gourd justice...you may lie down at perfect ease and have a maid massage you down. If you want tea, you may sip it while your wife holds the cup. A man in his own household is the commander supreme, whose authority none will dare to question, and there is none to condemn you. There's no need to seek further genuine pleasure.
⠀
A woman, after all is a woman:,marked differences between professionals and non-pro. But by comparison to the non-pro seem slow-witted,ungainly, and unrefined in letter writing...in bed they can talk nothing but bean paste and salt."
⠀

[Daniel Burton-Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of short profiles set on New Year's Eve, when the year's debts are due. Though Saikaku's works all contemplate the cultural manifestations of the rising influence of commerce, this is the work in which he focuses on merchants directly. His schemers calculate as constantly as any of Balzac's rising bourgeoisie, although they predate their French counterparts by nearly 150 years.

[Suketus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ajankuvaa 1600-luvun Japanista. Pieniä novelleja kaupankäynnistä, rahasta, ahneudesta ja kaupunkilaisuudesta. Kirjallisesti nämä eivät minulle paljoa anna, mutta historiallisena materiaalina tietysti ihan hurjan kiinnostavaa. Ja onhan persous rahalle jotenkin ihan hemmetin universaalia ja ikuista, kuten Saikaku Iharan novellit osoittavat. Voi meitä ahneita ihmisiä.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

These twenty vignettes about debt collection at New Year’s pursue realism/naturalism to an extreme. They’re full of interesting sociological details, and they’re also extremely well composed. Unfortunately, they’re also very dry.

[Kevin Kato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing book of short stories, fictional actors in the very real and riotous world of money-making in 17th Century Osaka, Japan - a world apart but with similarities to present-day society that can not be overlooked. Check out my full, incisive and wise-ass review below.

[Steff Ling]

proto-capitalist realism

[anaeliteratura · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.8/5

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

an excellent documentation on how to make and lose a fortune upon receiving a sizable parcel of rice land in the Tamba Province.

some coolass old timey burns:

On one of the first three days of the New Year a rice cake will stick in your throat, and you'll be cremated at Torebeno.

You are a partner in crime with a slave trader

On New Year's Day your wife will go crazy and throw your baby down the well.

Messengers of Hell will carry you off in their fiery cart and eat you up.

Your father was a town watchman.

Your mother used to be the concubine of a Buddhist priest.

Your sister will go out to buy bean paste without wearing her panties and tumble head over heels in the street.


aside, i always wondered why translations of 15-17th century japanese/chinese texts always seemed much more 'modern' than 15th-17th european/english texts. i realized it's because i always read modern translations, versus the original Shakespeare or whatever in oldass person talk. Duhhhhhhhhh i feel like an idiot


How wide the gulf separating human minds!

[Gertrude & Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Scheming World is a short collection of humorous sketches of everyday life, especially around the time of the new year. The stories center around the idea of indebtedness, and the shrewd and cunning ways of the debtors to evade their creditors. Ihara Saikaku's tone is sympathetic toward the impoverished and hapless. He looks upon their common plight without the seriousness that often accompanies such topics. This is light, inessential reading. I only recommend this book for those who have already read a lot of Japanese literature.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another important book when one is considering the evolution of Japanese literature. Perhaps too esoteric for the random passerby. Some of the observations concerning 17th century economics are quite entertaining, and I'll make it a point to pick this up again on a future New Year's Day.

[Jacob Wren]

Ihara Saikaku writes:

Contrary to former times, this is an age in which money begets money. Today it is the man of common ability with capital, rather than the man of rare ability with no capital, who gains profit.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

a new year's tour through people spending beyond their means. criticism of bad economic times--no, not from 2009, but from 1692.

[Meghan Fidler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.

I haven't been particularly moved by anything Saikaku Ihara has written. I did find some of the images amusing, and I enjoyed the piece "Even Gods Make Mistakes Sometimes."

[Nana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written in the 16th century. It tells stories of how people borrowed money and how they hid from their creditors...
It's very interesting and funny, actually.

[Sydney]

Often very funny vignettes about the rise of merchant class Japan. Super readable. Who says classic literature is boring?