The Life of an Amorous Man

[telophase]

Last week I was looking up books on Kyoto and old Japan, and came across a mention of book written in the 17th century by Saikaku Ihara, titled The Life of an Amorous Man. It's a portrait of the commoner-merchant Yonosuke, one of the nouveau riche, basically, who wenches his way through life, hopping in and out of various people's beds. I'm only a couple of (short) chapters in, when he's still a teenager - he started macking on girls at about the age of four, BTW - and he's being written as sort of a commoner's Genji at times:

The spring of Yonosuke's fourteenth year was over, and on the first day of the fourth month -- the day for a complete change of wardrobe signifying the end of childhood -- he slipped on a robe with sleeves that had no wide openings under the armpits. Neighbors regretted the change, for they felt his back view in a child's tight-sleeved robe had been particularly attractive.

So far, it's been a good read. We'll see if this keeps up.

Comments

[cicer.livejournal.com]

he started macking on girls at about the age of four

...Man, those crazy Japanese. Orz. I do hope it proves a good read. I quite enjoyed your comments on The Tale of Genji back when you were reading it.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

So far, his escapades have mostly been of the sort that by rights ought to earn him a whack on the butt, but in the end everyone laughs it off with some sort of "Isn't it cute?" If this continues, it could get real old, real fast.

Anyway, the blurb says that the novel's appeal is really the short character sketches of the men and women of the floating world that Yonosuke encounters, and they've tended to be interesting so far, although seen through Yonosuke's eyes for the most part, and he tends to get skeeved at the slightest hint of the lower class.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Saikaku is the guy who wrote the Mirror of Male Love, which the Gay Dutch Guy references and which contains the unforgettable moment in which some young hottie spits into a river and a voyeur rushes downstream to drink.

[oyceter]

I was just about to say that too! Also, Mirror of Male Love totally amuses me because it sounds like a Japanese, 17th c. version of "Why Slash Is Awesome."

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yesterday I read the part in Amorous Man where Yonosuke loses his virginity to a male prostitute, after listening to the guy's sad story of how he has to give himself to anyone, no matter how smelly or how bad his teeth are. :)