Amorous woman - Amorous woman

Ihara Saikaku's Ukiyo-zoshi. Published in June 1686 (Jokyo 3) by Okada Saburouemon, Osaka. Six volumes and six books. It consists of 24 short stories in which two young men listen to the confession of their past lives from an elderly woman who runs a koshokuan hermitage in the mountains of Saga, Rakusei. A young girl who served the Imperial Court is banished for an illicit love affair, and to save her family from poverty, she starts out as a dancer, then a concubine of a feudal lord, and then a prostitute in the Shimabara brothel in Kyoto. Her life of change continues as she falls from tayu to Tenjin, then to kakoi-joro, and finally to hashi-joro in Shinmachi, Osaka. She moved through all sorts of jobs, from a concubine to a monk, a female calligraphy instructor, a maid in a town house, a samurai's attendant, a nun who sings, a hairdresser, a bride's attendant, a seamstress, a tea room girl, a teahouse girl, a bathhouse girl, a fan shop owner's wife, and a lotus leaf girl in a wholesaler. Eventually, she descended into the lowest class of private prostitute, a prostitute in the night. One day, she saw images of the men she had had relations with in the statue of Five Hundred Arhats. Realizing the impermanence of life, she tried to commit suicide by jumping off the statue, but failed, and so she became a nun and embarked on the path to enlightenment. It was influenced by Chinese literature such as Zhang Wencheng's "The Cave of Visitors and Immortals" and Su Dongpo's "Poem of the Nine Phases," and it follows the tradition of confessional works dating back to the medieval novel "The Three Priests." However, it focuses on the life of a woman who has experienced the dark side of life, depicts a vicissitudes of fate, and is a masterpiece of a novel of manners that offers a deep contemplation of humanity that peers into the depths of life.

[Akira Asano]

“The Lecherous Ichidai Onna” (translated by Isamu Yoshii) (Kadokawa Bunko) ▽ “The Shincho Japanese Classics Collection: The Lustful Ichidai Onna” (1976, Shinchosha), annotated by Muko Murata

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

井原西鶴(さいかく)の浮世草子。1686年（貞享3）6月、大坂・岡田三郎右衛門より刊行。6巻6冊。洛西(らくせい)嵯峨(さが)の山かげ好色庵(こうしょくあん)で、2人の青年が庵主の老女から一代の懺悔(さんげ)告白を聞く筋(すじ)を構えた24の短編小説よりなる。宮仕えをしていた少女が不義の恋により追放され、一家の窮乏を救うため、踊り子を振り出しに、大名の妾(めかけ)、さらに京都島原遊廓(ゆうかく)の遊女となる。太夫(たゆう)から天神、囲女郎(かこいじょろう)へと身を落とし、大坂新町の端(はし)女郎へと流転の生涯が続く。坊主の妾、女筆(にょひつ)指南、町家の腰元奉公、武家の表使い、歌比丘尼(うたびくに)、髪結い女、嫁入りの介添女、裁縫師、茶の間女、中居女、茶屋女、風呂屋者(ふろやもの)、扇屋の女房、問屋の蓮葉(はすは)女と、あらゆる職業を転々と流れ歩く。ついには、暗物(くらもの)、夜発(やほつ)といった最下層の私娼(ししょう)にまで淪落(りんらく)してしまう。ある日、五百羅漢(らかん)の像に、かつて交渉のあった男たちのおもかげをみいだし、無常を観じ投身自殺を図るが果たせず、尼となり菩提(ぼだい)の道に入ったという筋である。張文成の『遊仙窟(ゆうせんくつ)』や蘇東坡(そとうば)の『九相詩』などの中国文学の影響も受け、また中世小説『三人法師』以来の懺悔物の流れを受けてはいるが、人生の暗黒面を経験した1人の女性の生涯に焦点をあわせて、転変たる運命を描き、人生の深淵(しんえん)をのぞくような深い人間観照を示す風俗小説の傑作となっている。

［浅野　晃］

『吉井勇訳注『好色一代女』（角川文庫）』▽『村田穆校注『新潮日本古典集成　好色一代女』（1976・新潮社）』

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