Comrade Loves of the Samurai (Tuttle Classics of Japanese Literature) - Softcover

Ihara, Saikaku

Softcover

ISBN 10: 4805307714 ISBN 13: 9784805307717

Publisher: Tuttle Shokai Inc, 2007

Synopsis

In old Japan, sexual love among the samurai was permissible, and often matured into lifelong companionships. Ihari Saikakku (1642-93) was one of the most illustrious writers of Japan's seventeenth century literary revival. Money and love predominates in most of his incomparable stories. "The Songs of the Geisha" included in this volume is a collection of geisha folk songs composed to be sung to the accompaniment of the shamisen. All of the songs have a charmingly nostalgic quality which fitted well with the time and the circumstances for which they were composed. They are intimately personal, expressing the feelings of the geisha towards their sympathetic listeners. These lyrics, for all their erotic symbolism, are restrained and tactful, and their erotic beauty must be felt rather than heard.

About this title

About the Author:

The translator, E. Powys Mathers, was born in England in 1892. A graduate of Oxford, he is best known for his translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tuttle Shokai Inc
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 4805307714
• ISBN 13: 9784805307717
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160