Some Aspects of Japanese Life During the Edo Period in the Novels of Ihara Saikaku

Ihara Saikaku (1642 – 1693) was a Japanese classic writer who composed haikai poems and was also the creator of the literary genre of ukiyo zoshi (stories from the floating world), mostly centered around depiction of cities. Considering the fact that the urban population during the Edo/Tokugawa period (1603 – 1867) set the trends in the cultural and social life of the Japanese people, it is not difficult to imagine that many elements related to the customs, traditions, economic and social phenomena of the period can be found in novels and other literary forms of that time