Reading Notes W5: Saikaku's Mistress of a Domain Lord, Part A

Saikaku (591-602)

  • Ihara Saikaku was born into a wealthy family
  • He  inherited the family business but still continued his passion for writing haiku poems
  • After his wife died, he left the family business in trustworthy clerk and devoted his full focus on writing
  • In one year, 1687-1688, he published twelve books and became one of Japan's first professional writers
  • "Life of a Sensuous Woman is unique because [Saikaku] wrote it in the voice of an aging woman who tells the story of her life-lived in pursuit of love and lust-to two young men" (592)
  • The two men had opposite attitudes toward life and death
  • One sought as much sensual pleasure as he can get, even though he knew it would shorten his life
  • The other one gave up love in order to live many more years (593)
  • This story is focused on the themes of love, sex, gender roles, and sexism
  • A woman tells her life story about her love life and what she's learned from it along the way
  • The woman followed her desires wherever they went and it ruined herself (596)
Mistress of a Domain Lord
  • "If a domain lord died without a male heir, the domain administration was transferred to a new clan and his samurai retainers lost their employment" (596)
  • The retainers didn't bother to look for other women among the commoners in Edo
  • The councillors chose him to go to Kyoto to find a mistress and chaperon her back to Edo
  • "You can't just a young man alone with a women, you know, even if he's a Shakyamuni Buddha" (597)
  • The employment agency chose more than 170 attractive young women and sent them to the old retainer for interviews- but wasn't satisfied with any (598)
  • The woman agreed to an interview and didn't put on "good clothes or makeup" and ended up becoming an official domain mistress (598)
  • She was suddenly dismissed back to her parents when the councillors blamed her forwearing out the Lord (599)
  • "If you look closely at the world, you'll see that a man who's born sexually weak is a very sad thing for a woman" (599)

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