Five Women Who Loved Love: Amorous Tales from 17th Century Japan

Story collection written by Ihara Saikaku, published in Japanese in 1686 as Koshoku gonin onna, and considered a masterwork of the Tokugawa period (1603-1867). Five Women Who Loved Love is composed of five separate tales, each divided into five individually titled chapters. They consist of vignettes that reveal the sensual and--of equal interest--financial activities of members of the leisure class, demimonde, and merchant class." CONTENTS: Foreword; Introduction; The Story of Seijuro in Himeji; The Barrelmaker Brimful of Love; What the Seasons Brought the Almanac Maker; The Greengrocker's Daughter with a Bundle of Love; Gengei, The Moutain of Love; Saikaku's 'Five Women' by Richard Lane.