This Scheming World (Tuttle Classics of Japanese Literature) [Paperback]

Ihara Saikaku (Author), David C. Stubbs (Author), Masanori Takatsuka (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0804833397 | ISBN-13: 978-0804833394 | Edition: Tra

Originally published in 1692, this is a biting and humorous look at the commoners and their New Year's resolutions.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Saikaku Ihara (1641-93), wrote such classics as Five Women Who Loved Love; Comrade Loves of the Samurai; and The Life of an Amorous Woman.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing; Tra edition (November 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804833397
• ISBN-13: 978-0804833394
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,528,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Money changes everything, January 11, 2006

By 

Zack Davisson "japanreviewed" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: This Scheming World (Tuttle Classics of Japanese Literature) (Paperback)

What is power? Skill at combat? Family prestige? Social connections? Oh no, says Ihara Saikaku. Power is equal to only one thing, and that thing is money. Edo era Japan was a transitional period. Seeing the dissolution of the four classes and the political philosophies that had kept them in check, there was the rise of a new master, the golden Ryu and the silver Momme. Rich merchants, by definition the lowest of the social order, wielded much more actual influence than a poverty-stricken Daimyo.

"This Scheming World" is a sort of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" book of cautionary tales for Japan's new era of money, written with those in mind who didn't realize the significance of their new lord. A slim volume, the sequence of twenty short stories highlight the joys of those who handle money well and the sorrows and destruction of those who don't. The stories are all anonymous, with no characters being named, and range from wealthy sons who inherit and then mismanage their father's fortune, to poor students who gather discarded pen nubs and weave them into curtains for a few coppers. Quite a few tales focus on debt-dodgers, trying to evade their creditors at the year's end when all bills must be paid.

No one knew the common people of the Edo era better than Saikaku, and he brings their hopes and fears alive with the same skill as his pleasure seekers and wastrels of the gay quarters in "Life of an Amorous Man" and "Five Women who Loved Love." An Osaka boy through and through, his writing is gruff and too the point, driving home his lessons from the point of view of know-how and common sense, rather than poetry. Clever and witty, often humorous, Saikaku still has an important lesson to teach.

In addition, his thoughts and observations on money are as true today as they were in Edo era Japan. The samurai and Daimyo may have fallen, but cash holds no less sway some 300 years after "This Scheming World" was written. Reading this has made me rethink more than one casual purchase, trying to avoid the same traps that befell his characters.