Downpour

Scurry, travelers!
Bridge offers you no shelter
from sudden downpour.

© 2008 by CaliforniaTeacherGuy

Snow Walk

parasol dangling
carelessly from her shoulder
woman walks through snow

© 2008 by CaliforniaTeacherGuy

Sovereign

Rising at midnight
to survey my dominions—
good, the moon still shines.

© 2008 by CaliforniaTeacherGuy

Hunger

three ravenous cranes
pecking diligently for
scattered grains of rice

© 2008 by CaliforniaTeacherGuy

Winter

No one seems to mind
that snow drapes tree and stone or
blue lake lies frozen.

© 2008 by CaliforniaTeacherGuy

Reading

Picking up a book
on a cold winter’s morning—
great comfort, great joy.

© 2008 by CaliforniaTeacherGuy

Merry Christmas!

What cry rises from
frozen lake to starry sky?
Ah, season’s greetings!

© 2008 by CaliforniaTeacherGuy

Joy

Spirit of Christmas,
skipping through snowy streets, shout
tidings of great joy!

© 2008 by CaliforniaTeacherGuy

Snowfall

The women ponder
how they will make love again
after the snowfall.

© 2008 by CaliforniaTeacherGuy

Cranes

Bemused by snowfall
cranes remember warm breezes
and white plum blossoms.

© 2008 by CaliforniaTeacherGuy

Triptych

crow on snowy branch
longing for summer skies and
clouds of plum blossoms

© 2008 by CaliforniaTeacherGuy

The Struggle

Like fierce animals

struggling to be free, wild kites
tug at their restraints.

© 2008 by CaliforniaTeacherGuy

Mt. Fuji

Do you remember
when you were but a hillock
stretching toward the clouds?

© 2008 by CaliforniaTeacherGuy

Longing

calligraphy brush
lying beside blue ink pot
longing for paper

© 2008 by CaliforniaTeacherGuy

Five Women Who Loved Love by Ihara Saikaku

I actually read Ihara Saikaku's Five Women Who Loved Love about a month ago and I blogged about it then on my personal site. I didn't have the energy at the time to post about it here, and as time went on I put it off because I felt this book deserved more thought and serious attention than I could then give it.

So, this is my second review for this great Japanese Literature challenge, and I chose Five Women Who Loved Love for two reasons. The first was that I believe this is the first Floating World book to be discussed here. The Floating World (浮世) refers to the excesses, dangers, and beauties of urban Japan during the Edo Period (1600-1867).

More, from Wikipedia, which actually kind of got it right:

Ideas of the Floating World were "centered on Yoshiwara, the licensed red-light district of Edo (modern Tokyo). The area's brothels, teahouses and kabuki theaters were frequented by Japan's growing middle class. This particular Floating World culture also arose in other cities such as Osaka and Kyoto.

It is also an ironic allusion to the homophone 'Sorrowful World' (憂き世), the earthly plane of death and rebirth from which Buddhists sought release."

Ihara Saikaku (1642-93) is considered the creator of Floating World literature for the ways in which he evoked the energy and inclinations of pleasure-seeking urbanites while also remaining focused on Buddhist concerns of letting go of this world. This is a difficult balance to maintain indeed, for these books were widely read and considered what we would now call best-sellers. Attraction and repulsion seem to have been of equal importance in Saikaku's works and I think that must have been part of what contributed to his books being so widely read.

The other reason I chose this book is that I'd previously read Saikaku's The Life of an Amorous Man and very much enjoyed it. I didn't initially enjoy Five Women Who Loved Love as much but as time passes, I find myself remembering it more and more positively. At the time, all I wanted were some good yarns but now I find myself returning mentally again and again to the beautiful melancholy underlying all of the young characters' attempts to hold on to things which must be lost, sooner or later: the life of the body and heart, and all their extremes of pleasure and pain.

As an introduction to Floating World literature, I would definitely recommend both Five Women Who Loved Love and The Life of An Amorous Man.