Society for Japanese Studies

Saikaku and the Narrative Turnabout

Author(s): Jeffrey Johnson
Source: The Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer, 2001), pp. 323-345
Published by: Society for Japanese Studies
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JEFFREY JOHNSON

Saikakuand the NarrativeTurnabout

Abstract:This essay contextualizesIharaSaikaku'scomedy within broaderele-

ments of Tokugawasociety and critical concepts in literarystudies. The com-
plexity of Saikaku'sworkis examinedby employing andalteringMikhailBakh-
tin's concept of the "carnivalesque"and rhetorical tropes from Japaneseand
Westernliterarytraditions.Saikaku'scomedy engages elite andlowly as well as
social and literaryhierarchiesin its constantinversionsand play.

The cult of the comedy in the Tokugawa period is perhaps without parallel,
and it represents a truly remarkable example of how humor can pervade the
arts. Many of the comic elements of subsequent gesaku literary production
and the ukiyo-e print genre are found in the texts of Ihara Saikaku (1642-
93), but there has been surprisingly little analysis of humor in Saikaku's
work.' He "has taken longer to attract appreciation, and there may still be
some unwilling to give up the conception of naughty Saikaku, or of a writer
who is important only for his style." 2
However, Saikaku's effect on the Japanese novel was not one-
dimensional. During the Meiji period, his work was a model both for those
seeking reform and for those adhering to tradition (when tradition in many
quarters meant embarrassing comic genres).3 The aftereffects of Meiji at-
tempts to write philosophical and psychological novels based on Western
models may have contributed to the critical lacuna that censored attention
to Saikaku's comedy. Such scant consideration by Japanese tradition of its

1. TeruokaYasutaka,"Saikaku bungaku ni okeru warai," in Saikakushinron (Tokyo:

Chuo K6ronsha,1981), p. 119.
2. Earl Miner, Hiroko Odagiri,and RobertMorrell,eds., Princeton Companionto Clas-
sical Japanese Literature(Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress, 1985), p. 66.
3. For example, see P. F. Kornicki, "The Survivalof TokugawaFiction in the Meiji Pe-
riod," HarvardJournalof Asiatic Studies, Vol. 41, No. 2 (December 1981), pp. 461-82; Peter
F. Kornicki,The Reformof Fiction in Meiji Japan (London:IthacaPress, 1982); and Et6 Jun,
Kindaiizen (Tokyo:Bungei Shunjui,1985).

323
Journalof JapaneseStudies, 27:2
? 2001 Society for JapaneseStudies

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324 Journal of Japanese Studies 27:2 (2001)

own comic genres is not unique; surely all culturesvalue and pay tributeto
those culturalproducts that "ennoble" their people's spirit. Furthermore,
Tokugawaliteratureas a whole has been cast in an unfavorablelight: "It is
this very question of intelligence or, more specifically, intellectuality,that
marks the great gulf between writers of traditionaland modern fiction in
Japan.... [Tokugawaliterature]would never be a literatureof the mind....
the fiction was frivolous, superficial,and completely lacking in significant
understandingor insight."4 In this utterly dismissive attitude, one is re-
minded of Mikhail Bakhtin'sexhortationthat Rabelais "to be understood
requires an essential reconstructionof our entire artistic and ideological
perception."5
Literarystudies in generalhave been enrichedby the readingof bawdy
comedy throughBakhtin'snotion of the "carnivalesque."Bahktin'sown ex-
aminationof Rabelaismay be the best known and most successful of these
rereadings.This essay explores Bakhtin's"carnivalesque"and appliesit to
selections from Saikaku'soeuvre; it also locates "carnival"in relation to
recentresearchon the Tokugawaperiod.In examiningSaikakuandhis con-
text, I draw on critical notions in Japanesestudies that sharefundamentals
with the carnivalesque,particularlynotions relativeto what Bakhtincalled
the "logic of the turnabout."("Turnabout"appearsin the English transla-
tions of Bakhtin'swork and refers to moments in narrativethat run against
readers' expectations.) Some of the research cited here employs Victor
Turner'snotionsof structure/antistructure andliminality.Additionally,many
critics and studies of Saikakureveal a concern with parody,satire,and to a
lesser extent irony. All these approachesto Saikaku in particularand the
Tokugawaperiod in general demonstratethe importanceof the carnival-
esque as a useful tool.6
In a carnivalesquetext one findscomedy, irony,parody,satire,andother
rhetoricaltropes and modes of discourse.Irony,parody,comedy, and satire
have been definedusing the same or similarterms, and theirstructuralsimi-
larity has been acknowledgedby critics. There are some (ratherartificial)
areas of distinction:satire has a "real world" target,parody has a literary

4. Marleigh GrayerRyan, Development of Realism in the Fiction of TsubouchiShoyo

(Seattle:Universityof WashingtonPress, 1975), pp. 5-7.
5. M. M. Bakhtin,Rabelais and His World,trans. H6eleneIswolsky (Bloomington:Indi-
ana UniversityPress, 1984), p. 3.
6. Peter Stallybrassand Allon White effectively argue the connection between Turner's
thought and that of Bakhtin. See The Politics and Poetics of Transgression(Ithaca:Cornell
UniversityPress, 1986). In addition, YamaguchiMasao demonstratesinterestin both Bakhtin
and Turner,and applies Turner'stheories to no drama.See his "Cosmological Dimension of
JapaneseTheater,"in YoshihikoIkegami, ed., The Empireof Signs (Philadelphia:Benjamins,
1991), pp. 219-40. The commonalitiesbetween Bakhtin and Turnerare also clearly seen in
works such as John J. MacAloon, ed., Rite, Drama, Festival, Spectacle: Rehearsals towarda
Theoryof CulturalPerformance(Philadelphia:Institutefor the Studyof HumanIssues, 1984).

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 Johnson:Saikaku 325

target,and irony is most often formulatedas "sayingone thing andmeaning

the opposite." According to Michael Silk, comedy "offers projections of
survival," "tends toward the material,"and is the "celebrationof coinci-
dence." Luigi Pirandelloon the otherhanddefines comedy as "a perception
of the opposite."7
Coincidence and opposition occur frequentlyin all these definitions.If,
however,these tropes and modes evoke linguistic opposites, this evocation
is not to be taken literally.That is, when opposites are evoked they do not
indicate a double essence. They are not discrete points of position and op-
position. The evocationin social termsdoes not meanking or peasant,monk
or farmer,but opens the door to the instabilityof potentialequality.There-
fore, the term "reversal"or "inversion"in relation to any of these tropes
does not mean merely two opposing positions but a destabilizationof es-
sence and meaning. That is, the turnaboutis motivated to generate mul-
tiple meanings, and the doubling that HarukoIwasaki notes in the arts of
the Tokugawaperiod is more aptly described as the multiplicity of festive
critique.8
The complexity of distinguishing one trope from another is com-
pounded by their near-constantinteraction.A text filled with these tropes
can be interpretedas other than what was intended. That is, these various
modes are properlyinterpreted(or not) on a semanticlevel, and the percep-
tion of authorialintentionis highly dependentupon audiencereceptivityto
rhetoricalcues. These modes all rely on an audience "in the know."Dilwyn
Knox, writing a theory of irony, formulatesthe problem: "The pretensein
wit andjokes is, of course, only notional. If it were genuine, the audience
would be deceivedratherthanamused.And since the speakerdoes not mean
what he is saying literally and intends his audience to realize this, there is
an opposition of the same kind as in ironia."9 Such indeterminacyis a by-
productof playful opposition and coincidence; negative consequences are
inherentto them.
On a sociological note pertainingto indeterminacy,the carnivalesque
erases the distinction between audience and actor, as illustratedby an ex-
ample below from Saikaku'swork. However, Bakhtin'sown definition of
7. Michael Silk, "The Autonomy of Comedy," in Elinor S. Shaffer, ed., Comparative
Criticism,Vol. 10 (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1988), pp. 28, 24. Luigi Piran-
dello, On Humor,trans.A. Illiano and D. P. Testa (Chapel Hill: Universityof North Carolina
Press, 1974), p. 113.
8. HarukoIwasaki, "The Literatureof Wit and Humorin Late-EighteenthCenturyEdo,"
in Donald Jenkins,ed., The Floating WorldRevisited(Honolulu:Universityof Hawai'i Press,
1993), p. 51. See Julia Kristevaon Bakhtin in "Word,Dialogue, Novel," in Kristeva,Desire
in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literatureand Art (New York:Columbia University
Press, 1980), pp. 64-91.
9. Dilwyn Knox, Ironia: Medieval and Renaissance Ideas on Irony (Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1989), p. 33.

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326 Journal of Japanese Studies 27:2 (2001)

the carnivalesqueis more concernedwith sociological space-stages of lo-

cal fairs, spectacles-than the textualtropesexamined so far.His definition
also concerns the social consequence of language:the ridiculeof languages
and dialects, street songs, folk sayings, anecdotes; and play with the "lan-
guages" of poets, scholars, monks, knights, and others.10Otherdefinitions
of the carnivalesqueinclude the following: "carnival[is used] as a metaphor
for recognized and legitimized freedom,existing within,thoughagainst,the
accepted norms"11;carnivalesque "is a means for displaying otherness"
and "makesfamiliarrelationsstrange"12; "a potent,populist,criticalinver-
sion of all official words and hierarchiesin a way that has implicationsfar
beyond the specific realmof Rabelais studies. Carnival,for Bakhtin,is both
a populistutopianvision of the worldseen frombelow anda festive critique,
throughthe inversionof hierarchy,of high culture."13
Intimately related to these definitions of carnival yet addressing the
radicalismor conservatismof such (literary)activity is BarbaraBabcock's
formulation.
All symbolic inversions define a culture'slineaments at the same time as
they question the usefulness and absoluteness of this ordering.Clown or
tricksteror transvestitenever demandsthat we reject totally the orders of
our socioculturalworlds;but neitherdo these figuressimply provideus with
a cautionarynote as to what would happenshould the "real"worldturninto
a perpetualcircus or festival. Rather,they remindus of the arbitrarycondi-
tion of imposing an orderon our environmentand experience, even while
they enable us to see certain featuresof that ordermore clearly simply be-
cause they have turnedinsight out.14

One must maintainthe inherent "contradictions"when examining the im-

plicationsof the turnaboutor, in Babcock'sphrase,symbolic inversion.The
turnaboutuplifts and demeans but it does not censor; thatis what is poten-
tiating and threateningaboutit. The potentialgeneratedis most often asso-
ciated with freedom, but there is also estrangement,as a historical exami-
nation of Japanesepilgrimagewill illustrate.Babcock's symbolic inversion
with its anthropological scope and concerns, while covering the same
ground,provides greaterflexibility and less specificity to the Westerncon-
text than does Bakhtin.

10. M. M. Bakhtin,TheDialogic Imagination:Four Essays (Austin:Universityof Texas

Press, 1981), p. 273.
11. Linda Hutcheon, "The Carnivalesqueand ContemporaryNarrative,"Universityof
OttawaRevue, Vol. 53 (January-March1983), p. 92.
12. Michael Holquist, Dialogism: Bakhtinand His World (London:Routledge, 1990),
p. 89.
13. Stallybrassand White, The Politics and Poetics of Transgression,p. 7.
14. BarbaraBabcock, The Reversible World:SymbolicInversionin Art and Society (Ith-
aca: CornellUniversityPress, 1978), p. 29.

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 Johnson:Saikaku 327

A significantconnection between the camivalesqueand Saikakustudies

is the fact thatBakhtinused the sociological space of the "marketplace"in
defining his concept, and merchantculture was centralto Saikaku'swork.
However,hierarchiesand the violation of hierarchiesconstituteanotherevi-
dent connection between the carnivalesqueand Saikaku'sTokugawacul-
tural milieu with its official and unofficial cultures. This connection is of
great importanceto this essay, which examines the carnivalesquespaces of
pilgrimage and the pleasure quarteras they appearin Saikaku'stexts, and
the techniquesused by Saikakuto display legitimized freedom within and
against a highly structuredsociety. The techniques of Saikaku'sdiscourse
relate directly to the turnaboutand are characteristicsof carnivalesque.To
examine them I draw on traditionalJapanesetropes as well as parody,sa-
tire, and irony.All these work to createthe comic effect and festive critique
found in Saikaku.

Pilgrimages and the Pleasure Quarter

Recent discussions of Japanesepilgrimage have opened the way to a
Bakhtiniananalysis of pilgrimage and potentially other areas of Tokugawa
life. The studies cited below, whether informed by Turner'sstructureand
antistructureor by Bakhtin'swork itself, whetherthey predatewidespread
knowledge of Bakhtin'swritings or not, clearly have much in common with
Bakhtin'scarnivalesque.Gary Leupp among othershas broughtBakhtinian
notions to Japanesecontexts, making way for a carnivalesqueview of the
pleasure quarterand pilgrimages. The sociological spaces are of interest
in and of themselves, yet their appearancein and treatmentby Saikakuin
his ukiyo-zoshi (narrativesof the pleasure quarter,literally the "floating
world") indicate the potential for viewing a wide variety of Tokugawalit-
eraturewith Bakhtin'sperspective.
In an articleon East Asian pilgrimage,William LaFleurdiagrams,with
terms borrowedfrom Turnerand reminiscent of Bakhtin'sown paradigm,
the dissolutionof socially constructedboundariesand hierarchies:
On Pilgrimage At Home
peripheral geographical,spatiallocation central
heterodox relationshipto socio-intellectualtradition orthodox
and/orcurrentpolitical norms for behavior
egalitarian modality of social expression stratified15

ClearlyLaFleur'sview of pilgrimageas heterodox,egalitarian,and periph-

eral resonates with Bakhtin'snotion of the same properties in the atmo-
sphere of carnival. Adding to this commonality, Constantine Vaporis in

15. William LaFleur, "Points of Departure:Comments on Religious Pilgrimage in Sri

Lankaand Japan,"Journal of Asian Studies,Vol. 38, No. 2 (February1979), p. 276.

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328 Journalof Japanese Studies 27:2 (2001)

Breaking Barriers observes, "on pilgrimage, . . . social norms of behavior

were ordinarilysuspended,"andpilgrimagewas "a trueescape fromlife." 16
RichardRubinger also describes Tokugawatravel, particularlynukemairi
(pilgrimage without permission), as a liminal phenomenon. He writes of
forbiddenactivities thatwere fairly common: "amateurtheatricals.... loi-
tering, dancing, playing music, wrestling, and talking loudly." He also de-
scribes the circumventionof restrictions:
As surveillance and control intensified, travel became an even more cher-
ished interludein the lives of many ordinarypeople. They found loopholes
in the decrees restrictingtravel and invented all sorts of pretextsfor going
on trips-business on behalf of court families, visits to hot springs for
"medical cures," and religious pilgrimages.... farmers,townspeople,em-
ployees of all kinds, and housewives took leave without permission.17
Justas Bakhtinwould have predicted, "pilgrimagebecame largely a means
or pretext by which to obtain official permission to travel" and pilgrims
"could not only view the religious artifactsbut also enjoy the food stands
and the circus-like shows (misemono) put on by performerswithin the
temple precincts."18 Winston Davis's account of the carnivalesquemilieu
of pilgrimage to the shrine at Ise indicates legitimized freedom existing
within, although against, accepted norms: "Along the highways, pilgrims
were met by jesters, bards(often priests with earthyvocations), musicians,
geishas or other fair ladies waiting to entertainthem with a joke, a tale, a
song, or a bed." 19In a fittingconclusion to the heterodoxyrevealedin these
historical examinations, "the pleasures of the trip, the local delicacies, the
entertainments,and the prostitutesmade the trip as much as the actualpil-
grimagedid."20
Depictions of pilgrimagein Saikaku'swork include a passage from Ko-
shoku ichidai otoko (1682), in which the protagonist,Yonosuke,sets off for
Mt. Kuramashortly afterthe New Year.When preparingto returnto Kyoto,
he invites other pilgrims to join him at a festival in Ohara.Yonosuketells
them, "Tonightis the night in Oharawhen everyone sleeps togetherin front
of the gods in the hall of worship. Everyoneis included:the town elite, the
lowliest, the old, and the young all sleep together.That'show it is there ac-
cordingto custom; thatone night everythingis permitted.Everyone sleeps

16. ConstantineNomikos Vaporis,BreakingBarriers: Traveland the State in EarlyMod-

em Japan (Cambridge,Mass.: Council on East Asian Studies, HarvardUniversity, 1994),
pp.214, 244.
17. RichardRubinger,PrivateAcademies of TokugawaJapan (Princeton:PrincetonUni-
versity Press, 1982), pp. 20-21.
18. Vaporis,BreakingBarriers, pp. 4, 236.
19. Winston Davis, "Pilgrimage and World Renewal: A Study of Religion and Social
Values in TokugawaJapan,"History of Religions, Vol. 23, No. 2 (1983-84), p. 103.
20. Vaporis,BreakingBarriers,p. 240.

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 Johnson:Saikaku 329

together."21 This demonstratesthe spirit with which pilgrimages were un-

dertaken.It is also a perfect example of the carnivalesquephenomenonof
leveling social differences in an otherwise extremely hierarchicalsociety,
not to mentionthe prominenceof the body in Saikaku'sfiction. GaryLeupp
makes a similarclaim in his historicalstudy:
shrines might provide the scene for bacchanaliasuch as the yearly zakone
("group sleep") at OharaShrine near Kyoto where manservantsmight ap-
proach their masters' wives. Carnivalesqueactivities, including free love,
might also accompanythe regularpilgrimagesto Ise (Ise-mairi), which be-
came a craze duringthe Tokugawaperiod.22[emphasisadded]

Davis, however, also indicatesthatthe freedomfound within traveland

pilgrimagedid not come withoutperil. The chaos resulting from the trans-
gressionsof hierarchyandordermighthave haddireconsequences,as thepil-
grims encountered"thieves,kidnappers,deceitfulmoney changers,counter-
feiters, slavers, adulterers, incestuous lovers, sexual maniacs, greedy
innkeepers,andbogus pilgrims.... [The hardshipsthey met] also helped to
turnthe worldupsidedown"(emphasisadded).23Therelationof Davis'sview
of pilgrimageto the carnivalesqueis clear,in spiteof his referenceto the dan-
gers. Bakhtin'svision of carnivalwas populist andutopian,whereasthe dis-
ruptionof turningthe world upside down could clearly pose dangers.Sai-
kaku'stexts also examine the potentially threateningnatureof legitimized
freedom.Workssuch as Honchonijufuko(1686) arepopulatedwithhustlers,
tricksters,andcriminals,in additionto actors,pretenders,itinerants,andtrav-
eling musicians.All areliminalfigureson the marginsof Tokugawasociety.
The marginal spaces that potentiate carnivalesqueactivities included
roadwaysand boundaries,which are clearly relatedto pilgrimage.But such
activitiescould also occur in cities. The pleasurequarterwas at the heartof
a city, especially where sanctionsfor transgressingboundariesandblurring
roles were concerned.These spaces for carnivalesqueactivities were all so-
ciological spaces of newfoundor revitalizedimportance.
In the following passage from Koshokuichidai otoko, thereis a "rever-
sal of pleasurequarterconsciousness"24 thatis in additionto the urbandis-
placementof hierarchy.Because of its play of signs, this scene is one of the
most opaque yet most colorful, and exemplifies the movement of a haikai

21. IharaSaikaku,Koshokuichidai otoko, in Noma Koshin and TeruokaYasutaka,eds.,

TeihonSaikakuzenshtu,Vol. 1 (Tokyo:Chuo Koron, 1951), p. 90. All Saikakutranslationsare
mine unless otherwiseindicated.
22. Gary P. Leupp, Servants,Shophands,and Laborersin the Cities of TokugawaJapan
(Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress, 1992), p. 97.
23. Davis, "PilgrimageandWorldRenewal," pp. 106-7.
24. Taniwaki Masachika, Saikaku kenkyujosetsu (Tokyo: Shintensha Kanko, 1992),
p. 141. Danrin haikai was an avant-gardeschool of haikai of which Saikaku was the most
flamboyantmember.

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330 Journalof JapaneseStudies 27:2 (2001)

sequence of the DanrinSchool. Just as haikai would move from one word
play and ironic juxtaposition to another,this passage moves from sign to
sign. Three houses-the Hachimonjiya,the Maruya,and the Kashiwaya-
form the setting.
[Yonosuke] gathered various entertainersand told them, "I have decided
that today we are going to enjoy ourselves." They all wore wild pink sum-
mer kimono decoratedwith Yonosuke'sown crest. They let theirhairdown
and were without loincloths.The nine of them formed a line and went up to
the second floor of the Hachimonjiya.They created a clamor and the area
fell silent, with reason, for the group included some of the most infamous
people of Kyoto. Out one window, Yashichidangled shide from a hemp-
palm broom;across the way in the Maruya[anothercollection of entertain-
ers] put out the figuresof Daikoku and Ebisu. Upon seeing this, those gath-
ered in the Kashiwayahung out salted sea bream. Sh6zaemon painted a
black drooping mustacheon a pan and put that out the window. Those in
the shop next door hung out oracles from three shrines. Again, those across
the way brought out a mallet, whereuponOmu showed the vigil lamp he
had lit. Those in the Maruyathen displayeda hooded Buddha,and those of
the Kashiwayaput out a hook for fishing a bucket out of a well. The Hachi-
monjiya exhibited a chopping block and this promptedthe Maruyato put
out a burdock.Then a cat with long and short swords was displayedand in
response a dried salmon with a toothpick dangling from its mouth was
shown. This promptedanotherhouse to show a pot for extinguishingcoals,
adornedwith a sacredcord. From the end of a bamboo pole othersdangled
out the account book of a soy sauce shop. Yashichi put on a courtier'shat
and then put his head out the window. From across the way they threw 12
mon wrappedin a small packet. Those to the northplaced a cotton hat on a
mortarthat resembled an old woman and put that out. Those to the south
displayed a shoji that said "We have the best abortion-inducingmedicines
and midwives every day."The middle house displayedbannersfor hanging
in frontof the Buddhaand for funeralprocessions.25

The passage closes with everyone laughinguntil they cry.The images in the
play above the crowd at the top of the houses generally move from sacred
to secular or deflate the previous image. The figure of Daikokuis replaced
with the mitatetrope of a pan paintedwith a face and a mustache;the tama-
gushi (sacred branch)of purificationis replacedwith the mallet of castiga-
tion; the swords are inverted with the toothpick. And the play ends in a
movementfrom mitateto the writtenword announcingdeath.This dialectic
full of parodies is silent and visual, a critique attemptingto move beyond
orality,even beyond languageby invoking death.
25. Saikaku,Koshokuichidai otoko, pp. 191-92. Any readingof Ichidai otoko would be
greatly enhancedby consultingMaeda Kingoro, Koshokuichidai otoko zenchushaku,2 vols.
(Tokyo:Kadokawa,1980-81). Maeda explains that 12 mon was the monthlycost of keeping
a vigil lamp lit to the Buddha.Shide are lightening-bolt-shapedfigures made from paper and
hung for ceremonialpurposes.

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 Johnson:Saikaku 331

The entertainersdescend from their play above the crowd to the streets
and into the audience itself. In carnivalesquefashion they blur distinctions
between entertainerand crowd. The owners of the teahouses, distraught
with the loss of business and lack of interestin prostitution,throwmoney in
orderto gain the attentionof the crowd. No one notices. In a parody of a
typical line from a Heian classic, Saikakuwrites, "Such is the heartof the
people of the capital." The pleasure quarter,that Tokugawa space where
money reigned supremeand the sexual tradewas a primaryfeature,has its
hierarchyoverturnedin this scene. The entertainerscenterthe crowd'satten-
tion on visual or word play and as a resultthe attractionof money,normally
the commandingforce of the pleasurequarter,is suspended.The final stroke
in the reversalof reversalscomes when, along with the street cleaners, the
monks-those supposedly detached from the material world-scurry to
pick up the money thrownby the owners of the teahouses (those who usu-
ally takein money). The monks and streetcleaners,equally greedy,"parody
the Church'scult" in an ambivalentimage of both high and low.26This
phrasefrom Bakhtindemonstratesthe complicity of the carnivalesquewith
the other tropes and modes of discourse discussed above, as does Teruoka
Yasutaka'sclaim that Saikaku's parody is the haikai-ization of classical
Japanese literature: "classical literature, which is considered sacred, is
turnedinto a humorousexpressionof some contemporaryreality."27
Saikaku'splayfulnesstakes this carnivalscene to an appropriateconclu-
sion: there is no essence behind the changing shapes, there is only play
itself. Wordplay, the ephemeralityof meaning, is the basic component of
Saikaku'sversion of the world-in-reverse,which undercutsnot only Bud-
dhist clergy and Tokugawaideology, but the pleasure quarter'sown alter-
nate order.Herein lies a clear indicationof a festive critiquebeyond simple
doubling or reversals. Neither is the relation among carnivalesquetropes
simple. The carnivalesqueimage play in the scene above, combined with
Bakhtin'sand Teruoka'sconcepts, demands a more extensive examination
of parody.

From Parodiito Satire

Althoughtheoreticalissues are generallynot of concernto kokubungaku
scholars, who are overwhelminglyphilologists, one need not look outside
scholarshipin premodernJapanese literatureto encounter interest in the
parodyused by Saikakuand other authorsof the Tokugawaperiod. While
the term "parodii"is borrowed,the concept has a critical history in Japan.
The following analysis incorporatesJapanese scholarship and traditional
tropes but brings the discussion of Saikaku'suse of parody to previously
unvisitedBakhtinianconclusions.

26. Bakhtin,Rabelais and His World,p. 7.

27. Teruoka,"Saikakubungakuni okeru warai,"p. 122.

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332 Journal of Japanese Studies 27:2 (2001)

The construct of naimaze, a frequent technique in Japanese literature,

transfers elements from classical texts to contemporary texts. While for
much of its history this was an allusive operation, Saikaku, perhaps taking
cues from works such as Nise monogatari (date unknown), parodies lines
from classical texts. This use of naimaze to create parody was also frequent
in ukiyo-e and Tokugawa fiction. By juxtaposing a high-minded, classical
implant with the concrete concern of the contemporary context, Saikaku
creates no small degree of incongruity and comic effect.
The engagement of Koshoku ichidai otoko with Genji monogatari, both
parodic and otherwise, is discussed by many critics in Saikaku studies, and
from various perspectives. Taniwaki Masachika outlines the development of
this critical trend and argues that Ichidai otoko is in fact independent of
Genji monogatari. What does it mean for the parodying text to have inde-
pendence from the parodied text? The text of Nise monogatari, a parody of
Ise monogatari, inhabits the very structure of Ise monogatari and parodies
it word by word, line by line, passage by passage. This could be considered
a "global parody," whereas Ichidai otoko parodies only "locally": a dis-
torted proverb here, a line from no there. Saikaku's parody is conducted
from an independently structured tale not exclusively motivated to parody.28
Taniwaki's analysis of parodic passages leads him to use the term
"concretization" (gutaika),29 which, as I argue below, closely approximates
Bakhtin's concerns with the material. An illustration of the operation is
found in the scene of the 12-year-old Yonosuke in Suma:
"It's awful to spend even one night alone. Isn'ttherea young shellfish diver
around?" Someone went off to beckon one. Her hair hadn't even been
combed. By her face one could see that she knew nothing of makeup.Her
sleeves were too small and the skirt of her kimono too short. Worstof all
she stank like the sea. Yonosukefelt ill. He took enreitan and othermedi-
cines and got some relief. "In the olden days Yukihirahad his feet andlegs
massaged.It relievedhis despair.Whatkind of womancould she havebeen?
They spent the night together.Then upon his departureshe was given an
incense pouch, an incense burner,a ladle, a mortarand pestle, and other
utensils he had used duringhis three-yearstay."30

The scene evokes the famous legend of Yukihira's exile in Suma. Both
the no drama Matsukaze and the Suma chapter in Genji monogatari allude
to this reverently. In the classical, medieval texts the material objects left
behind convey gratitude and create a bond of attachment. They express

28. TaniwakiMasachika summarizesthis criticism in "Koshokuichidai otoko to Genji

monogatari,"in Ukiyono ninshikisha:Ihara Saikaku(Tokyo:Shintensha,1987), pp. 126-56.
No drama,however,is a far more frequenttargetof Saikaku'sparody;see SugimotoTsutomu,
"Saikakuno buntaino tokushokuto hoho," in TeruokaYasutaka,ed., Saikaku:Kanshi Nihon
koten bungaku,Vol. 27 (Tokyo:Kadokawa,1976), pp. 466-76.
29. Taniwaki,Saikakukenkyujosetsu, pp. 63-70.
30. Saikaku,Koshokuichidai otoko, pp. 43-44.

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 Johnson:Saikaku 333

spiritualand romanticintentionconsistentwith the idealizing tendenciesof

Genjior the spiritualityof Matsukaze.Saikaku'sallusionto Yukihira'sexile,
however, stems from neitherthe higher spiritualconcerns of no dramanor
the romanticizingtendency of the Genji. Ichidai otoko superimposesmate-
rial concernsupon the spiritualconcerns of the othertexts. The implication
of Yonosuke'slisting the incense pouch and the incense burneris that they
are left behind to help disguise the very earthy,earthlyodors of the sea and
the rustic women. This superimpositionimplies that Yukihira,like Yono-
suke, must have encounteredthe same stench. This techniquecreates a gap
by foregroundingthe physical, which is usually censored, andbackground-
ing the spiritual.
In the two medieval works, the allusion alreadyforms a superimposed
image. Saikaku's superimpositiondemonstratesa full exploitation of the
comic possibilities he saw in the process of naimaze with comic distortion.
The image of Yukihira,Genji, and Yonosukecreatedfor the readeris multi-
layered, wherein the representationof somber religious notions in no and
the sentimentalityin Genjiare broughtto earthlyconcernswith Yonosuke's
sufferingfrom the earthysmell of the sea. The deflationof higherconcerns
by the interjectionof materialor physical elements is typical of Saikakuand
centralto Bakhtin'scarnivalesque.
In directconnectionwith this interplayof texts, one sees interplayin the
structuringof Saikaku'swork in a broadersense. We find structuringthatis
both internalto individualworks and external, encompassingother works.
Sometimes the relationshipis parodic doubling, as between the two texts
Wankya issei no monogatari (1685) and Wankya nise no monogatari
(1691). There is also the interplaybetween Koshokuichidai otoko and Ko-
shoku ichidai onna (1686) which forms part of Saikaku'sinterrogationof
koshoku. Some works carry parodic titles: Shin Yoshiwara tsunezunegusa
(1689) and Saikaku zoku tsurezure (1696). Of Honcho nija fuko Howard
Hibbettwrites:
In 1686, for instance, he publishedHoncho nijufuko.These ratherhaphaz-
ard stories occur at a strategicpoint in the canon: Saikakuhas withdrawn,
perhapsunder official pressure,from the more frivolous preoccupationsof
the koshoku-mono,andhas begun to explore the themes of fortuneand suc-
cess which are to be developed in his ch6nin-mono.Also, Nijufukois sig-
nificantly related to earlier didactic prose. The title parodies the Chinese
collection of exemplarytales Erh-shih-ssu-hsiao,which was alreadyfamil-
iar in the original and in kana-zoshiadaptations.31

Saikaku's entire oeuvre plays one text off another in title, theme, or
motif. There are texts with double structures,which may have been in-
spiredby haikai technique.HinotaniTeruhikohas describedthe structuring

31. HowardHibbett, "Saikakuas a Realist," HarvardJournal of Asiatic Studies,Vol. 15

(December 1952), p. 409.

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334 Journalof Japanese Studies 27:2 (2001)

of Koshokugonin onna (1686) in terms we have seen above in LaFleurand

others, again fitting a Bakhtiniananalysis. Hinotani'sanalysis can be con-
densed to the following:
Periphery:Tales One and Five are set outside the majorurbancenters,tak-
ing take place at Himeiji andSatsuma.They also demonstrateconcernswith
individuals,Seijuroand Goheibe.
Center:Tales Two, Three, andFourtake place in the majorurbancentersof
Osaka,Kyoto, andEdo, respectively.They demonstrateconcern withfamily
business, or "the house" [-ya], as opposed to individuals.32
Commenton the double structureof Ichidai otoko appearsin manystud-
ies of Saikaku.The text has two timelines thatcome aboutwhen the general
trajectoryof the narrative(one year per chapter)is split in the firstpart of
the sixth chapter(6:1). Yonosukeis 36 years old in 5:2 and 6:1, 37 years
old in 5:3 and 6:2, 38 years old in 5:4 and 6:3, etc. In the final chapter,
Yonosuke could be 54 or 60 and there is textual evidence to supportboth
timelines. The fact thatSaikakuconsciously patternedhis narrativesis clear
in his play with numbers,with the classics, and with didactic tracts.Given
his haikai background,the safest assumption is that he expanded haikai
techniquesand playfulness into narrative;retrospectively,we see this as the
creation of the ukiyo-zoshigenre. Not that Saikaku'snarrativesare sui ge-
neris: they contain something of the satire seen in certainHeian art, some-
thing of the kyogen vision of the culturalelite, and of course there is also
his immediatecontext of Danrinhaikai. It was Saikaku'sunique recombi-
nation of extantliteraryelements thatprovokedhistoricalchange.
It is assumed that he began patterningIchidai otoko on Genji or Ise
monogatari.He then turnedto parodizingno. In the second half of the text
he used the review booklets known as hyobanki(particularlyincorporating
the courtesanreview). His play led him not only to other classical texts but
also to other types of texts as groundfor his parodicadventures.Hy5banki
also connect to another aspect of haikai, that is, its contemporaneityand
orality. Noguchi Tanehiko emphasizes orality in Japaneseliteraryhistory
and places Saikaku in his canon of periods when Japanese written lan-
guage most accuratelytranscribedthe spoken. Saikakudid not narratein a
perfectly contemporaryidiom, but his dialogue was representativeof the
speech of his contemporaries.33
In addition to claiming that Saikaku'sparody is the haikai-izationof
classical Japaneseliterature,Teruokawrites thatthe DanrinSchool of haikai
was concerned with lowering things sacred, authoritarian,and heroic. In
these thoughtson haikai parody,we can see parody'sinterpenetrationwith

32. See HinotaniTeruhiko,Ihara Saikakukenkyu(Tokyo:Miyai, 1984), pp. 95-105.

33. See Noguchi Tanehiko,Shosetsuno Nihongo (Tokyo:Chuo K6ronsha,1980).

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 Johnson:Saikaku 335

satire.Teruokafurtherwrites: "[TheDanrin]concept of realismwas haikai

parody and satirical methodology."34This parodic intertextualoperation,
then, has extratextualimplications:when one sets out to ridicule a received
text, a privilegedgroupbehind thattext is also the object of ridicule.
Although taken up in more detail below, Saikaku'streatmentof numer-
ous groups of his contemporaries,particularlyin his merchantand samurai
tales, would have to be consideredof satiricalintent.But the most frequent
targetsof his satire are the Buddhistclergy and Confucianists.The posthu-
mously published Saikakuokimiyage(1693) employs the phrase "reeking
of Confucius"to deflatea classical Confucianisttext:
Even a man reeking of Confucius,if he "heardof the Way in the morning,"
could go to the Quarterat night! Bah! What'sso precious aboutthose "An-
cient Texts" anyway?... You don'thave to send somebody afterthe Sages'
mysteriouselixirs of eternalyouth andlongevity. There'sa shortcutto good
things like that,don'tyou know?35
The opposition between "now" and "long ago," a naimaze structure,ap-
pears often in Saikaku'stexts, andhe plays both sides of the argumentas to
which is superior.His juxtapositionsof "long ago" with "now" are mani-
fest variously as the decline of the present generation,the comforts of the
present day, the virtues of filial piety, and the comforts of religious life,
among many other formulations.The passage above observes the balm of
the pleasure quarteras the present-daycure for maladies andjuxtaposes it
with received ancient wisdom. The juxtaposition overturnsdidactic texts
and createscomic incongruity.
As is the case for other Saikakumotifs and phrases, "reekingof Con-
fucius" appearselsewhere in his oeuvre. For example, in a passage of Ichi-
dai otoko, Yonosukeattemptsto convince someone who has "given up the
ways of the world" to have intercoursewith him. In doing so he evokes the
image of the quintessentialhermit poet: "Even that reeking-of-Confucius
Kamo no Ch6mei, who gave up the life of the body, occasionally frolicked
with his boy companion.Perhapswhen he put out the lampilluminatingthe
Hojoki, his heart,too, fell into darkness."36 The ages of Kamo no Chomei
as rokujaand his young companion as jaroku- are complementaryoppo-
sites. Characteristically,Saikaku constructed this as a symbol of sexual
union.
Many critics proceed by biographicaldeterminismand try to impose a
kind of maturationthesis upon Saikaku's writing, claiming that Saikaku

34. Teruoka,"Saikakubungakuni okeruwarai,"p. 123.

35. IharaSaikaku,Okimiyage,in NomaandTeruoka, eds.,TeihonSaikakuzensha,Vol.8,
pp. 76-77. Thistranslation
is by RobertLeutner,
from"Saikaku's PartingGift:Translations
fromSaikakuOkimiyage," Monumenta Vol.30, No. 4 (Winter1975),pp.385.
Nipponica,
36. Saikaku,Kdshokuichidaiotoko,p. 38.

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336 Journal of Japanese Studies 27:2 (2001)

writes from a moralistic point of view or demonstratesthe wisdom of old

age. The progressionfrom the playful to the didactic is construed as Sai-
kaku'slife trajectory.However,this constructis not upheldby an examina-
tion of Saikaku'stexts as the section below on irony demonstrates.A further
complication of this argumentis Noda Hisao's assertion that biographical
informationon Saikakuis almostentirelyspeculation.37One mustrecognize
that Saikaku'slifework was generally motivatedby the "logic of the turn-
about" more so than changes in his life. A consistentpatternin his work is
that the "moral"of a given line, paragraph,or tale is often invertedin the
next line, paragraph,or tale.
Teruokasaw a confluence of parody with satire, demonstratedby his
assertionthat the parody in Danrinhaikai "operatessatirically."Bakhtin's
carnivalesquealso encompassesthe ridiculeof languagesanddialects,street
songs, and folk sayings. It includes play with the "languages" of poets,
scholars, and monks. The degree to which this discourse is open to satire
has receivedmuch less critical attentionthanthe connectionsbetweenit and
parody.However,thereis an inherentconnectionbetween parodyand satire
because one potentiallyaffrontsthe prestige of the poet andpriest when one
plays with theirlanguage.

The Carnivalesqueand Fuishi

Unlike parody,which as we have seen has a critical traditionin Japan,
satire and irony, while they have certainlybeen deployed, have not been a
focus of traditionalJapaneseliterary concerns. The termfashi, often but
incompletely translatedas satire,gained importancewith the knowledge of
Westernliterature,and the critical view of satirein Japanhas been one that
is allegorical, such as the satire found in Gulliver's Travels.This view in-
forms the perspectiveof Taniwakiin his analysis offushi in Budo denraiki
(1687),38but he is virtually alone in discussing satirein Saikaku.Saikaku's
satire is not allegorical and thatis the most probablereason for the critical
neglect. There are abundantsatiricaltouches and satiricalepisodes in Sai-
kaku. His satire is local; as in his famous sketches of his contemporaries,
nearly all of his texts treatsome sector of the populationsatirically.
If Ronald Paulson is correct when he observes, "Satireenjoys the epi-
sodic forms, the collection of stories or anecdotes, the list," then the fact
that Saikaku'scareermoved from haikai verse to narrative(althoughnot to
the exclusion of verse once he startedwriting narrative),then his writingfits
the mold for satire. As we shall see, Danrin haikai, especially the haikai

37. See Noda Hisao, Nihon kinsei shosetsu shi: Ihara Saikaku(Tokyo:Benseisha, 1990),
pp. 16-27.
38. See TaniwakiMasachika,"Budodenraikini okerufushi no hoho," in Saikakukenkyu
to hihyo (Tokyo:WakakusaShob6, 1995), pp. 98-123.

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 Johnson:Saikaku 337

Saikaku wrote, certainly contained satire. And on the connection to real-

ism, Paulsonwrites, "[Satire]producesstories,plots, andcharacterrelation-
ships. This is the satire,it seems to me, thatpoints the way to, and gradually
merges into, the satiricalnovels of Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne, in which
the representationalqualities appearin new relationshipwith the rhetori-
cal." This perspectivehighlights the connection between Saikaku'scarica-
tures of his contemporariesand his so-called "realism," as construedby
Meiji literaryreformers.Et6 Jun claims that "Saikakuthe realist" was the
creation of Meiji criticism. While satire certainly does not adhere to the
tenets of realism, it may in retrospecthave the appearanceof realism.This
is surely the case with Saikakubecause mimesis was not a literaryconcern
until the Meiji reforms. Critical, sarcastic, and satiricalcommentariesare
certainly a much broaderphenomenonthan the narrowlydefined conven-
tion called realism. Satirical commentaryis dependentupon a degree of
mimesis and in this the proponentsof Saikakuas a realistare accurate.39
Saikaku'ssatire is aimed at individualsas representativesof theirclass
or type. His most frequenttargetsinclude those posing as connoisseursof
the pleasure quarter,those who are exceedingly stingy, and those with an
excessive sense of honor. Another favorite subject was the male yabo
(bumpkin)who fancies himself a tsa (connoisseur),a trope that becomes a
mainstay of gesaku fiction. The following excerpts describe women who
have taken to courtesanfashions and persons who follow the path of Bud-
dhism in name only, including members of the priesthood. The pleasure
quarterandthe conjoinedworld of the kabukitheaterwielded influencewell
beyond their proscribedboundaries.This passage from Seken munesan'yo
(1692) observes women outside the pleasure quarterimitating courtesans
and goes on to make distinctionsthathave wider implications.
After all, women these days imitatewhat they see. Frequentlythey emulate
the fashions of the women of the pleasure quarter.Even the women shop-
ping in Kyoto's garmentdistrictfollow the fashions of the pleasurequarter.
The wives of businessmengenerallyresemblethe women of the bathhouses.
The wives of small-timemerchants,such as those from Yokoch6,try to look
like the teahouse women. It's funny. All of them, even the upper-class
women, try to look like the women of the pleasurequarter.At first glance,
or even upon closer examination, one can't tell the difference between a
courtesanand a nonprofessional,but the nonprofessionalslack sensitivity
and are garrulousand, at times, base. Thereis a greatdifferencein theirlove
letters. Their mannerof drinkingis terrible.They can't carry a tune. They
wear theirkimono so clumsily thatthey are dangerouswhen they standand
wiggle too much when they walk. In bed they talk of bean paste and salt.
Frombeginningto end, they use only a single sheet of tissue paperat a time.

39. Paulson,TheFictionsof Satire,pp.5, 9. Also see EtoJun,"Meijini okeruSaikaku,"

in Kindai izen.

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338 Journal of JapaneseStudies 27:2 (2001)

Incense remindsthem of medicine. In any and all respects they are disgust-
ing. Yes, one can say thattheirhairis done in the same fashion, but to think
of nonprofessionalsas courtesansis foolish.40

The extent to which life in the pleasurequarterflowed from the proscribed

boundariesand influenced the populationat large, made clear in this pas-
sage, was a Tokugawareality that lends itself to the notion of the camival-
esque turnaboutof social structures.
A passage above from Ichidai otoko portrayedgreedy priests scurrying
to collect money. The avariceof priests, monks, and commonpeople occurs
most frequentlyin Saikaku'ssatirical critiqueof his contemporaries.Reli-
gious practice in Saikaku'stexts is generally portrayedas being motivated
by selfish desires. Religious devotion is absent.An illustrativepassagefrom
Nippon eitaigura (1688) displays not the poor religious practiceamong re-
ligious leaders,but practiceamong the populacethatis only concernedwith
personalgain. The once-richcharacterChisuke goes to a shrineof Kannon
to pray:
"Even if there is a next world, it is for this one that I pray."In whatever
world, he broke down and cried in his searchfor the bell of mugen. He cast
away his entire self, body and soul: "I beg you to make me rich once again.
I care nothingaboutmy childrenor subsequentgenerations,not even if they
have no food. Please, just help me now!"41

The satirical commentarytargets the greed of a man willing to make any

sacrificein orderto gain what he desires: wealth. Yet within this particular
passage we also witness anotherreversaltypical of the "logic of the turn-
about."The most frequenttale from the pleasurequarteris that of the unfi-
lial son squanderingthe fortunes accumulatedby the father or family. A
fortunethat should have lasted generationsis spent in the pleasurequarter
in a very shorttime. This tale of Chuisukereversesthe predominantnarrative
patternand displays a fatherwilling to mortgagethe futuresof his offspring.
Consideredby some a "get-richguide," Nippon eitaigura also displays
the greed of priests when another character,Gennai, visits a shrine in an
attemptto ensure his continued wealth. He approachessome priests and
requeststhatthey play music and dance as a religious offering:
But the priests were sitting in a palanquinstringing zeni coins and totaling
the offerings. They did not want to be botheredwith a requestfor prayer.At
last the priests saw to it that the requestwas granted,but they simply beat a
handdrum while sitting behind dancing girls, finishing the performancein
a hurry.42

40. Saikaku, Seken munesan'yo, in Noma and Teruoka,eds., Teihon Saikaku zenshu,
Vol. 7 (Tokyo:Chuo K6ron, 1985), p. 220.
41. Saikaku,Nippon eitaigura, in ibid., pp. 91-92.
42. Ibid., p. 138.

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 Johnson:Saikaku 339

The image of the greedy priest whose greatestconcern is money frequently

appearsin Saikaku'stexts, althoughBuddhistsare far more often the target.
In one of the final scenes of Ichidai onna, the nameless protagonist
makes her way to Daiun Temple'sHall of the Buddha'sFive HundredDis-
ciples. Saikakuemploys a comic superimpositionas a narrativetechnique
when the protagonisttakes a long look at the statuesand says, "As it should
have been, I looked carefully from face to face and they came to life; they
were the images of men with whom I had energeticallyshareda pillow."43
She goes on to enumeratethe lovers whose faces are superimposeduponthe
disciples' statues.
The statues, spiritualicons in the temple, are transfiguredbut they are
transfiguredinto earthly images of profane value. Though she is supposed
to be in a moment of deep repentance, the narrativetechnique does not
produce repentance.The first frame of the remembranceis formed by the
statues which evoke the images of former lovers as she stands within the
Daiun Temple. The second frame is formed by the greater perspectiveof
this old woman living her nun'sexistence and tantalizingher audienceby
reminiscing within her "cell of love." The moment created here is one
of ironic enlightenment.The protagonistcannot escape the sexual, sensual
world, which is emphasized by multiframedincongruenciesthat place her
within the cell of love, within the temple, within her enlightenment.Once
again, the somber and sacred and their forms of representationare the ob-
jects Saikakuoverturnsto reveal a comic underside.
Saikaku'ssatireof Buddhismwas also presentin his haikai. The follow-
ing verse goes beyond his usual observationsof the Buddhist practicesof
the populace or the nonpracticeof the clergy to display either a merchant's
worship of money or a godless materialworld: "shirenuyo ya / Shaka no
shi ato ni / kane ga aru" (this world beyond knowing! / after Sakyamuni
died / there is [only] money). The verse starts with Buddhist, spiritual
overtones and ends with material concerns. The concluding line may be
interpretedeither that Sakyamunileft materialthings (money) behind after
his death, or that the importanceof money has outlastedthe importanceof
Sakyamuni.
Theories of satire in the West generally indicate "a will to correct,"but
the concept must be alteredin its applicationto Saikaku,perhapsto Japan
in general,and many postmodernnarratives.The "will to correct"as a gen-
eralized principleis far too moralfor the tone of Saikaku'swork. Yet while
the will to correct is absent, one cannot say there is no satire in Saikaku's
texts. There are intentionallyconstructedoppositions throughwhich Bud-
dhist and Confucianistideals of behaviorare revealedto be largelyinopera-

43. Saikaku,Koshokuichidai onna, in Noma and Teruoka,eds., TeihonSaikakuzenshu,

Vol. 2 (Tokyo:Chuo Koron, 1949), p. 371.

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340 Journalof Japanese Studies 27:2 (2001)

tive. By presenting situationsthat test these ideals, Saikakufocuses on the

humantendencyto err,or the lack of humanstaminato maintainideals over
time. But Saikaku does not demean priests to condemn them. He reveals
them in the manner that kyogen revealed the yamabushi, so that we may
laugh at their humanity,a humanity that opposes their social image. Such
revelationneitherinherentlyreinforcesthe statusquo noris inherentlyrevo-
lutionaryand disruptive.There is a sense of what numerouscommentators
have called a "world-weary"Saikaku,one who observes the world as it is
and simply records humanfolly. Yet, the Saikakutext is a highly unstable
semanticfield, too unstablefor moral correction.The orderof the pleasure
quarter,the entirety of a text, and predominantnarrativepatternsare over-
turnedin Saikaku'smirth.Invectives are aimed at everything,includingthe
narrativeperspectives.

Saikaku'sIronic NarrativeVoice
In his study of Higuchi Ichiy6, RobertDanly presentsa brief but astute
discussionof Saikaku'sirony,statingthat "Saikakuembracedthe contradic-
tions in life" and "shunnedidealization."He also observes Saikaku's"cool
and detachedpoint of view" as well as his ability to "sympathizewith the
sufferingof his characters."He is particularlyperceptivein his statements:
"thepracticaland the ridiculousarejuxtaposed;the prosaicand the elegant
collide.... The earthyjargon of the pleasurequarterandthe business world
is mixed with lines from the classics. A pompous Confucianisttries to dis-
course with the street-wise."44This discussion clearly indicates irony in
spite of the fact that Danly does not use the term, nor does the term aironii
appearin Japanesecriticism on Saikaku.A numberof otherterms, such as
chaka suru (to poke fun at), gyakutensuru (to invert, reverse), and hiniku
(sarcasm),do appear,but the critical usage indicates that they are distinct
from aironii. In fact, irony in premodernJapanesenarrativesis dismissed
out-of-handby many scholars. One argumentis that a narrativethat has
no unified narrativepoint of view would not be able to register an ironic
disruption.
Addressingprecisely this point, Earl Miner discusses point of view in
monogatari:"Weobservethe overlappingandfragmentingof variouspoints
of view. There is a great deal of disruption,of displacement,of switching
44. Robert Danly, In the Shade of Spring Leaves (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1981), pp. 131, 132, and 124. This section is concerned with irony in spite of the fact that
Bakhtin saw irony in a very negative light. This is clear from his writing in "Notes Made in
1970-1971," in Speech Genresand OtherLate Essays 1895-1975, trans.VernMcGee (Aus-
tin: University of Texas Press, 1986), pp. 132-58. However, Bakhtin seems to have distin-
guished between modern and other ironies, as he used the term "comic-ironic"in Rabelais
and His World,p. 51. To manyobservers,thereis clearly a place for ironyin the carnivalesque,
Bakhtin'snegative assessmentof modernirony notwithstanding.

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 Johnson:Saikaku 341

from mind to mind. This volatility has its explanationin the importanceof
points of attention."However,Miner also states thatthe termsoshiji, "nar-
ration by the book," anticipates the Western notion of voice in a text.45
Voice, and particularlydistinguishing narrativeand authorialvoices, pre-
sents a useful notion for the examinationof Saikakuand other later comic
authors.
Kanai Toranosuke'swork on Saikaku'sstyle demonstratesthe slippage
from thirdperson to firstpersonthatMiner addresses.StatingthatJapanese
does not requirepronounsor other markersto indicate who is speaking,he
examines numerousnarrativepassages from Ichidai otoko and argues that
they can be read as first-personor third-personnarration.Kanaithen exam-
ines three passages that demonstratea clear movementfrom first-personto
third-personand third-personto first-personnarration.He concludes that
there arethreenarrativetypes: firstperson,thirdperson, andmixed firstand
thirdperson. The functioning of these shifts in Kanai's opinion is: "When
Yonosuke is treated with third-personnarration,that is, the authorialper-
spective, Yonosuke's attitudeand behavior or intercoursewith other char-
acters are the object; when Yonosuke, with first-personnarration,treats
charactersother than himself, they are the objects."46That is to say, the
narrativecomes to the readerthrough Yonosuke or Saikaku, and the por-
trayal throughYonosuke lends more directness and more intimacy to the
object being portrayed.Kanaiis not concernedwith the postulationof nar-
rativelevels but that is inherentin his analysis as in Miner's.
The question Kanaiinadvertentlyaddressesis not necessarily of a well-
sustained charactervoice without slippage, but of a distinction between
charactervoice (diegetic level) and narrativeand/orauthorialvoice (extra-
diegetic level). Particularlyamong comic authors,we tend to encountera
gap between the story line (diegetic level) and the proposed aims of the
narration.MarleighRyan, quoted earlier,entirelymisses the markin terms
of irony, but her observationis accurate: "We consequently find a strong
tendency for authorsto moralize in works of fiction from medieval times
and, in the Tokugawa,even the most licentious story was apt to end with a
moral dictum."47It is precisely by creatinga gap between the narrativetell-
ing (extradiegeticlevel) and the narration,or story line (diegetic level), that
festive critique is enhancedin Saikaku'soeuvre. The contrastbetween the
focus of the narrationitself and the posturingof the narrativevoice render
the didactic and moral comments laughable. As Robert Leutnerobserves
about Saikaku:

45. Earl Miner, Comparative Poetics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990),
p. 201.
46. KanaiToranosuke,"Saikakuno buntai,"Saikakuko (Tokyo: Yagi, 1989), p. 37.
47. Ryan, Developmentof Realism,p. 6.

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342 Journal of Japanese Studies 27:2 (2001)

Saikakusays that these stories are about the ultimatedestinies of outstand-

ing exemplarsof the Way of Love, destinies determinedby the very nature
of the pleasure quarter,whose glittering attractionsdisguised a fundamen-
tally corruptand corruptingnetherworldof deception, mistrust,and greed.
The emphasisin the introductionon the evils of the pleasurequarteris not,
however,the emphasis visible in the stories themselves.48
These kinds of gaps and incongruencies do clearly indicate intentional irony
at work, and there is frequently manifest an ironic posture in the narrative
and authorial voices in Saikaku's texts. Furthermore, the voice of a preface
or conclusion is most easily identifiable because it is clearly at a different
narrative level, creates a different set of expectations for the reader, and is
generally considered to be close to, or that of, the author. Caryl Callahan,
for example, is very aware of the irony in the voice of Saikaku's introduc-
tions, but like Leutner, writes in terms of a historical Saikaku:
To strengthentheir case, those who maintainthat Tales of SamuraiHonor
[Bukegiri monogatari, 1688] is meant as a tract on giri often refer to the
preface, where Saikakudeclares that he will recounttales of samuraisacri-
ficing themselves for giri. Some critics have apparentlytaken him at his
word, even though the prefaces of most of his other works were written
tongue in cheek.49
Neither of these readers is fooled by the ironic commentary but is writing
of an authorial voice as undifferentiated from the historical person. Another
comment by Leutner indicates this very same position: "fictional works of
many of Saikaku's successors are suffused with didactic intent, [but] Sai-
kaku himself succeeds for the most part in restricting his preaching-which
in any case is usually concerned with practical matters and often ironic-to
prefatory statements and general introductions." 50Leutner, however, pro-
vides a rationale for this type of voice in a text. Although he writes about
Shikitei Sanba, he describes the persona of an extradiegetic voice:
The writer'sobjective was to entertainand amuse, but he was unwilling to
put his reputationat risk by appearingto be simply a jester or a buffoon.
The result was a form of writing that constantlyforces upon the readeran
awarenessof its artificialityand tentativeness.... [they made] attemptsto
preservesomethingof the distancebetween the authorand his work.... [an
authorremindsthe reader]the world he has createdin his fiction is his cre-
ation and his alone, one from which he can removehimself at will, by ceas-
ing to be simply a narratorand taking on some wholly differentpersona.5

48. Leutner,"Saikaku'sPartingGift," p. 361.

49. CarylAnn Callahan,"Introduction,"in IharaSaikaku,Tales of SamuraiHonor,trans.
CarylAnn Callahan(Tokyo: SophiaUniversityPress, 1981), p. 18.
50. Leutner,"Saikaku'sPartingGift," pp. 361-62.
51. RobertLeutner,ShikiteiSanba and the Comic Traditionin Edo Fiction (Cambridge,
Mass.: HarvardUniversityPress, 1985), p. 4.

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 Johnson:Saikaku 343

One aspect of the misconceptionssurroundingSaikaku'snarrativevoice

is that some texts were viewed as "self-help manuals"for audiencesin pur-
suit of the trendiestfashion (tsa). The narrativevoice plays with notions of
fashionability,and detaileddescriptionswere often taken as a promotionof
certain things as iki or tsa. But Saikakupresents all objects of his narra-
tive-eroticism, the pleasurequarter,the samuraiclass, the merchantclass,
etc.-from various perspectives,and this shift of perspectiveenhancesthe
irony in his oeuvre. Furthercomplicatingthe ambiguityof the playful voice
thatis taken seriously,there is also a critical traditionin Japaneseliterature
wherein the authoris emphasized within the text. The operativenotion in
such criticism is a historicalself manifestin a transparenttext. However,in
discussion of a pranksterlike Saikaku, about whom there is little sound
biographicalinformation,and whose own aims were comical, reaching an
implied authoris problematical;we only have an inferredauthor.52
Contraryto Leutner'sconclusions, Saikaku seems to have been com-
fortable with the creating a narrativepersonaof clown and prankster.This
can be clearly seen in the posthumouslypublishedSaikakuoritome (1694):
It is saidthatthingsthatpassbeforeone'seyes havea wayof floatinginto
one'smind.Andfromlongago it hasbeensaidthatunlessoneutterswhat
is onhis mind,it willexpandinsidehisbelly.AlthoughI myselfhaven'thad
a thoughteither,I havehada smallbellyforquitesometime.... I havejust
triedto write,relyingon my brush,aboutpeoples'wild adventures in this
world.53
The self-effacing qualityof this prefaceindicatesan authorialposturevis-a-
vis oneself, one's work, and a philosophicalposition vis-a-vis the world,but
shouldbe understoodas createdby, but not be takenfor, a historicalperson.
An analysis by HowardHibbett in his comparativestudy of Saikaku's
Koshokuichidai onna and Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders is in keeping with
the concerns here with ironic narrativevoice. But Hibbett finds intrusion
from the extradiegeticlevel into parts of the tale as a disruptiveforce and
thereforeindicates that the irony is not merely limited to the prefaces and
introductions.
Saikaku'schief attitudeis one of detachedgaiety,andhis complexserio-
comictoneis enlivenedby a greatmanytouchesof burlesquewit.Defoe,a
superbillusionist,is entirelywithdrawn behindhis narrative,
of whichhe
modestlyclaimsonlyto be theeditor;whileSaikaku,likeFielding,doesnot
hesitateto destroythecontinuityof his tale.54

52. For one definitionof iki, see Leslie Pincus,AuthenticatingCulturein ImperialJapan

(Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1996), pp. 126-39.
53. Saikaku oritome, in Noma Koshin, ed., Saikakushu:Nihon koten bungaku taikei,
Vol. 48 (Tokyo:IwanamiShoten, 1960), p. 315.
54. HowardHibbett, "Saikakuand BurlesqueFiction," HarvardJournalof Asiatic Stud-
ies, Vol. 20 (1957), p. 64.

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344 Journalof Japanese Studies 27:2 (2001)

While the clear demarcationof the authorialvoice in the introductionseases

the task of identification,Hibbett,by bringingthe intrusive,ironic voice out
of those bounded areas, not only brings irony into the text in general,but
creates the potential for the authorialvoice as a textual persona.Although
this extradiegeticpersonais close to the authorialvoice, except in termsof
greaterconstruction,one must be very careful in speaking of the authoras
a direct and active participantin this type of narrative.With an authorlike
Saikaku, whose objective is a festive critique, one can only speak of the
authorin the sense of the greaterconstructorof the situation.
There is a mobility in the "authorial"voice in Saikaku that playfully
adoptsvariouspersonaor positions.The pitfall for most readersis the desire
to attachto one of these "voices" the name of the historical persona,Ihara
Saikaku.Hibbett'sanalysis provides examples of the mobility of the voice
that allows us to think of the narrativepersona as an active characterin
the story. The notion of Saikakuconstructing a narrativepersona who is
a prankster,I argue, is in direct relation to Bakhtin'snotion that "all lan-
guages [are] masks and no languagecould claim to be an authentic,incon-
testableface." 55

Conclusion
Prioritizinglofty concerns over comedy must be nearly universalin lit-
erarycriticism.If meaningwere not prioritizedover the semanticdisruption
of the pun, at least in appearance,the organizationof culturesand societies
would be threatened.The collective cost is our sense of humor and an an-
archistic equality.Laughter,the great equalizer,was Saikaku'sreal parting
gift. He adoptedthe native methods and postureof satiricalHeian prints,a
kyogen vision of the sacred, and haikai interactionwith the classics. He
brought this artistic amalgam to bear on the "new" social spaces of the
Tokugawaperiod and helped to foster an era of unparalleledcomic produc-
tion in the arts. He clearly delightedin overturningall hierarchies,whether
the orderwas that of the pleasurequarter,Tokugawaofficialdom,received
texts, or reviews of courtesans.And these turnaboutsoddly resonatewith
the Buddhistnotion of transience,an ephemeralityof meaning.
While Bakhtin'scarnivalesquetheory, largely concerned with the soci-
ology of language in the novel, is based in the context of medievalEurope,
his theories dovetail with performativetheories of Victor Turnerin a way
thatindicates the efficacy of broaderapplicationsof Bakhtin'sthought.The
value of Bakhtiniantheory to studies spanning Westernand non-Western
cultures,and even industrializedand nonindustrializedsocieties, is clearest
in the commonalitybetween Bakhtin'sthought and Babcock's quote at the

55. Bakhtin,TheDialogic Imagination,p. 237.

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 Johnson:Saikaku 345

beginning of this essay. This applicationof both bodies of thoughtto Ihara

Saikakuis among a very few that view Saikaku'stexts as something other
than the property of the closed context of the Tokugawa period and its
peculiarity.
UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

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