The Story Archive

The Japanese Family Storehouse

Ihara Saikaku · 1688 CE · Short Story · Japanese · Enlightenment

Thirty accounts of how townsmen in Kyoto, Osaka and Edo assembled fortunes out of umbrella repairs, soy sauce, salt, timber and pawnbroking, and how often their sons dispersed the same money again on the quarters and the tea ceremony. Every case comes with figures attached, and with a moral about thrift that the telling undercuts by relishing the extravagance. Saikaku offered it as a millionaires' gospel brought up to date, and it remains the nearest thing to a portrait of Genroku commercial life from inside it.

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Attributes

Genre
SatireComedy
Theme
Wealth & GreedClass & InequalityAmbition & HubrisTradition
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
EverymanTricksterWise Fool
Plot structure
EpisodicRags to RichesRise and Fall
Symbol / motif
Gold / TreasureThe HouseThe Harvest
Conflict
vs Societyvs Self
Mode / tone
SatiricalIronicComic
Culture / tradition
Japanese

Closest analogues