In the Shade of the Cherry Blossoms

Saikaku’s literary manner is remarkable for its ambiguity. Miracles and metamorphoses constantly unfold before the reader’s eyes: the author never tires of changing masks, moving from moralist and chronicler of everyday life into a sly, inexhaustible storyteller full of inventions and jokes. “Laughter,” Saikaku wrote, “comes in two kinds: empty laughter and the kind that comes from the depths of the heart. A person is like a vessel that holds either lies or truth.” Irony, sarcasm, parody grotesque—these are the author’s favorite devices, but in his laughter one can hear sadness about the fickleness of life and human fate. Saikaku’s genre range is extraordinarily wide. In this book, the reader will find works of different character—love stories, everyday tales, fantastical and magical stories, courtroom dramas, and more. Some of the stories are being published in Russian for the first time.