Narrative
Playboy, Roasted à la Edo
江戸生艶気樺焼
Santo Kyoden · 1785
Synopsis
Enjirō, only son of a rich Edo merchant, vain and afflicted with a snub nose, dreams of passing for a great seducer, according to the Japanese magazine Waraku. He has the names of imaginary mistresses tattooed on his arms, pays hawkers of broadsheets to announce his conquests and gives fifty ryō to a geisha to come to his house and feign passion. These paid performances have one effect: nobody believes him.
Context
The booklet was published in 1785 by Tsutaya Jūzaburō, and its author wrote the text and drew the pictures, according to the magazine Waraku. The hero's upturned nose became the mark of his illustrations, and the character's given name passed into the language to designate a vain man, according to the JapanKnowledge dictionary, which also reports that readers at once looked for a real model for the hero and that the author reused his characters in a book of manners of 1787. A historian who teaches it says it is very often reprinted in anthologies.
Who it is for
A short picture book with captions, for those interested in the origins of Japanese comics; the annotated English translation explains its wordplay.
Prizes and reception
Counted among the masterpieces of the kibyōshi by a Japanese encyclopaedia, and translated into English by Adam L. Kern.
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