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was a poet
Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, writer
Writer

A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms....
 and artist
Artist

The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art....
 in the Edo period
Edo period

The , or , is a division of History of Japan running from 1603 to 1868. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu....
. His real name was , and he was also known popularly as . He is the brother of Santo Kyozan.

Life
Santo Kyoden was born in Fukagawa in Edo
Edo

, literally: Headlands and bays-door, "estuary", ), also Romanization of Japanese as Yedo or Yeddo, is the Geographical renaming of the Capital of Japan Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868....
. The Iwase family into which he was born were pawnbrokers in a lumberyard. He studied ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e

, "pictures of the floating world", is a genre of Japanese woodblock printing and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre and pleasure quarters....
 under master , and began illustrating kibyoshi
Kibyoshi

is a genre of Japanese picture book kusazoshi produced during the middle of the Edo period. Physically identifiable as yellow-backed Graphic_novel, the genre was in vogue for nearly thirty years beginning in 1775 with a work written by Koikawa Harumachi whose title is popularly translated as Master Flashgold's Splendiferous Dream ....
 under the pseudonym
Pseudonym

A pseudonym, , is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name. In some cases, pseudonyms are adopted because it is part of a cultural or organizational tradition, as in the case of Religious names used by members of some religious orders and "cadre names" used by Communist party leaders such as Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin....
 of . He soon started writing these novels also under the name of Santo Kyoden; several novels are labeled as written by Santo Kyoden and illustrated by Kitao Masanobu.






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Encyclopedia


was a poet
Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, writer
Writer

A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms....
 and artist
Artist

The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art....
 in the Edo period
Edo period

The , or , is a division of History of Japan running from 1603 to 1868. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu....
. His real name was , and he was also known popularly as . He is the brother of Santo Kyozan.

Life


Santo Kyoden was born in Fukagawa in Edo
Edo

, literally: Headlands and bays-door, "estuary", ), also Romanization of Japanese as Yedo or Yeddo, is the Geographical renaming of the Capital of Japan Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868....
. The Iwase family into which he was born were pawnbrokers in a lumberyard. He studied ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e

, "pictures of the floating world", is a genre of Japanese woodblock printing and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre and pleasure quarters....
 under master , and began illustrating kibyoshi
Kibyoshi

is a genre of Japanese picture book kusazoshi produced during the middle of the Edo period. Physically identifiable as yellow-backed Graphic_novel, the genre was in vogue for nearly thirty years beginning in 1775 with a work written by Koikawa Harumachi whose title is popularly translated as Master Flashgold's Splendiferous Dream ....
 under the pseudonym
Pseudonym

A pseudonym, , is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name. In some cases, pseudonyms are adopted because it is part of a cultural or organizational tradition, as in the case of Religious names used by members of some religious orders and "cadre names" used by Communist party leaders such as Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin....
 of . He soon started writing these novels also under the name of Santo Kyoden; several novels are labeled as written by Santo Kyoden and illustrated by Kitao Masanobu. He wrote kibyoshi and sharebon
Sharebon

The was a pre-modern Japanese literary genre. Plots revolved around humor and entertainment at the Red-light district. It is a sub-genre of gesaku....
 in great numbers, and became a popular writer. During this time he married twice, both his wives being licensed workers of Yoshiwara
Yoshiwara

Yoshiwara was a famous Akasen district in Edo, present-day Tokyo, Japan.In the early 17th century, there was widespread male and female prostitution throughout the cities of Kyoto, Edo, and Osaka....
.

During the Kansei Reforms
Kansei Reforms

The were a series of reactionary policy changes and edicts which were intended to cure a range of perceived problems which had developed in mid-18th century Tokugawa shogunate Japan....
, "[...] military and civil arts were encouraged, and the decadent writings of gesaku authors were condemned." In 1791, Kyoden published three sharebon: , , and . This incurred the anger of the stricter government and he was chained in manacles to his house for fifty days as punishment.

Kyoden then broke off all ties with sharebon and turned to writing yomihon
Yomihon

is a type of Japanese book from the Edo period , that was influenced by Chinese vernacular novels such as Water Margin. Unlike other Japanese books of the period, they had few illustrations, and the emphasis was on the text....
. Kyokutei Bakin
Kyokutei Bakin

I was a late Edo period gesaku author best known for works such as Nanso Satomi Hakkenden and Chinsetsu Yumiharizuki.Born as , he wrote under the pen name which is a pun as the kanji may also be read as Kuruwa de Makoto meaning a man who is truly devoted to the courtesans of the pleasure districts....
 joined with Kyoden to write gesaku
Gesaku

is an alternative style, genre or school of Japanese literature. In the simplest contemporary sense, any literary work of a playful, mocking, joking, silly or frivolous nature may be called Gesaku....
 jointly, and independently Kyoden also wrote essentially historical texts on the manners and customs of the Edo period
Edo period

The , or , is a division of History of Japan running from 1603 to 1868. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu....
. Kyoden was an acute observer of life in the Edo period
Edo period

The , or , is a division of History of Japan running from 1603 to 1868. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu....
. While at ease with exaggeration, comedy and linguistic fun, his writing was primarily realistic
Literary realism

Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of French literature of the 19th century and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society 'as they were'....
.

Fiction writers prior to Kyoden generally wrote fiction as a hobby without any expectations of payment. Kyoden was one of the pioneers in turning this hobby into a livable profession.

Major works


Kibyoshi


  • (1782)
  • (1785)
  • (1788)
  • (1790)


Sharebon


  • (1785)
  • (1787)
  • (1787)
  • (1790)
  • (1790)
  • (1791)
  • (1791)
  • (1791)


Yomihon


  • (1799)
  • (1804)
  • (1805)
  • (1806, translated by Carmen Blacker as "The Straw Sandal Or The Scroll of the Hundred Crabs", Global Oriental, 2008, ISBN 1-905-24664-1)


Historical works

  • (1804)
  • (1813)


See also

  • Kibyoshi
    Kibyoshi

    is a genre of Japanese picture book kusazoshi produced during the middle of the Edo period. Physically identifiable as yellow-backed Graphic_novel, the genre was in vogue for nearly thirty years beginning in 1775 with a work written by Koikawa Harumachi whose title is popularly translated as Master Flashgold's Splendiferous Dream ....
  • Sharebon
    Sharebon

    The was a pre-modern Japanese literary genre. Plots revolved around humor and entertainment at the Red-light district. It is a sub-genre of gesaku....
  • Tsutaya Juzaburo
    Tsutaya Juzaburo

    Tsutaya Juzaburo was the founder and head of the Tsutaya publishing house in Edo period Japan, which produced the ukiyo-e woodblock printing in Japan works of many of the period's most famous artists, along with illustrated books....


External links