Hayashi Razan æž—ç¾-å±±, author - (Eari çµµæOe‰) Kaidan Zensho 怪談å-¨æ›¸ [Ukiyozå�Shi 浮世è�‰å­�], 5 Vols

1698. Hayashi Razan æž—ç¾-å±±, author (Eari çµµæoe‰) Kaidan Zensho 怪談å-¨æ›¸ [UkiyozÅ�shi 浮世è�‰å­�], 5 vols. Edo & Kyoto Genroku å-ƒç¦„ 11 [1698] 25.1 x 17.6 cm. String- bound, Japanese-style, fukuro-toji. (Hayashi Razan æž—ç¾-å±± (1583-1657) was the Confucian tutor of the third Tokugawa shogun and translated the Kaidan Zensho 怪談å-¨æ›¸ from Chinese sources in 1627, adding some Japanese legendary material and domesticating the tales in general. It circulated in manuscript for most of the 17th century as a very influential literary genre source. It appears to have first been printed in Kyoto and Edo as this set was, in Genroku å-ƒç¦„ 11 [1698]. This is the seminal work of the "spooky story" genre in Japan. Selected from a variety of tales, many of which used animals to represent failures in Neo-Confucian virtue, it served as a foundational element of the Kaidan genre in Japan. Kaidan 怪談, or "Monster Tales," fit in with tales of the Demi-Monde, the wonderful distorted humans of Toba-E 鳥羽絵, scatology, erotic shunga, shunga parodies and "mitate" 見立絵 (ukiyo-e parody pictures), which often reference the most sober and didactic East Asian cultural elements in a burlesque fashion. The purpose was some amalgam of eroticism, naughtiness, certainly humor, and perhaps just a touch of social commentary about the hypocrisies of any society. Disguised - as such criticism was not welcomed. Illustrated with b+w woodblock in the tradition of the ukiyo zôshi 浮世è�‰å­�. Our copy is a bit thumbed, but in a nice impression, with the original worn covers and printed paper title labels. All in a custom clasped chitsu case. .

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