Japan: Portrait of Jippensha Ikku (1765 – 1831) a prolific Japanese writer active during the late Edo period of Japan.

Jippensha Ikku was the pen name of Shigeta Sadakazu, a Japanese writer active during the late Edo period of Japan. He lived primarily in Edo (now known as Tokyo) in the service of samurai, but also spent some time in Osaka as a townsman. He was among the most prolific yellow-backed novel (kibyōshi) writers of the late Edo period — between 1795 and 1801 he wrote a minimum of twenty novels a year, and thereafter wrote sharebon, kokkeibon and over 360 illustrated stories (gōkan).

Jippensha was considered the Dickens of Japan. He began his adult life with three marriages of which two were quickly ended by fathers-in-law who could not understand his literary habits. He accepted poverty with good humor, and, having no furniture, hung his bare walls with paintings of the furniture he might have had. His masterpiece, Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige, was published in twelve parts between 1802 and 1822, and told a rollicking tale in the vein of 'The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'. It has been called 'the most humorous and entertaining book in the Japanese language'.

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

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