![]() ![]() Under the pen name Ihara Kakuei, Saikaku began to establish himself as a popular haikai poet. ![]() In 1662 at the age of twenty Saikaku had become a haikai master. From the age of fifteen Saikaku had begun to compose haikai no renga (linked verse). In 1642, Ihara Saikaku was born into a well-off merchant family in Osaka. These stories catered to the whims of the newly prominent merchant class, whose tastes of entertainment leaned toward the arts and pleasure districts. Later in life he began writing racy accounts of the financial and amorous affairs of the merchant class and the demimonde. Scholars have described numerous extraordinary feats of solo haikai composition at one sitting most famously, over the course of a single day and night in 1677, Saikaku is reported to have composed at least 16,000 haikai stanzas, with some rumors placing the number at over 23,500 stanzas. ![]() Born the son of the wealthy merchant Hirayama Tōgo (平山藤五) in Osaka, he first studied haikai poetry under Matsunaga Teitoku, and later studied under Nishiyama Sōin of the Danrin School of poetry, which emphasized comic linked verse. ![]()
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