Great Mirror of Male Love - Paperback

by Paul Gordon Schalow (Translator), Ihara Saikaku (Author)

The first complete translation of Nanshoku ōkagami by Ihara Saikaku (1642-93), this is a collection of 40 stories describing homosexual love affairs between samurai men and boys, and between young kabuki actors and their middle-class patrons. The book is illustrated with 50 woodblocks, prepared for the original printing of Nanshoku ōkagami.

Winner of the 1990 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for Translating of Japanese Literature.

Back Jacket

A welcome opportunity for wider comparison of the literary traditions and sexual conventions of Japanese and Euro-American cultures.--Journal of Japanese Studies