Tales of wealth from 17th century Japan

“The Way to Wealth” by Saikaku Ibara

In order to understand present-day Japan, we need to look at the way the country was organized in the past.

This Japanese classic, originally published in 1688, described exactly this: how Japan’s merchants and commerce operate, how wealth was made and lost, and how ordinary people live their everyday lives in the 17th century’s Japan. It is such a fascinating book, describing a world that exists alongside the more-famous tales of emperors and their samurai warrior class.

The book consist of selected short stories from a collection called Nippon-Eitaogura, written by Saikaku Ibara, who was born in 1642 (the 19th year of the Kan-ei Era) and died in August 1693 (the 6th year of the Genroku Era).

A little bit of context for this book: in 1639 the Tokugawa shogunate closed all trade with foreign countries, except, under strict control, with the Dutch and the Chinese at Nagasaki. Hence, their port was the only place in Japan in touch with the outside world. This age of seclusion continued until 1854 near the end of the Tokugawa period.

During this isolation period the Tokugawa feudalism reached its peak, developing its own customs, cultures, commerce, literature, and everything else that have since created a strong Japanese identity. Identity that are vividly portrayed in this book.

The book’s author Saikaku is highly regarded as 1 of the 3 masters of the pen in the Genroku Era. He lived in Osaka, where he keenly observed the ordinary lives of the people there, from tradesmen to wealthy merchants. The summary of these observations became Nippon-Eitaogura, which was regarded as one of his masterpieces. There are originally 6 volumes, each containing 5 stories, making the total of 30 stories. And 15 out of the 30 stories are translated into this English-language book, published in 1955.

It is so refreshing to read how the economy worked in the later Samurai era where the samurai class became more administrative and bureaucratic, with many acting as retainers to daimyos (feudal lords); and how temples played a big role in the organisation of commerce.

It is also amusing to read that when it comes to money, human nature has not changed that much in hundreds of years. Some people can be very prudent and responsible with money, some when received money will immediately spend them on alcohol, gambling, and/or prostitutes (like several of the people observed in the book). Some dressed humbly despite having abundance of money, others never fail to ensure to flex their wealth. And then there are also matters such as inheritance, dowry for marriage, and many other life’s essentials, covered in the book.

One particular story is the most memorable for me, where a person waste his family’s fortune in gambling, got kicked out from the family and moved from Kyoto to Edo, where he then transformed from a spoiled brat that cannot do anything into a person of hussle and eventually became a wealthy and respectable person in his new town. Or the last story in the book, that tells a tale of a wealthy businessman that gain his fortune from a lot of cheating ways, died alone hugging his money and was considered cursed by the gods, where nobody wanted to take his wealth afterwards (not even his distant family, who gave it all to his servants to take but nobody wanted to touch the money), and his house ended up becoming a haunted empty house filled with treasures that nobody want to touch.

There are so much to learn from this book, with a lot of timeless wisdom alongside the inspirations, even if it’s 300+ years old.

I purchased the physical copy of this 1955 translation in the legendary Jimbocho Book Town in Tokyo, at the famous English-language Kitazawa Bookstore. The condition of the book is superb despite its 70+ years age, neatly covered with a transparent plastic that protect the brownish original cover paper. I expecte nothing less from Japanese meticulous nature.

This good condition, the “old book smell”, and the back story of the book makes the experience in reading this brilliant classic book so much more mystical. I enjoyed reading every minute of it.