Nippon eitaigura 日本永代蔵

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Commentary by William D. Fleming

Posted June 1, 2017

Nippon eitaigura (The eternal storehouse of Japan) is a collection of thirty stories in six volumes by the celebrated Osaka writer Ihara Saikaku with monochrome illustrations in the style of the artist Yoshida Hanbē. Like much of Saikaku’s fiction, Nippon eitaigura depicts the world of the urban merchant in rich detail and with humor and stylistic panache. These are not, however, amorous tales of the sort for which Saikaku is best remembered today. Rather, the focus is on merchants as merchants. Readers follow the successes and failures of prominent businessmen, many modeled on real-life figures. In the process they are whisked along on a tour of early modern Japan’s hubs of economic activity—not only the major cities of Edo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Sakai but also regional centers stretching from Sakata in the north (present-day Yamagata Prefecture) to Nagasaki in the south.

Taken literally, the “eternal storehouse” of the title refers to the protected storerooms in which Japanese merchants safeguarded their wealth for posterity. The image is also a convenient metaphor for the collection as a whole, as Saikaku explains in the closing lines of the final tale. “In this great ledger of Japan,” he writes, “I have recorded tales of wealth as I have heard them. Let them lie safeguarded in this eternal storehouse, at peace like the realm itself, that they might bring profit to future generations” (vol. 6, story 5). The subtitle of the book, Daifuku shin chōjakyō 大福新長者教 (Auspicious new teachings for men of wealth), suggests a similar aim. In 1627 an anonymous writer had published a self-help guide for aspiring millionaires titled Chōjakyō 長者教 (Teachings for men of wealth). With its simple, appealing message that anyone could amass a great fortune given sufficient frugality and discipline, Chōjakyō quickly catapulted to commercial success. The clear allusion to this antecedent text in Saikaku’s subtitle suggests not only a shared didactic intent but also a desire to capitalize on the earlier work’s continued popularity.

The pages of Nippon eitaigura are filled with men (and a handful of women) who accumulate enormous wealth. In each case, Saikaku explores the personal qualities and circumstances behind this worldly success; typically these include some combination of hard work, ingenuity, perseverance, and good luck. We encounter, for example, an industrious entrepreneur who builds himself up from nothing by gathering the scraps of wood discarded by others (vol. 3, story 1), as well as a confectioner who reverse-engineers a popular imported candy for domestic production (vol. 5, story 1). In keeping with the didactic strain, generosity and virtuous business practices are often shown to be rewarded with financial success (e.g., vol. 6, story 3).

Just as important as the question of how to get rich is the question of how to stay rich. In more than one tale, lavish tastes whittle massive fortunes down to nothing, saddling the next generation with heavy debts (e.g., vol. 3, story 2). In other cases it is the heirs themselves who send a family’s wealth up in smoke. An especially memorable scene involves one such wastrel son who, after he is unexpectedly confronted by his angry father as he takes a bath (vol. 2, story 3), finds himself driven from town in his dripping bathrobe. The generational divide can also cut the other way, as it does with a precocious young heir who takes his master to task for wasted investment opportunities (vol. 6, story 2).

This being Saikaku, Nippon eitaigura implicitly critiques merchant values as often as it celebrates them. A list of rules for building wealth featured in one story skewers merchants with pretensions beyond their class (vol. 3, story 1). In another episode, a Nagasaki trader executes a devious scheme that not only goes unpunished, but proves enormously profitable (vol. 4, story 2). Elsewhere a townsman matches his heir with a bride so violently jealous that the young man thinks better of squandering his inheritance in the pleasure quarters (vol. 5, story 5). Nor is Saikaku’s satirical gaze directed at merchants alone. When an unscrupulous tea magnate dies under inauspicious circumstances (vol. 4, story 4) and no one will touch his fortune, the funds are donated to a local temple and the monks use the windfall for a lavish tour of the brothels of Kyoto.

The Pulverer copy is in good condition, with the original six volumes rebound as three. In addition to anumber of marginal notes pasted in on thin slips of paper, there is a motley assortment of ownership seals throughout the volumes. Taken together, these give some insight into the book’s travels prior to its acquisition by Gerhard Pulverer. Among the former owners are the late Edo ukiyo-e artist Aoigaoka Keisei 葵岡渓栖 (dates unknown), a student of Totoya Hokkei 魚屋渓 (1780–1850); the collector and theater critic Sekine Shisei 関根只誠 (1825–1893); and the collectors Hayashi Tadamasa 林忠正 (1853–1906) and Ōkubo Shikō 大久保紫香 (1864–1926).

Selected readings:

Ihara Saikaku, trans. and ed. G. W. Sargent. The Japanese Family Storehouse, or The Millionaires’ Gospel Modernised (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959).

Copies in other collections:

Bavarian State Library, Munich

British Library, London
Kyoto University

Library of Congress, Washington DC
National Diet Library, Tokyo
National Library of Korea, Seoul
Russian State Library, Moscow
Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library
Waseda University Central Library, Tokyo