Shikitei Sanba

1776–1822

Popular novelist of the late Edo period (approx. 1750–1850). The first-born son of Kikuchi Mohei, a landlord in the third block of Tawaramachi in Edo’s Asakusa district. His original name was Taiho; the name given to him when he came of age, Hisanori. Other names of his included Honchoan, Kokkeido, Tarariro, and Yugido. His father Mohei had been born out of wedlock to a Shinto priest with the surname Kikuchi at the Tametomo Daimyojin Shrine on the island of Hachijo-kojima. A woodblock printer who took the name Seiundo, Mohei appeared in many of his son’s works as a sculptor when Sanba became an author of light literature.

In 1784 at the age of 9, he began serving as a live-in apprentice to bookseller Gangetsudo (Horinoya Jinbei), and began penning works of light literature from around the age of 18. In 1794, at 19, he published his debut works, two kibyoshi (illustrated storybooks with yellow covers) titled Tendo Ukiyo no Dezukai (“The Heavenly Puppeteers of the Floating World”) and Ningen Isshin Nozoki Karakuri (“A Mechanism for Peering into the Heart of Man”). Around 1797, he was adopted as a son-in-law into the family of Yorozuya Tajiemon, and by 1798, he was working as an author of light literature alongside his profession as a bookseller, publishing works including the humorous kokkeibon book Tatsumi Fugen (“Feminine Speech of Tatsumi Courtesans”). In February of the following year, he put out Kyan Taiheiki Muko Hachimaki (“Swaggering Headbands: A Chronicle of Urban Knight-Errantry in a Peaceful Realm”), a kibyoshi work depicting fighting between firefighters in the style of the Taiheiki (“Record of the Great Peace”), a Japanese historical epic of the 14th century. This work provoked the anger of the local firefighters, who assailed the residences of the author and his publisher Nishinomiya Shinroku and lodged complaints against them. He received a legal penalty for satirizing events of the time.

Following these events, he would distance himself from writing for a time, but in 1802, he published the kibyoshi work Kusazoshi Kojitsuke Nendaiki (“A Spurious History of Popular Illustrated Fiction”) and the sharebon (a novelette about life in the pleasure quarters) Sendo Shinwa (“Profound Tales of a Boatman”). The following year, he put out Mashin Kigen (“Witty Discourse on the Measles”) after himself contracting the disease, which was prevalent at the time. In this period, he also tried his hand at kabuki-related works, including Yakusha Saikenki (“Detailed Record of Actors”), Yakusha Gakuya Tsu (“Guide to the Actors’ Dressing Rooms”), and Shibai Kinmo Zui (“Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Theater”).

Around 1805, he lost his wife and was no longer an adopted son-in-law of the Yorozuya family. The following year, in 1806, he relocated to Jukumonyokocho in Edo’s Nihonbashi district, but his residence suffered a fire in April or May the same year. During a sojourn to Sawara in Shimosa Province, he penned the sharebon work Itako Bushi (“The Hearts of Women from Itako”). After returning to Edo, he set up a new residence in Hongokucho in the Nihonbashi district. His output was vigorous during this year, with the publication of three humorous kokkeibon works — Gejo Suigen Maku no Soto (“Theatre on the Other Side of the Curtain”), Namaei Katagi (“Characters of Drunkards”), and Ono no Bakamura Usojizukushi (“Ono no Bakamura’s Complete Dictionary of Lies”) — as well as Ikazuchi Taro Goaku Monogatari (“Tale of the Villainous Ikazuchi Taro”), which sparked a fad for publishing gokan format works featuring several works rolled into one.

In 1809, he published the first volume of another kokkeibon work, Ukiyoburo (“The Bathhouse of the Floating World”). Set in a bathhouse, the work featured faithful depictions of the behavior and conversations of common people. With its detailed, true-to-life descriptions, even incorporating unconventional kana notations such as さ゜ (tsa) and せ゜ (che), it would become Sanba’s representative work. Other works in the humorous kokkeibon genre, his specialty, include Ukiyodoko (“The Barbershop of the Floating World”), Shijuhachi Kuse (“Forty-Eight Nasty Habits”), Ippai Kigen (“Comical Stories of a Drunkard”), Ningen Banji Uso Bakkari (“In The World Of Men, Nothing But Lies”), and Kokon Hyaku Baka (“A Hundred Fools Past and Present”).

By the spring of 1810, excessive drinking had endangered his health to the extent that he had trouble walking, afflicted by both obesity and gout. Toward the end of the same year, he relocated to the second block of Honcho, Nihonbashi and opened a business as the Kanto region retailer of Senpo Enjutan (“Immortals’ Formula Longevity Pills”), an over-the-counter restorative medicinal product made by a Kyoto pharmacist named Tanaka Soetsu. Dealing in other products including Edo no Mizu (“Water of Edo”) beauty lotion and tooth powder as well, his establishment came to be known familiarly as Sanba-ten (“Sanba’s Shop”). Working to promote the shop and its products, even incorporating advertisements into his own works, he attained a stable livelihood. Although the exact timing is unclear, it seems that he also remarried around the time of his departure from the Yorozuya household, taking the daughter of his first employer Gangetsudo (Horinoya Jinbei) as his second wife. The couple had one son, Toranosuke (Shikitei Kosanba, or “Little Samba”). On February 27, 1822, Sanba died at the age of 47. He was buried at Chogen-ji Temple in Fukagawa and given the posthumous Buddhist name Kanho Kiraku Soten Shinji. After the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, he was reburied at Shosen-ji Temple in Himonya, Meguro City, Tokyo.