Yonosuke, hero of The Life of an Amorous Man, was born to a townsman who had made his fortune in the silver mines of Tajima and a famous courtesan of Kyoto. He knew love at seven, and in the fifty-four years from then until sixty, he is said to have recorded in his ledger 3,742 women and 725 men he had dallied with: a tremendous lover indeed.
When young he was disowned by his parents and wandered the provinces, having affair after affair with all sorts of women. At thirty-four, when his father died, Yonosuke inherited a vast fortune of 25,000 kanme of silver from his mother, and saying, "Now is the time to play to my heart's content," he began to amuse himself with every extravagance in the pleasure quarters of the three cities, Kyoto, Osaka and Edo.
Shimabara in Kyoto, moved from Rokujo Misujimachi in 1641, was the most prestigious pleasure quarter in Japan. With only one great gate for going in and out, and moats and walls all around, it looked like Hara Castle in the Shimabara Rebellion, and so, it is said, came to be called "Shimabara."
Shimabara had courtesans of the highest rank, called tayu. A tayu was not only beautiful but also accomplished in poetry, calligraphy, tea, incense, koto and shamisen; she entertained nobles, daimyo and great merchants, and was among the leading cultured figures of her day.
Yonosuke tells stories of Yoshino Tayu (the second of that name), most famous of all the Shimabara tayu. Yoshino was a tayu of fine looks and fine heart; an apprentice blacksmith saved small coins for years and came to Shimabara just to see her once. Yoshino took pity on the humble man and, it is said, entertained him with all her heart. Later Yoshino was bought out by the wealthy merchant Haiya Shoeki and became his wife.
In this work, Ihara Saikaku vividly portrayed the customs of the pleasure quarters and the subtle feelings of the people who lived in them. The new genre of fiction called ukiyo-zoshi began here.