Ihara Saikaku

was a Japanese poet and creator of the "floating world" genre of Japanese prose (''ukiyo-zōshi'').

His born name may have been Hirayama Tōgo (平山藤五), the son of a wealthy merchant in Osaka, and he first studied haikai poetry under a follower of Matsunaga Teitoku and later studied under Nishiyama Sōin of the Danrin school of poetry, which emphasized comic linked verse. Scholars have described numerous extraordinary feats of solo haikai composition at one sitting; most famously, over the course of a single day and night in 1677 Saikaku is known to have composed 1,600 haikai verses and an amazing 23,500 verses in a single day and night in 1684.

Later in life he began writing racy accounts of the financial and amorous affairs of the merchant class and the demimonde. These stories catered to the whims of the newly prominent merchant class, whose tastes of entertainment leaned toward the arts and pleasure districts. Provided by Wikipedia