Shikitei Samba

(real name Kikuchi Tasuke; nickname Nishinomiya Tasuke; pen names Shikisanjin and Yugi-do-jin). Born 1776 in Edo; died there in 1822. Japanese writer.

Shikitei worked in a bookstore as a boy and later opened a secondhand bookstore. In 1794 he wrote his first novella of everyday life. After 1798 he wrote a number of humorous novellas, but he achieved literary recognition with the works he wrote in the genre of kokkeibon (books of humor). The Bathhouse of the Floating World (1809–12) and The Barbershop of the Floating World (1812–14), for example, are characterized by realistic descriptions of residents of Edo of all classes and ages and bold use of colloquial speech. Shikitei is also known as a poet and calligrapher.