Ihara Saikaku
Largely taken from traditional Japanese and Chinese ghost stories, the collection is among the most important works of Japanese fiction of the 18th century, the middle of the Edo period. Edo literary achievements are normally associated with the fiction of Ihara Saikaku; the drama of Chikamatsu Monzaemon in the Genroku period, and the popular literature of Takizawa Bakin in the later Bunka-Bunsei period. "Ugetsu Monogatari", then, occupies an important yet often overlooked position between these two moments in Edo literary history. The collection is the author's best known work. He had previously written two ukiyo zoshi ("books of the floating world") in 1766-7 and a second collection "Harusame Monogatari" ("Tales of the Spring Rain") was not printed until 1907.