Ihara Saikaku
Many genres of literature made their début during the Edo Period, helped by a rising literacy rate among the growing population of townspeople, as well as the development of lending libraries. Although there was a minor Western influence trickling into the country from the Dutch settlement at Nagasaki, it was the importation of Chinese vernacular fiction that proved the greatest outside influence on the development of Early Modern Japanese fiction. Ihara Saikaku might be said to have given birth to the modern consciousness of the novel in Japan, mixing vernacular dialogue into his humorous and cautionary tales of the pleasure quarters. Jippensha Ikku wrote "Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige", which is a mix of travelogue and comedy. Tsuga Teisho, Takebe Ayatari, and Okajima Kanzan were instrumental in developing the "yomihon", which were historical romances almost entirely in prose, influenced by Chinese vernacular novels such as Three Kingdoms and "Shui hu zhuan". Two "yomihon" masterpieces were written by Ueda Akinari: "Ugetsu monogatari" and "Harusame monogatari".