All students of Japanese literature are familiar with the Ninjōbon or Sentiment Book, a species of novel which flourished most in the third and fourth decades of the nineteenth century. It was at last prohibited by the Government, like its predecessor and model the Share-bon.
The best known writer of this class of story was Tamenaga Shunsui, who also called himself (after 1829) Kiokuntei. He was a pupil of Samba. Shunsui was a bookseller of Yedo. He began his literary career with some tales of an unedifying character, which he styled Fujo Kwanzen no Tame ("For the Encouragement of Women in the Paths of Virtue"). He died in 1842 whilst undergoing a sentence of confinement to his own house in handcuffs for publishing works of a tendency prejudicial to public morals. The blocks from which they were printed were at the same time destroyed. Even his admirers cannot say that Shunsui's punishment was altogether unmerited.
One of Shunsui's best known stories is the Mume Koyomi ("Plum Calendar"), with its continuation entitled Shunshoku Tatsumi no Sono ("Spring-Colour Eastern-Garden"), which appeared in 1833. It is a novel of low life, and the characters are singing-girls, harlots, Rōnins, professional jesters, and the like. Its morality cannot be defended, but in decency of language it is superior to the Hizakurige, and even to the Ukiyo-furo.
The Iroha Bunko, which is considered Shunsui's greatest work, is not a typical Ninjōbon, though from some points
