The New Year's Eve is more precious than a thousand pieces of gold. It is the Great Divide between winter and spring, which none can pass over without copper and silver.

Ihara Saikaku is regarded as Japan's first popular writer. The twenty lively stories in This Scheming World recount raucous events surrounding New Year's Eve - as crafty money lenders attempt to collect their money from equally crafty debtors. From the bawdy to the outrageous, these tales demonstrate how far 17th-century Japanese would go to avoid paying their debts - with hilariously unexpected and often disastrous results!

These finely-crafted tales include stories of:

• Philanderers who slip off to hide in the homes of their mistresses
• Hustlers who leave town suddenly on 'very important' business trips
• Connivers who become actors for a day to hide-in-plain-sight on stage

Saikaku portrays his characters with such a deft and human touch that, even three centuries later, his stories still ring true. The new Introduction by Saikaku expert David J. Gundry explains how and why this entertaining work still resonates with modern readers today.