First published in 1686, Five Women Who Loved Love was an immediate bestseller in the bawdy, life-loving world that was Genroku Japan. And the novel's popularity has, if anything, increased with the years, making it today a classic like Boccaccio's Decameron or the writings of Rabelais. The book follows five determined women in their always amorous and usually illicit adventures. But the book is more than a collection of skillfully told erotic tales, for, as the translator points out in the introduction, "Saikaku&is both a discriminating and compassionate judge of his fellow men."