Apart from philosophical researches and the development of the drama, as above related, the Tokugawa era is remarkable for folk-lore, moral discourses, fiction and a peculiar form of poetry. This last does not demand much attention. Its principal variety is the _haikai_, which is nothing more than a _tanka_ shorn of its concluding fourteen syllables, and therefore virtually identical with the _hokku_, already described. The name of Basho is immemorially associated with this kind of lilliputian versicle, which reached the extreme of impressionism. A more important addition to Japanese literature was made in the 17th century in the form of children's tales (_Otogibanashi_). They are charmingly simple and graceful, and they have been rendered into English again and again since the beginning of the Meiji era. But whether they are to be regarded as genuine folk-lore or merely as a branch of the fiction of the age when they first appeared in book form, remains uncertain. Of fiction proper there was an abundance. The pioneer of this kind of literature is considered to have been Saikaku (1641-1693), who wrote sketches of everyday life as he saw it, short tales of some merit and novels which deal with the most disreputable phases of human existence. His notable successors in the same line were two men of Kioto, named Jisho (1675-1745) and Kiseki (1666-1716). They had their own publishing house, and its name _Hachimonji-ya_ (figure-of-eight store) came to be indelibly associated with this kind of literature. But these men did little more than pave the way for the true romantic novel, which first took shape under the hand of Santo Kyoden (1761-1816), and culminated in the works of Bakin, Tanehiko, Samba, Ikku, Shunsui and their successors. Of nearly all the books in this class it may be said that they deal largely in sensationalism and pornography, though it does not follow that their language is either coarse or licentious. The life of the virtuous Japanese woman being essentially uneventful, these romancists not unnaturally sought their female types among dancing-girls and courtesans. The books were profusely illustrated with woodcuts and chromoxylographs from pictures of the _ukiyoe_ masters, who, like the playwright, the actor and the romancer, ministered to the pleasure of the "man in the street." Brief mention must also be made of two other kinds of books belonging to this epoch; namely, the _Shingaku-sho_ (ethical essays) and the _Jitsuroku-mono_ (true records). The latter were often little more than historical novels founded on facts; and the former, though nominally intended to engraft the doctrines of Buddhism and Shinto upon the philosophy of China, were really of rationalistic tendency. The Meiji Era.