Like a river that was born from springs, carrying its stormy waters to the sea and ultimately giving them to the vast ocean, true writers and poets cannot create without sources of inspiration. Obviously, sources of inspiration can be not only the experience about nation or localty’s distinctive past which writer has learnt and organically connected with, but also the urgent need of the present environment, an author’s desire to express his thoughts and ideas directed to the future. Literature, as any type of panhuman activity, has its own canons and patterns that have been mastered and expanded by the classic writers of all nations of the worldover the centuries.In particular, Japanese literature is characterized by reliance on traditions, the active use of historical experience of previous periods literature and redefinition of the past, as well as an original and innovative point of view on reality. The article covers the role of literature traditions, the principles of the transformation of old stories’ forms and contents and their new interpretations in the works of a talented representative of Japanese literature of the 17th century Ihara Saikaku. For this purpose, a selection of the interpreted works of the author and their comparative analysis with a number of classical primary sources of Japanese and Chinese literature has been made. Through the analysis, the principles of redefinition, an innovative interpretation of traditional genres and plots, as well as shifts in the system of artistic representations of that time have been revealed.
