is an alternative style, genre or school of Japanese literature

Japanese literature

Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan...

. In the simplest contemporary sense, any literary work of a playful, mocking, joking, silly or frivolous nature may be called (a) Gesaku. Unlike predecessors in the literary field, Gesaku writers did not strive for beauty and perfect form in their writings, but rather for popular acceptance. Gesaku writers were dependent on making a living by sale of their books. Like popular magazines and books of the 21st century, their product was aimed at as wide a public as possible, and when a book was successful it was usually followed by as many sequels as the audience would tolerate. A very popular humorous variety of gesaku fiction was Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige(1802-22; "Travels on Foot on the Tokaido"; Eng. trans., Shank's Mare), by Jippensha Ikku

Jippensha Ikku

was the pen name of Shigeta Sadakazu , a Japanese writer active during the late Edo period of Japan. He lived primarily in Edo in the service of samurai, but also spent some time in Osaka as a townsman...

, the story of the travels and slapstick

Slapstick

Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...

 adventures of two carefree men from Edo

Edo

, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...

 along the Tokaido

Tokaido (road)

The ' was the most important of the Five Routes of the Edo period, connecting Edo to Kyoto in Japan. Unlike the inland and less heavily travelled Nakasendō, the Tōkaidō travelled along the sea coast of eastern Honshū, hence the route's name....

, the broad highway between Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

 and Edo.

Historically, a specific group of late-Edo period Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese writers whose work reflected a playful style, a joking and perhaps cynical voice, and disaffection with conventional norms, came to be called Gesaku.http://www.dokidoki.ne.jp/home1/cyberfair/cf99_file/dogo_Jippenshaikku%20.html