I was drawn to it because I've been thinking more about bunjin and wanted to learn more about how the term is understood. I often see it applied to Meiji intellectuals, for instance.
This book uses the word "salon" to link up the kind of social organization that educated people formed in early modern Japan with that of 18th century Paris and London (salons and coffee houses, respectively). Right away he concedes that there are some big differences -- the Japanese groups didn't admit women, and they didn't much talk about politics.
The groups he discusses include those related to the production of kanshi 漢詩 (poetry in Chinese written by Japanese people), of kyôka 狂歌 ("crazy" waka), rangaku 蘭学 (Western learning), collecting oddities, and a bit of painting as well.
It's a very serviceable introduction to/reference for important intellectuals and their associations. The comparison to salons is appropriate. I'm sorry there's not a bit more on haikai, as I really don't like kyôka very much, alas. It makes me want to find out more.
How does it relate to what I'm working on? In the most pedestrian terms possible, it's a good indication of what was going on in urban commoner culture in the 18th century. Most of the people named in the text are wealthy commoners -- shôyu brewers, merchants, etc. It helps to form a more detailed impression of what a life of creative inquiry might have been like for educated people in Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka. Haikai was part of it, but certainly not all of it.
