Utagawa Hiroshige, The Entrance to Yoshiwara at Dawn, 1857, Metropolitan Museum of Art
DARK: DEATH, LOVE & SURVIVAL
The Yoshiwara pleasure district consisted of many dark and grim characteristics. Yoshiwara was a heaven for men and hell for women, as these women were trapped in yoshiwara like birds in a cage. Women did everything to survive the harsh ukiyo - the floating world of suffering and traqnscience.
Utagawa Kunisada, Shin Yoshiwara Bishuro kari, 1861, National Diet Library Japan
How Women Got Into Prostitution
Most women did not have the choice and say in their occupation. Born into impoverished families, they were sold to brothels and at a young age, as young as 7 or 8. The Confucian tradition which enabled the idea of children working for their parents and taking on this duty was rationalized for the selling of their children. Once these little girls reached the brothels, they would undergo training taking care of daily chores and slowly start learning the ways of a prostitute. Some of these lessons would include ways to talk in order to manipulate and use love languages to allure the men. Moreover, if these girls were proven to have potential, they would move on to receive elite courtesan training. They would be taught how to read and write, play games such as go and would also be able to perform dances and tea ceremonies. While these skills were not encouraged for their own benefits, they were attractive qualities for the male customers.
Escaping and Punishment
Utagawa Kuniyoshi, New Yoshiwara, (Shin-Yoshiwara), from the series Famous Places in the Eastern Capital, 1830-35, Museukm of Fine Arts, Boston
Yujo escaping was common. These women ran away for various reasons, but the main reasons were to escape debt, or to run away to be together with the man they love. (Longstreet, et al, 2020, p.226). A Yujo’s daily garments, including clothes, makeup, bedding and food was to be paid at her own expense (Yokoyama, 2016), which meant a yujo’s debt was increased as she needed food to survive and clothes to dress up in order to catch customers. Furthermore, yujo women generally did not have any experience or knowledge on accounting, which made it difficult for them to manage themselves economically. This sort of system binded the Yujos beyond their original contract, as the system was built so that debts steadily increased. These Yujos needed to attract customers in order to repay her debts, however ironically, in order to do so and survive, she needed to spend money on makeup, hair and garments in addition to basic needs such as food.
Escape was not easy, and yujos were met with strict punishment when caught. Women of Yoshiwara were strictly not allowed to leave the oomon, and passing through the Shirobei (the watchmen) was difficult. Some women are said to have disguised themselves as men to pass the main gate. When a yujo escapes, the brothel would conduct a manhunt. In addition to the men sent by the brothel-keeper, the police also aided the search. With limited places available for a yujo to find refuge, not many yujos succeeded in the escape. When the yujo was caught, the expenses paid by the brothel keeper for the hunt including the bribes and tips to get her back were added to the Yujo’s initial debts, bounding her even stronger to Yoshiwara. When a Yujo fails to escape, she is given severe punishment, such as being stripped naked and beaten with a bamboo stick until she is unconscious.
Deception and lies
A yujo’s job being to sell fake love and romantic scenarios to her customers, there were various ways a yujo would show her love to her true lover. In Yoshiwara, a yujo would say the line “I love you” and her customers would lie “I will marry you” (Seigle, 1993, p.307) casually. For a yujo, lying love to her customers had to be done in order to survive the harsh life in Yoshiwara. The more skilled a yujo was at sweet talking and luring customers, the more talented and commendable she was. There were textbooks for yujos on how to allure customers and manipulate them. For instance, one teaching mentions how yujos should use tears as a tool. When parting with a man a yujo has sworn love to, it was suggested she should “dwell on the saddest detail” (Seigle, 1993, p.308), mention how sad she is, and shed tears. In the following section, the text mentions that if a yujo is unavailable to shed tears, pulling out “one or two eyelashes” (Seigle, 1993, p.308) should do the job. The extent to which this textbook went shows how common lying, manipulating, and acting was used in order to skillfully control their customers. In such a world of deception and fake love, customers expected a dedicated act to prove love.
Shikido-ookagami (色道大鏡), a textbook for yujos on knowledge and mannerism needed for as a yujo, mention shinjuu-date (心中立て) which is an act to show one’s true feeling to a man that is beyond the fake scenario relationship that yujos sold. The Shikido-ookagami, mentions seven ways of shinjuu-date: oath (誓詞 seishi), written pledge (誓紙 or 起誓文), cutting off hair (髪切り kamikiri), tattoos (入れ墨 irezumi), nail removal (爪剥ぎ tsume-hagi), cutting off finger (指切り yubi-kiri), and double suicide (心中 shinjuu).
Self-mutilation for “love”
Demands for these sacrifices for love escalated; men started asking for more painful sacrifices such as removing a fingernail (爪剥ぎ tsume-hagi), or even a finger (指切り yubi-kiri). Tsume-hagi was also practiced in Shimabara, a pleasure district in Kyoto and a specific courtesan there was known to be skilled at the painless removal of a fingernail. It is not known when exactly yubikiri started, but it was already practiced in the 17th century among low-ranking courtesans. It is said that courtesans would at times buy nails and hair locks from beggars, who stole these parts from corpses at execution grounds to give to her clients to fake the act. The common song sung by children in contemporary society when making a promise (指切りげんまん yubikiri genman) comes from this practice in Yoshiwara. While this song is sung commonly among children, the lyrics are very grim. The lyrics mention that a promise or deal is made with yubi-kiri (cutting of finger) but if one breaks the promise, they will receive 10,000 punches and be forced to swallow 1000 needles.
Shinju (心中): double suicide
Shinju, as its most known meaning, double suicide, became a social phenomenon mainly form the impact of Chikamatsu-monzaemon’s play: The Love Suicides at Sonezaki. The theater play was about a tragic love between a yujo named Hatsu and a lowly clerk named Tokubei who killed themselves in Sonezaki Shrine. He wrote 24 plays in the genre called sewamono, drama based on real life events or news in merchant class, and a majority of them were on double suicides of yujos and their lovers. These plays romanticized double suicide by depicting them as a pure and admirable act that was guaranteed with a better life in Buddhist belief of after death, and created a social impact which peaked in arond late 1600s to the 1720s. In 1722, the government banned these theater plays and issued strict punishment towards double suicide and attempts.
Kisei-bun (起誓文) and Keppan (血判)
The initial proof of love was done through a formal contract or kiseibun (起誓文) where yujos would pledge her true feelings towards this person only. These contracts had a written statement of sworn love. However, unsatisfied with a simple written paper which anyone could have done easily without honest feelings, the act of sealing the contract with blood was added which is known as keppan (血判). Blood was taken from the man’s middle or index finger on the left hand, and likewise for women on the right hand. The blood was not put on the contract by pressing the bleeding finger on the paper, but by dripping the blood onto the contract.
Tatoos (入れ墨 irezumi)
Tattooing a customer or secret lover’s name also became a common way of showing love. The most ideal way was to have the lover write his name on her body, where she would trace it with a knife and poor black ink into the cut. The indelibility of tattoos and the painful process made this act a dedicated gesture of love. With the rising trend of tattoos also rose the need to erase these tattoos. One way was by burning off the flesh where the tattoo is. In some cases, yujos would fake their tattoos and mimic one by simply writing their customer's name with an ink and brush. While tattoos first started off as a form of proving dedicated love, yujos found ways to rid them and forge one. As an additional fact, tattoos were seen negatively as they dirty or ruin the body, and high-ranking courtesans avoided them.
歌川豊国「霜釖曽根崎心中 天満屋おはつ・平野屋徳兵衛」国会図書館蔵 https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1311304
Utagawa Hiroshige, Yoshiwara Nihonzutsumi, National Diet Library, Japan, Yoshiwara Nihonzutsumi | The Landmarks of Edo in Color Woodblock Prints (ndl.go.jp)
Rights of Yujo
1616 shogunate implemented first law prohibiting the buying and selling people and imposed the death penalty for people who kidnapped and traficked people.
In Shogunate’s cities, prior to this law, the regulation for human trafficking was becoming strict. They obligated brothel owners to have the consent of the women's relatives as well as a physical contract for the length of service and compensation methods.
These restrictions on human trafficking were a much larger incentive of the early Tokugawa project which sought to regulate and keep track of its population. While these legal codes were implemented, it did not stop Yoshiwara brothel owners from manipulating and finding loopholes within the system.
