5 Age of the Dandy: The Flowering of Yoshiwara Arts

Kiragawa Uramaro. Two geisha in typical niwaka festival attire with their hair dressed in the style of a young man. Ohide of the Tamamura-ya, seated, is receiving shamisen instruc- tion from Toyoshina of the Tomimoto school, ca. 1789. Courtesy of n 1751, Tanuma Okitsugu, a politician who left a significant mark on Christie’s New York. the second half of the eighteenth century, was one of many osobashti I serving the ninth shogun Ieshige. Osobashti were secretaries who con- veyed messages between the shogun and counselors, a position of a modest income, which in Tanuma’s case carried an annual salary of 150 koku. By 1767, Tanuma was receiving approximately 20,000 koku as the personal secretary to the tenth shogun, Ieharu. Two years later, with a salary of 57,000 koku, Tanuma was a member of the powerful shogunate council. Although examples of favoritism and extravagant promotion had occurred under the previous shoguns Tsunayoshi and Ienobu, there was no precedent for the degree of actual power Tanuma Okitsugu had assumed. He won his position through a combination of superior intelligence, political skill, and personal charm. In addition, he made unscrupulous use of bribery to coun- selors in key positions and ladies of the shogun’s harem.1 In 1783, after his son Okitomo’s name was added to the shogun’s select list of counselors, father and son virtually ruled Japan. Kitagawa Utamaro. Komurasaki of To strengthen the nation’s economy, Tanuma Okitsugu allied himself the Great Miura and her lover Shirai with the commercial powers of Edo and Osaka and promoted industry and Gonpachi (discussed in Chapter 3). commerce. At the same time, however, he assiduously used his influence for From the series]itsukurube iro no accumulation of personal wealth. His avarice and misappropriation of minakami (Contest of sincerity, origin of love), ca. mid-1790s. Collection of funds inspired rapaciousness and corruption throughout the government. the author. Bribery became an aspect of life, as Tanuma encouraged it among bakufu 130 I YOSHIWARA I AGE OFTHE DANDY / 131 purveyors, colleagues, and subordinates who sought appointments through the white-walled storehouses along the Sumida River in the Kuramae dis- his influence. According to a contemporary description, trict of Edo, rice arrived from all over Japan by boat through sealanes newly opened by the early eighteenth century. Okuramae, the “front-of-store- there were superiors such as Hikone Chfijo and Chamberlain Hamada over houses” area, was famous for its millionaire rice brokers who stored the rice this lord [Tanuma], but everyone depended on Tanuma’s power. . . Day and and changed it into money. night crowds gathered inside and outside his gate as though it were a market- place, and moving on their knees and kowtowing before him, they competed in pleasing him, buying rare vessels and valuable objects regardless of price The Tsû: Paragon of Sophistication and presenting them to him as gifts. Not only gold, silver, and precious gems but every possible foreign treasure was collected in the household of Lord As the merchants’ wealth increased they became more urbane, and they dis- Tanuma; there was nothing in the world that was not found here.l played their taste and refinement in a carefully orchestrated manner at the pleasure quarters. As the leading sophisticates (tsti) of the day they patron- The majority of the samurai class and farmers were poor and thus ill- ized the Yoshiwara, where the concept of tsti was exalted. equipped to compete in this atmosphere of unmitigated venality. With their Tsti-sophistication and the man who represented it-was the keynote of wealth diminished, samurai found their social prestige as the leading class of the second half of the century. The whole country, particularly Edo, was a Confucian-defined society diminished as well. Economically and socially, fascinated with tsii-both the concept itself and the men who embodied it. the time had become more and more the age of merchants. Peace and pros- The idea of tsti evolved from that of sui (essence), the essence of sophistica- perity allowed the accumulation of great wealth and encouraged the refine- tion, a quality that had been valued in the Kyoto-Osaka area since the ment of sensibilities among members of the merchant class. The merchants Genroku era. The word sui represented elegance not only of appearance but who benefited most from the situation were the rice brokers, a group of pur- also of spirit, as well as savoir faire in human relationships. As the concept veyors who monopolized the official task of exchanging rice into currency. developed in Edo, its name as well as the meaning of the concept itself Samurai were either paid in rice or, like daimyb and a few hatamoto, changed. Edo townsmen used to describe a sophisticated man as a tdrimono obtained their income from rice produced in their fiefdoms. Yet they were (a man with thorough knowledge). Tori and tsti are different readings of the forced increasingly into a cash economy, and the conversion of rice stipends same written character. Thorough knowledge or expertise, however, is to cash provided opportunities for tremendous profit for rice brokers. Fur- something that one can show off. For Edo townsmen, sophistication was thermore, these transactions permitted them to make double profit as not spirit but something tangible that one could display. wholesale rice merchants. Earlier, in 1722, the bakr.& had licensed 109 rice In the early 177Os, the tszi’s ideal characteristics were generosity, cour- brokers and permitted them to form a union.3 Thereafter the number of tesy, consideration, intelligence, wit, candor, refinement, and urbanity. The kabu (shares), or interests in rice brokering, was maintained at approxi- consummate tsti was an elegant man-about-town who dabbled in music, mately the same level, thus permitting a monopoly of the rice market by a painting, poetry, popular song, haiku, tea ceremony, flower arrangement, handful of Osaka and Edo merchants. and calligraphy. A sign of the tsii’s worldly sophistication was for him to be As we discovered in Chapter 4, the extravagance of millionaire mer- seen at the theater and the Yoshiwara, and to be knowledgeable about the chants such as Nara-Mo, Ishikawa, and Yodoya from the late seventeenth * pleasure quarter. His behavior was such that courtesans and staff of the century on led them to bankruptcy, loss of wealth by confiscation, or exile Yoshiwara appreciated him and treated him well. under shoguns Tsunayoshi, Ienobu, and Yoshimune. By the second half of But when an idea becomes a fad, it is susceptible to distortion. Within a the eighteenth century, however, under the increasingly lenient administra- few years the idea of tsti had changed into a notion of mere expertise in mat- tion, wealthy merchants were no longer subject to government censure. At ters of the pleasure quarter, and the tsti became a dandy, a dilettante, and a 132 / YOSHIWARA ACE OF TliE DANDY I 133 habitue of the Yoshiwara. Tsa were such celebrities that a list of the “Eigh- two, and then make another appointment for the patron precisely on a day teen Great TSG” was compiled from time to time after the An’ei era, includ- when she already had an engagement with someone else. The tuiko had to ing men who were role models for the aspiring dandies of Edo. Most were insist that the tayt?l break her previous appointment for the patron. Kizan rice brokers, some were hatamoto and even bordello proprietors, but all stipulated that the patron keep the second appointment, but create an were style setters and lavish spenders. Jlihachi daitsti: Okurumae baka impression that it was an inconvenience by rushing in and out again some monogutari (The eighteen great tszi: Stories of the fools of Okuramae), a time between noon and 2 P.M. (when courtesans received afternoon visi- collection of anecdotes of eighteenth-century tsti compiled by Mimasuya tors). He should avow that, though extremely busy, he had made a special Nisoji in 1846 from earlier sources, reveals that some tsti were not only effort to have a glimpse of his tayti. As part of the pretense, he was to make poor role models but also senseless squanderers4 it clear that he had no time for food or bed, despite the coaxing of the ageya Shallow and limited as the notion of tstl had become, all men, samurai staff. Still, he was to refrain from appearing intractable on these points and and commoner alike, aspired to it. It takes time to become an expert at any- was not to shout to the staff to take the food away. He was instead to act thing, including achieving mastery of the etiquette of the Yoshiwara world, gracefully; he should take a few cups of sake and pretend he had had too which by this time had grown extremely elaborate. Although a clerk of a much *o& drink. While the courtesan was away changing clothes, the patron fabric shop or a petty samurai with a salary of forty sacks of rice a year was to have his tuiko make another appointment for him, tip everyone gen- could ill afford the time and money to acquire savoir faire, such men were erously, and exit quickly and cheerfully, to avoid having anyone think he not dissuaded from learning what they could about tsti. was glum because he could not make love to the tuyti. 5 Thus everything was Long before the mid-eighteenth century, there had been a scattering of to be done with minute calculation and bravura, but without the suggestion instruction books on the ways of the pleasure quarter. By 1680, the com- of artificiality or showiness. pendium Shikida dkagumi (Great mirror of ways of love) of Hatakeyama Kizan of Kyoto had spelled out in great detail how a fashionable visitor to a Frustrated Literati pleasure quarter should dress, how he should wear his hair, how he should behave, what gifts he should give to courtesans, and how he should tip. In As complete as it was, the Shikida akugumi sufficed only for a time as a one portrayal, for instance, the author gives a detailed description of the guide to the pleasure quarter. Its advice became outdated as fashions and behavior of the ideal refined gentleman in the pleasure quarter. Kizan coun- customs changed; moreover, Kizan was a man of Kyoto, and Edo’s Yoshi- sels that the true connoisseur must carefully manipulate the details of his wara had come into its own by the mid-eighteenth century. Books showing visit for special effect. It is not sufficiently interesting simply to make an how to become a ts~ and comport oneself in the Edo pleasure quarter grad- appointment with a famous courtesan. Obstacles must be placed in the way ually began to appear in the first half of the eighteenth century. The devel- to give the liaison more spice and pleasure. Clever courtesans cooperated in oping need for such books coincided with the period when educated and this charade, evidently purposely “confusing” two or three appointments to intelligent samurai and scholarly townsmen felt frustrated at the lack of make themselves less available, and therefore more alluring. opportunity for recognition or promotion of any kind. Intellectuals had no According to Kizan, on the day of the first appointment, the patron was outlet for their activities in a highly constricted society where mere mention to send two tuiko to inform the tayti that something urgent prevented him of the bakz.& or the state of economic affairs could lead to censorship and from keeping his appointment. The tuiko were to apologize and urge the severe punishment. Lack of financial resources made their life even more tuyli to invite whomever she wished to amuse herself with. That the patron restricted and unsatisfactory. would pay all the expenses is of course implied. Before leaving the ugeyu, In the early part of the eighteenth century, these intellectuals had begun the tuiko were to drink a round of sake and tell the tuyti a funny story or to turn to the art and literature of China, and to produce paintings, poetry, 134 1 YOSHIWARA ACEOFTHEDANDY i 135

and essays inspired by Chinese models. Because gentlemen-scholars of by a number of guides to Osaka’s bordellos, all in imitation of Chinese China with such accomplishments remained amateur by choice, highly books on pleasure quarters, all with titles punning classical works of a more skilled Japanese also maintained their amateur status. As a result, the eigh- serious and sublime nature. teenth-century bunjin (men of letters) left to posterity a rich heritage of free- Also in the first month of 17.57, the scholar of Chinese literature and spirited art and literature. These literati, who were usually engaged in seri- noted calligrapher Sawada Toko published Iso rokujb (Six booklets of ous Chinese and Japanese poetry and essay writing, enjoyed turning exotic elements), using colloquial dialogue. The use of dialogue was to occasionally to light literature in which they could exercise and exhibit their become an important element in sharebon. In Sawada’s book three scholars, wit. Comic haiku had been popular since the sixteenth century, but kydka one of Buddhism, one of Chinese literature, and one of Japanese literature, (comic wuka, the thirty-one-syllable poem) and kyashi (comic Chinese-style get together and search out passages from the body of classical Chinese and poetry) became very popular in the 1770s and 1780s among samurai schol- Japanese poetry that might describe the Yoshiwara and its courtesans. Their ars and educated townspeople. The word kya means insanity or eccentric- efforts yield some hilarious, farfetched interpretations to lofty classical ity, and indeed these literati were driven to comic eccentricity. The fact that verses. This book marked the beginning of Japanese mock heroic writing such genres were inventions of these literati seems to indicate the special and established the playful spirit of shurebon. The idea of writing about condition of Japanese society of the time. such a frivolous subject in the manner of lofty Chinese or elegant Japanese Shortly thereafter, two other genres that had vital connections with the poetry offered a creative challenge and pleasant diversion to scholars and Yoshiwara appeared. Literati wanted a new form of expression, and the provided amusement to readers. The resulting works were exercises of wit, Yoshiwara world needed instruction books on tsa. The pleasure world ben- but they paved the way for a large body of literature called gesaku (litera- efited from the excess creative energy of some of these literati and their need ture written for personal amusement) which includes the narrower genres of for diversion as it found an outlet in the limited genres of sharebon (litera- sharebon and kibydshi. ture of the pleasure quarter-how-to-books) and kibyashi (yellow cover- In 1770, a work appeared that set the structural form and basic stereo- illustrated storybooks). typical plot for subsequent shurebon literature. Yzishi hogen (Philanderers’ argot), composed by the bookseller Tanbaya Rihei and published under the nom de plume Inaka Rojin Tada no Oyaji (“An Ordinary Old Country The Sharebon Man”), is the story of a self-styled tsfi who waylays a naive young boy and By 1728, a book entitled Ry6ha shigen (Heartfelt words of men and takes him to the Yoshiwara. On the riverboat choki, the abductor boasts of women) in bastardized Chinese had appeared. This book, by an unidenti- his fame in the Yoshiwara and gives the boy some pointers on becoming a fied author by the name of Professor Gekisho, is about an erudite scholar tszi. He offers a discourse on how a tsir should behave, what name he should visiting the Yoshiwara and describes the road to the pleasure quarter, the adopt, the details of hairdo, kimono fabric, and paraphernalia useful to a man’s attire, and the procedure for visiting the ageya. It also gives a list of ts~ in the Yoshiwara. It becomes apparent in the course of the story that Yoshiwara courtesans. Under the influence of humorous Chinese books although he may have spent time and money in the Yoshiwara, he is not a such as Ku’i-chiiun i-hsiao (Opening the volume and guffawing; sixteenth real tsa but a hunka-tsti (half-baked tsti). At the boathouse and the tea- century), it was written more for the amusement of the writer than for house, even at the bordello, no one appears to know him or understand his teaching the ways of the pleasure quarter. A sequel, Shirin zunka (Remain- atrocious puns. His pretensions are exposed soon enough and his “expert ing flowers of the historical forest), came out in 1730 as another diversion way of having a good time at a low cost” is a total failure. He is rejected by a for an intellectual, this time parodying the venerable Chinese classic Nistori- prostitute and spends a miserable night, whereas the boy meets a lovely cal Record (first century B.C.) of Ssu-ma Ch’ien. These books were followed young girl and enjoys himself. 136 I YOSHIWARA AGEOFTHE DANDY / 137

In the process of being amused by the hanka-tds misadventures, the In the first two senrytl, the kamuro are amused by the stiff and countrified reader learns in detail about a proper rsti’s kimono fabric and hairdo, as language of the samurai and take a conspiratorial mocking attitude. The well as the appearance, speech, and demeanor an aspiring tsti should third senryti ridicules the samurai’s stiff language and his boasting about avoida The book’s realistic descriptions of the Yoshiwara, and its humor- out-of-place ydkyoktl (music and verses for the no play) of the Kanze ous situations and comical characters, created the successful prototype of school, definitely non-tsti music. sharebon for the next three decades. Some writers followed its basic story If a young man brought up in a Western society went to a bordello to gain line and devices, turning sharebon into books about hunku-tsti for comic acceptance among his peers through sexual initiation, so too did a young effect; others took more original story lines. Along the way, the reader man of Edo visit the Yoshiwara for acceptance by a socially, financially, and could observe in detail the external attributes and attitudes of the model rsti. culturally mature society. It provided a diploma for a course in tsti-manship, These books thus served both as light entertainment and as “how-to” through coming into contact with the atmosphere, the procedures, and the manuals. The emphasis they placed on external appearance and social rela- accepted ways of the pleasure world. Conversely, not knowing the way of tionships in the Yoshiwara evolved into a special code of behavior for men the pleasure quarter was considered something of a stigma, as we shall see of the period, and a canon for tsti developed, displacing the earlier images in the story of a samurai from the Nanbu domain. Fathers encouraged their associated with sui. Takao IV is credited with having noted the transforma- sons to have some experience with the pleasure world-not necessarily for tion when she said, “The quintessential ts~ is the one who does not come to sex education but because one had to avoid at all costs being labeled a y&o. the Yoshiwara.“’ But the Yoshiwara was in the business of welcoming They themselves usually had had some Yoshiwara experience, bitter or guests, and the quarter especially catered to the stylish and refined. sweet, and they watched over their sons carefully. They permitted a certain In contrast to the tsir, the yabo (boor, bumpkin) was disliked in the quar- amount of philandering by their children, but they knew when to be strict. ter. Ironically the samurai, the elite of Japanese society, was the epitome of If the son became reckless, the father cut him off unceremoniously and the y&o, with his unfashionable appearance and stiff language. Lower- would not allow him to enter the house until the young man had demon- class samurai who came from the provinces were especially scorned and strated his repentance. mercilessly mocked as ignorant, uncouth yubo. These men often wore a In fiction, Saikaku and Santa Kyoden describe senseless fathers who huori coat with a blue cotton lining, so they were called usugiwu (blue-lin- began to take their sons to the pleasure quarter in their infancy, but when ing) men. There are numerous senryti (comic haiku) making fun of samurai their tsti education showed signs of excess, some fathers evidently had a guests at the Yoshiwara, whom even little kumuro knew how to mock: house prison (zushikirb) built to confine their sons when the young men defiantly pursued their objects of desire .8 As impetuousness was contrary to an ideal of tsti, as well as a threat to the family fortune, teaching self-disci- Anone moshi Excuse me, Miss, muta midomo-ra ga those “We the Samurai” pline and a balance between work and pleasure was part of Yoshiwara insti- kinshitayo are here again tution. Remembering the turn of the century, an essayist of a later period writes Odoreme to “Thou pipsqueak!” that anyone planning to visit the Yoshiwara for the first time would be well ieba kamuro wa the samurai shouts and advised to start preparing five or six months ahead. The reputation of the waraidashi the kamuro starts to laugh Yoshiwara was such that most men were psychologically geared to think Kamuro kike Listen to me, kamuro, they were inadequate. Only the most self-assured would have felt no need yoga nagauta wa my songs for instruction. Because by the eighteenth century a townsman of certain Kanze-ryti are of the Kanze school status was permitted to wear one short sword, preparation for a trip to the 138 I YOSHIWARA AGEOFTHEDANDY I 139 quarter would begin with buying a sword (two swords for a samurai) by a of my lord’s household affairs in his absence. My personal shame would well-known maker, along with a finely designed hilt, scabbard, sword mean disgracing my lord’s name. Knowing your great reputation, I came guard, and fittings. Then, with an expert’s help, the townsman (or samurai, here today to beg for your assistance in my predicament.” Struck by his hon- as the case may be) would order a fashionable wardrobe and quality incense esty and loyalty, Hanaogi answered: “There are so many courtesans that I for perfuming his clothes. These preparations could take months if, as was feel honored you should have chosen me to come to for aid. I shall be glad usually the case, the funds for such expensive items were not immediately to handle the situation tomorrow. Rest assured.” Then she entertained him available. About four months before the visit, the prospective client had to with wine and conversation, and instructed him what to do the next day. go to a teahouse and get accustomed to dealing with the staff. Then he had The following day, the group of deputies arrived at the teahouse, ready to to receive final instructions from his advisor on the procedure for meeting a have fun at their rival’s expense. They sent for their nujimi courtesans. The courtesan. Finally he went to the Yoshiwara accompanied by the expert.9 girls arrived at the teahouse, each dressed in her best kimono. The leader of This procedure was not for foolish and foppish young men only, but for the samurai said to the deputy, “Now then, you must have someone you respectable men of all levels of society. know here. Why don’t you call your nujimi? Who can it be? Don’t keep it a There is an episode from this era that shows how vital it was for all men secret .*’ -’1 ne deputy humbly replied, “i have just come from the country and to know how to behave at the Yoshiwara as a place of socializing, rather am not familiar with the ways of the pleasure quarter. If you’d kindly than a place of carnal pleasure. In Edo a story circulated about the courte- appoint someone who might be suitable for me, I would be grateful.” The san Hanaogi (probably Hanaogi II who flourished in the 1770s) of the others smiled to each other and urged him. “Come now, your secrecy makes Ogiya. Generations of Hanaogi, a myoseki name, were celebrated as great us all the more curious. Tell us your nujiml’s name and call her.” Finally the beauties of the Ogiya. Both Hanaogi II and III excelled at poetry, koto, and deputy asked for writing materials and wrote a letter and sent it by a mes- tea ceremony, and both were well known as expert calligraphers. senger. The others were mystified that he claimed to know anyone in the A certain samurai came to Edo as new deputy for the Nanbu hun Yoshiwara and whispered to each other that any girl this country squire (domain) of the northeastern province. He was well bred and upright. He might know must be an ordinary prostitute he had seen a few times-and was, in fact, considered too conscientious for the taste of many of the depu- calling such a woman to this gathering was preposterous. They sneered and ties of other provincial daimyd, who regularly took advantage of their waited expectantly. important position to gather and feast at the Yoshiwara and in Edo restau- Then appeared the magnificent Hanaogi, dressed even more beautifully rants at the expense of their hun. Threatened by his rectitude, they con- than would be usual for such a meeting. All the courtesans in the party spired to take the Nanbu deputy along to the Yoshiwara, hoping he would paled by comparison and yielded the best seat to her. She thanked them gra- disgrace himself by his naivete. ciously and sat in the center. She asked the deputy how he had been, as did At a meeting, they invited the Nanbu deputy to go to the Yoshiwara with her attendants, shinzb, and kamuro, as though he had been a nujimi for them the next day. The deputy tried to decline but the others insisted. Real- years. The other samurai stared in disbelief and, having lost face, left izing that they wanted to humiliate him, he pondered the matter and gloomily for their bordellos. decided to go to the Yoshiwara on his own without further delay. He dis- The deputy was deeply touched by Hanaogi’s kindness. When they pensed with the procedure of the intermediary teahouse and went directly to arrived at the Ogiya, he said: “I don’t know how I can best express my grati- the Ogiya and asked to see its star courtesan, Hanaogi. She consented to see tude. I don’t know what one does here in such a situation, but I should be him, probably because of the important position he held. He sat squarely grateful if you would deign to accept a token of my thanks.” He put a pack- before Hanaogi and with complete candor explained: “I would not be afraid age of 50 ryd in gold in front of her. She received it and bowed, then pushed of being humiliated by these deputies of other domains, but I am in charge it back to him. “I accept your thoughtfulness with appreciation; but there 140 / YOSHIWARA AGEOFTHEDANDY / 141 are certain things that cannot be bought with gold in these quarters. It is lowly courtesan, but I have never been given money in public. He is a base enough for me to know that you sought advice from me, an insignificant man who does not know the ways of this pleasure quarter. Please send him courtesan; it took courage for a man of your stature to come to me for assis- back where he came from.” tance. If I accept this money now, it will mean that you have bought my The tuiko tries to coax her to return to her party, reminding her that advice just as if you had bought me.” Koinoike is an important client for the Yoshiwara. But Komurasaki The deputy did not know what to do. Hanaogi saw his dilemma and answers, “There are more than a thousand courtesans in this quarter and I said, LLYou are an honorable samurai and you cannot take back what you am one of the leading women. Should Komurasaki of the Miuraya be have given. I understand. With your permission, I will handle this.” treated lightly, it would be a disgrace for me and for the Miuraya. The dis- Hanaogi called her bun-shin (head of her retinue) and had her distribute the grace of the Miuraya is the shame of the Yoshiwara, and the shame of the money as the deputy’s gift among the staff and the attendants who had Yoshiwara is the shame of Edo.” The sharebon goes on to say that three helped him at the party. Then she said to him, “Since you came to me first, generations later, another “Koinoike Den’emon,” not knowing the custom you are my guest and patron. But please excuse me from sharing a bed with of the Yoshiwara, insults Hanadgi of the Ogiya and is snubbed by her. His you. ‘The reason is that I would not have done what i have done for money. offense is in throwing the sake cup to her rather than handing it to her You will be entertained by one of my sister courtesans, and in this way you through the yurite intermediary. 11 will be known as my patron, and I shall be able to live up to my principles.” Whether the real Konoike Zen’emon and his descendant were considered The deputy was impressed by this sensible resolution. From then on, he yubo is unknown, but the story of a Konoike being rejected by Hanaogi III went to the Ogiya from time to time and remained Hanaogi’s friend.‘O persisted. What is interesting here is the Edoites’ attitude: their insistence This anecdote testifies to the importance of acquaintance with the Yoshi- that money did not necessarily make a tsti of a man. Their superior posture wara ways. To visit the pleasure quarter was not only a fashionable diver- toward other cities is also typical of Edoites. The historian Nishiyama Ma- sion; to have sufficient experience there was also essential if one was to be tsunosuke writes about the Edoite tendency to show contempt for Kyoto accepted as a respectable gentleman. Moreover, as this story makes clear, and Osaka as a kind of reverse inferiority complex.12 men could be yubo at all levels. They could be intelligent and sensitive, but Information about the pleasure quarter as purveyed in sharebon was too serious for Yoshiwara taste and lacking urbanity as was the Nanbu dep- immensely marketable, and for about twenty years in the An’ei and Tenmei uty. Or they might be millionaires who, though current on the latest trends, eras this genre was in full bloom. Sharebon writers are too numerous to squandered money foolishly. Such millionaire yabo might be welcomed mention here, but those who wrote masterpieces about the Yoshiwara with an elaborate display of respect, but they were secretly scorned in the include: Santa Kyoden, Akatonbo, Akera Kanko, Kanda Atsumaru, Nai Yoshiwara for their lack of taste. There is an amusing shurebon about a fic- Shinko, Nandaka Shiran, Shimada Kinkoku, Shimizu Enju, Shinrotei, titious yabo duijin (uncouth squanderer) with a name based on that of the Tanishi Kingyo, Torai Sanna, Umebori Kokuga, Unraku Sanjin, and Utei famous Osaka millionaire Konoike Zen’emon. In the shurebon, the multi- Enba. Others, such as Horai Sanjin Kikyb and Manzotei, wrote sharebon millionaire “Koinoike Den’emon” comes to the Yoshiwara to meet Komura- about illegal places. As amateur writers they all depended on other profes- saki of the Great Miura. He brings with him a large entourage of geisha and sions for income. Those whose professions are known include the follow- tuiko, and gives a merry party. In the midst of the festivities, Koinoike takes ing: Santa Kydden was the artist Kitao Masanobu and had a tobacco shop; out a packet of money and hands it to Komurasaki. When the courtesan Akera Kanko was a retired samurai; Kanda Atsumaru was a wholesale asks what is in the packet, the millionaire answers: “It’s money.” Thereupon paper merchant; Nandaka Shiran was the artist Kubo Shunman; Shimizu Komurasaki returns the packet to him without a word and goes downstairs. Enju was a petty samurai under the bukrrfrr; Shinrotei was a landlord; Asked by a tuiko why she has left her guest, Komurasaki answers: “I’m a Tanishi Kingyo was a physician; Torai Sanna was originally a samurai who AGEOFTHE DANDY / 143 142 t YOSHIWARA

dream” theme. In Japan, this story had been treated in a famous no play: married into a brothel and became a proprietor; Unraku Sanjin was a samu- Kantan. Instead of the lofty hero in the Chinese story and the Japanese no, rai; Utei Enba was a master carpenter; Horai Sanjin Kikyo was a samurai of the hero Kinbei of this story is a country youth who comes to Edo with the the Takasaki domain; and Manzotei was the scholar of Western sciences dream of amassing a fortune. While waiting for a lunch of millet cake, he and physician Morishima Churyo. Until 1791, no one was paid for his takes a nap and dreams of having inherited a fortune from his adoptive sharebon writing. When a publisher had best-sellers, he usually invited the father. Manipulated by a jealous head clerk, the foolish Kinbei squanders writer to the pleasure quarter for an evening of dining, wining, and plea- the fortune at the Yoshiwara and other pleasure quarters and is disowned by sure.13 All in all, their efforts were so lighthearted and the content of the his adoptive father. At this point he awakens from his nap and decides to works so frivolous that the genre did not grow into great literature. Still, return to his village. sharebon was a unique and original genre that reflected the time and soci- ety, and as such should be given more attention than it presently receives The eighteen-page picture story is fairy-tale simple, almost a cartoon, but it is not quite as simple as it appears. Koikawa Harumachi made delightful from students and scholars of the Edo period. The development in such use of puns, argot, and arcana about the pleasure quarter, all of which were quantity of a narrowly limited genre in a period of a mere twenty or twenty- clirect z1A2ntations of s,bgr,-bo:: elements. u: five years was possible only because of the frustration and boredom of sam------r- 1 ds exce 11 ent ‘111 u.GiaTiGriS are ir‘ the style of Katsukawa Shunsho, the leading ukiyoe master of the 177Os, urai/merchant literati under the morally lax Tanuma government.r4 and feature the very latest in tsti attire. The mutual enhancement of the illustration and the story in crisp, stylish writing, often parodying the no The Kjbydshi play Kantun, creates a feeling of lighthearted elegance that appealed to both the fun-loving and the more literary minded. The sophistication and spoof- In 1775, another product of a frustrated intellectual, an amateur samurai ing attitude in this parody of a venerable classic show the prevailing spirit of artist, appeared in the form of an illustrated storybook. The Kinkin sensei the An’ei-Tenmei era. eiga no yume (Mr. Brilliance’s dream of extravagance; hereafter Kinkin sen- The new genre of kibydshi was further refined by other works by Haru- sei) by Koikawa Harumachi (Kurahashi Itaru, 1744-1789) was born from machi and his best friend-nom de plume Hoseida Kisanji (Hirasawa the tradition of illustrated children’s storybooks that had existed for the pre- Tsunetomi, 1735-1813)-the deputy of Lord Satake of the Akita ban. A ceding two centuries. Children’s books of the time were either akahon (fairy variety of other writers followed, such as Iba Kasho (occupation unknown), tales), traditionally covered in a red binding, or black-covered kurohon (his- Ichiba Tsusho (picture-framer), Kishida Toho (picture-framer, haiku mas- tory, ghost stories, supernatural tales); each had five folded sheets, or ten ter), Koikawa Yukimachi (physician), Sensa Banbetsu (student of Western pages. Although the format of Kinkin sensei was similar, it was longer (ten sciences), Shiba Zenko (kydgen actor), Shinra Bansho or Manzotei (scientist folded sheets, twenty pages including the front and back covers) and was and physician), Shitchin Manpo (confectioner), Yomo no Akara (&a covered in yellow-green-from which came the genre name kibyashi, or Nanpo, samurai, poet, literary wit), Yoneyama Teiga (scribe), and Nai “yellow cover.” But what distinguished Kinkin sensei from children’s books Shinko, Nandaka Shiran, Santa Kyoden, Shimizu Enju, and Torai Sanna was the sophisticated adult content, satirical spirit, and reflection of con- (samurai turned brothel proprietor). They created kibyashi from the latter temporary society. Kinkin sensei was based on the famous Chinese story of the dream of part of the An’ei era to the end of the Tenmei, some even after the Kansei era. Later comic writers such as Shikitei Sanba, Jippensha Ikku, and Nan- Rosei (Lusheng), who borrowed a pillow from a Taoist to take a nap and sensho Somahito followed suit with modifications in the 179Os, after the dreamed of his entire life of great success and wealth in the brief time it took Kansei Reform forbade publication of pleasure quarter material. Alto- millet to cook in a pot. The point in the Chinese story was a philosophical gether, more than two thousand kiby&i were published. and moral lesson on the ephemerality of human life, the “life-is-but-a- AGE OF TI-iE DANDY ! 145

Intellectuals found this genre to be one in which they could display their knowledge in all aspects of arts and culture, and at the same time indulge their desire for madcap fantasy and nonsense. For instance, Koikawa Haru- machi began another new trend when he wrote Mud&i (Useless records of stylishness) in 1779. In it he describes a future world in which phenomena are reversed: summer is cold and winter is hot, male courtesans walk Nakanocho Boulevard wearing gorgeous kimono and accompanied by two boy kamuro, clients reject the courtesans, and samurai bumpkins are now known as the great ts~. This story was followed by a series of futuristic non- sense by other writers who saw in Mtrdaiki a delightful satire on society. Many kibydshi dealt wirh or touched upon the Yoshiwara, but none were so successful as the Edo umare uwaki no kabayaki (Romantic embroilments born in Edo). (See Chapter 6.)

The Kydka

Most of sharebon and kibydshi writers whose names have been mentioned here were also experts of kydka, the mad or comic poem of thirty-one sylla- bles. They formed various leagues in various parts of Edo and often met in the Yoshiwara for poetry and pleasure. The kydka was an extremely popu- lar form of diversion among Tenmei literati and included many Yoshiwara personalities. The best-known figure and the leader of the “Yoshiwara-ren” (Yoshiwara League of Kybka Poets) was Kabocha no Motonari (a nom de plume meaning “Original Pumpkin”), the proprietor of the Daimonjiya bor- dello on Kyomachi 1. His father, the founder of the Daimonjiya, had an enormous pumpkinlike head and was nicknamed the “Big Pumpkin.“r5 Motonari’s mother, Soo no Naisho (“Quite a Wife”), and his wife, Akikaze no Nyobo (“Autumn Wind Wife” meaning a fickle wife), were also active members. Others included the proprietor of the Ogiya (nom de plume Muneage no Takami-“Raising the Roof, Enjoying a Splendid View”), his wife Inagi (Akazome Emon-“Soiled Clothes”), Santa Kyoden (Migaru no Orisuke-“Lightfooted Lackey”), publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo (Tsuta no Karamaru-“Entwined in Vines”), artist Kitagawa Utamaro (Fude no Scenes from Koikawa Harumachi’s Kinkin sensei eiga no yume (Mr. Brilliance, Ayamaru-“A Slip of the Brush”), the proprietor of the Daikokuya (Tawara 1795) showing a variety of the most current men’s fashions. no Kozuchi-“Mallet of Good Fortune,” paraphernalia of Daikoku), cour- tesan Hatamaki of the Daimonjiya, and courtesan Utahime of the Matsu- 146 I YOSHIWARA AGEOFTHEDANDY / 147 baya. Their poetry parties were well known and frequently mentioned in block print calendars called surimono and exchanged them as year-end the contemporary essays and sharebon of these timesi Members of the gifts. A calendar was a daily necessity in those days because, according to elite kyoka party were also described in kibyoshi. *’ the lunar calendar, each year the lengths of the months changed. Commer- Here is an example of a kyoka by Kabocha no Motonari: cially printed calendars included not only long and short months but also other almanac information. Hutumoto amateur haiku lovers, on the other hand , preferred single-sheet designs without almanac information. For Naminaranu Unusual waves of YGji no tanto Chores and business these seemingly ordinary pictures, the challenge was to hide the information Yosekureba Return again and again- on long and short months as part of the design. Dilettante samurai and mer- Tsuri ni iku ma mo Not even time for fishing- chants competed with each other for the decorativeness, originality, and Ara isogashiya How busy I am! cleverness of the picture. They gathered socially for calendar exchange under the informal leadership of Okubo Jinshiro Tadanobu (nom de plume The humor in this kyoka comes from the puns (nami, “waves,” and Kyosen) and Abe Hachinojo Masahiro (Sakei). Both hatamoto Okubo and naminaranu, “unusuai,” and am, “there is none,” and ara isogashi, “oh, Abe were dilettante painters and iiterati who befriended artists and mer- how busy!“); from the use of related words ( yosekureba, “inundation” and chants and exchanged calendars with them in 1764 and 1765 with special “returning waves”); and from the borrowing of phrases from no drama enthusiasm. (Tsuri ni iku ma mo is a pun of Tsurino itomamo nami no ue from the yo- As the competition for producing attractive calendars intensified, many kyoku Yashima; Ara isogashiya is from the ybkyoku Kayoi komachi). The hatamoto decided to have their ideas executed by professional artists, absurd and the sublime are effectively juxtaposed here. woodblock carvers, and printers. One outstanding artist serving several such patrons was Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770), who through his creation of a number of artistic calendars came to the attention of publishers, The Ukiyoe patrons of the arts, and the public. His prints were characterized by supple- , Another example of an art flourishing in the second half of the eighteenth ness of line, rhythmic composition, simplicity and economy of design, and century under the influence of the Yoshiwara is the multicolored ukiyoe bright but delicate use of green, blue, purple, brown, pink, yellow, and prints, replacing earlier, simpler versions. Woodblock prints from the late ’ gray. The innocent expressions on the doll-like women and boyish men, and seventeenth into the early eighteenth century were in black and white, some the lyrical and etherial aura of the designs, were particularly irresistible. of them hand-colored after the prints were made. By the 1740s many ukiyoe Earlier artists had drawn beautiful courtesans, too, but the collaborative art in red and green called benizuri-e had been executed by such artists as Oku- of the ukiyoe, the design of the artist, and the techniques of the woodblock mura Masanobu, Ishikawa Toyonobu, Torii Kiyomitsu, Okumura Toshi- carver and the printer had evolved over the years. The new colors added by nobu, and Nishimura Shigenaga. There were even a limited number of Harunobu, the excellent technique of chiseling out fine lines and printing prints. that used more than two colors: red, green, yellow, and dark blue. them with precise registration, the new technique of kimekomi (blind print- But none of these efforts approached the technical excellence and elegance ing of the full-length figure) and karuzuri (embossing or gauffrage) for spe- soon to be developed. cial effects for rich fabrics, all opened up new possibilities. In the third month of 1765, Edo was witness to the introduction of an Harunobu’s calendars won great admiration from those who were innovative print technique through the efforts of wealthy hatamoto who present at the haiku and calendar critique parties in the third month of published calendars privately. Merchants and samurai who were bound by 1765. A typical gathering would include Kasaya Saren, son of the last pro- their common interest in haiku had for some years designed small wood- prietor of the Great Miura of the Yoshiwara, who earned a living as a haiku 148 / YOSHIWARA AGE OFTHE DANDY I 149 teacher after the family bankruptcy. l8 Saren was a friend and haiku teacher gence who encouraged and sponsored such notable writers as Santo of many of the patrons of the arts as well as Yoshiwara proprietors and Kyoden, Hdseido Kisanji, Koikawa Harumachi, Jippensha Ikku, Takizawa courtesans, and he undoubtedly served as the link among diverse groups. Bakin, and the artists Utamaro, Choki, and Sharaku. Some of these writers Saren might have played an important role in the first of a series of ukiyoe and artists were unknown before Tsuta-Ja introduced them. His artistic projects involving beautiful portraits of courtesans. The art historian Suzuki judgment was unerring, and his prints were always of excellent quality. It JQZ~ suggests that the idea for Seiro &in awase (Competition of bordello has been posited that Tsuta-Ju’s mother was the daughter of the Yoshiwara beauties) must have come from Kasaya Saren.lg Saren probably conceived bordello owner Tsutaya Sukeshiro and that he was adopted by a neighbor of the project when he met Harunobu, and probably he mobilized the pro- family, the Kitagawas, who were possibly the parents of Utamaro’s prietors of the principal houses of the Yoshiwara to contribute to the cost of mother.21 Tsuta-Ju opened his first book and print shop just outside the printing the book. The Yoshiwara seemed extremely well suited as subject Yoshiwara Great Gate and there published various books and saiken. matter for the many-colored prints, or azuma-nishiki-e (eastern brocade Like Harunobu’s Seird b&n awase, the Seiro bijin awase sugata kagami picture), as they began to be called. At any rate, in 1770, the year Suzuki features leading courtesans of the major houses-in this case totaling 163 Harunobu died prematurely, the book made its appearance. Harunobu and presented in groups of three to five on two facing pages in three vol- created the five-volume colored picture book Seiro bijin awase, featuring umes. It is quite possible that Tsuta-Jn promoted the idea, inspired by the 166 leading courtesans in various seated poses. deluxe book of courtesans by Harunobu. The pictures demonstrate the Each volume was prefaced by an appropriate seasonal drawing (in nega- nearly perfect integration of the personal styles of the two artists, Shigemasa tive print) and a haiku poem by Kasaya Saren. The five volumes were titled and Shunsho. That the styles of the two artis’ts are almost indistinguishable with the street names where the courtesans lived, and seasonal features were need not be viewed as a weakness, an abdication of their individualism, but indicated by subtitles and illustrations. Each volume featured portraits of rather as a credit to their talent. several famous courtesans from major houses located on the street in the The first volume of the set represents spring and summer and the second title, accompanied by the courtesan’s haiku. The order of the courtesans’ autumn and winter; both show leading courtesans from important houses appearance for the most part agrees with the listing in the spring saiken of going about their daily activities. The setting is their elegant apartments or 1770. Such a lavish publication, which must have been very costly even at the teahouses they frequented. The third volume includes pictures of the top the time of its publication, was a collaboration of three publishers: Maruya courtesans from medium-sized houses in mixed groups, followed by pages Jinpachi, Koizumi Chngoro (Yoshiwara bookseller), and Funaki Kasuke. of haiku composed by most of the women portrayed. (Five of the courtesans The bordello proprietors no doubt instructed the courtesans to compose a have no haiku attributed to them, and some of the portrayed courtesans no haiku for publication and very likely suggested that they also contribute longer appear in the saiken of 1776.) One suspects that some of the haiku some money toward this prestigious and worthy project. The proprietors might have been written for the courtesans by Saren, or Tsuta-Jil, who was always had a way of making courtesans pay for the publicity that enriched a self-appointed man of letters, or one or another of his literary friends. the house’s coffers.20 Although the financial aspects of the book are not Even with this outside help, the haiku represented are mostly undistin- known, it is certain that it was an artistic triumph. guished. Other publications of a similar nature followed. In 1776, Seira &in In 1783, Kitao Masanobu’s Seira meikun jihitsu-sha? (Collection of callig- uwase sugutu kagami (Yoshiwara beauties compared in a mirror), a brilliant raphy by celebrated Yoshiwara courtesans) appeared, again from the pub- collaboration of artists Kitao Shigemasa and Katsukawa Shunsho, was lisher Tsuta-Ju. This is a set of seven well-executed prints, each depicting published by Tsutaya Juzaburo. Commonly known as Tsuta-Ju, this two courtesans of a leading bordello in their daily environment. We can bookseller/publisher was an ambitious young man with vision and intelli- infer that the collection was well received and profitable, because the fol- 150 / YOSHIWARA AGEOFTHEDANDY I 151 lowing year (1784) Tsuta-Ju made the seven loose sheets into a book with same series title. Kiyonaga complied only for a two-year period (1782- the new title Shin-&in awusejihitsu kugami (New b’eauty contest mirrors of 1784); it is believed that, while Koryusai made about 110 designs (some calligraphy) to which he added a foreword by Shokusanjin (&a Nanpo, courtesans were portrayed more than once), Kiyonaga made only about ten. 1749-1823) and a postscript by Akera Kanko (Yamazaki Kagemoto, 1738- Although Kiyonaga developed his admirable style of tall, regal courtesans 1798), both well-known samurai literati, gesuku writers and kydka poets, during this period, and while these prints are truly beautiful and technically and Tsuta-Ja’s good friends. superior to those of Kdiyiis~ai, takp as a whole his compositions in the Tsuta-Ju and the artist Masanobu (Santa Kybden) claimed that the poem series are less interesting than ‘those of Koryiisai. Kiyonaga’s consist mostly attached to each portrait was in the courtesan’s own handwriting. That of pictures of a courtesan with her entourage in procession. Boredom may claim seems credible enough, for some of the courtesans’ handwriting is account for Kiyonaga’s premature discontinuation of his series; on the other known and recognizable. We may also assume that, since these prints made hand, there is little doubt about the enthusiasm of Yos,hiwara proprietors. excellent advertisements, the courtesans would have been induced by their The Hinagatlr series was a wonderful project for the bordellos in publicizing employers to produce samples of their calligraphy. The fourteen courtesans their courtesans, for fabric shops advertising their kimono, and for the pub- featured are Segawa and Matsuhito of the Matsubaya, Komurasaki and lisher in creating very salable prints. Hanamurasaki of the Comer Tamaya, Azumaya and Kokonoe of the Ma- From about 1776 until well after 1800, single pictures featuring courte- tsukaneya, Hinazuru and Chozan of the Chojiya, Hitomoto and Tagasode sans flooded out from various publishers, either in modest series (not com- of the Daimonjiya, Utagawa and Nanasato of the Yotsumeya, and Taki- parable in size to the Hinuguta seri,es) or in the single or muitiple-sheet com- gawa and Hanadgi of the Ogiya. positions (diptychs, triptychs, up to ten pictures) that Kiyonaga, and others While these pictures are carefully and lovingly drawn, the composition, later, popularized. The artists included Koryiisai, Shunsho, Shigemasa, cansisting of two courtesans together, each accompanied by two kamuro Masanobu, Kiyonaga, Utamaro, Eishi, Choki, Toyokuni I, Toyoharu, and sometimes a shinzd or two, all in elaborate kimono and surrounded by Shuncho, Shunman, Gokyo. Even Hokusai himself under the name of furniture, gives a cluttered effect. Still, because Kitao Masanobu/Santo Shunro or Sari created ukiyoe (both prints and paintings) of beautiful Kyoden practically lived in the Yoshiwara during various periods in his life women of the pleasure quarter. There has never been such a flowering of an (and later married a shinzd, twice), and because he always insisted on art form so well suited to the subject matter. The golden age of ukiyoe was authenticity, it seems reasonable to assume that the courtesans’ private the result of three elements: the maturation of the woodblock printing tech- quarters and life-styles are faithfully and realistically reproduced. From nique, the fulfillment of the desire of these mostly commoner artists (except these pictures, and from descriptions given by Kyoden in several sharebon, for samurai Koryusai and hatumoto Eishi) to give expression to commoners’ it becomes clear that the Tenmei years (1781-1789) constituted the apogee lives, and the coincidence of these two factors with the prosperity of the of prosperity and luxury for the Yoshiwara. Yoshiwara. This serendipitous meeting resembled the meeting of the frus- Ninagutu wukunu no hutsu-moyd (Models of fashion: New designs as trated literati and the popular need for rsii instruction books that produced fresh as young leaves), 1776-1784, is a set of single-sheet ukiyoe, a portrait the shurebon and kiby&i genres. Ironically, such a fortunate development series of courtesans modeling newly designed kimono patterns. The series was possible only under the relaxed, if corrupt, Tanuma administration. was commissioned by the publisher Nishimura Eijudo and executed by In 1782, Tsuta-Ju bought the exclusive rights to publish Yoshiwara Isoda Koryusai (fl. 1764-1789) between 1776 and 1782. The series was s&ken and moved from the Yoshiwara to central Edo, to the present-day evidently so successful that Eijudo urged Koryusai to continue creating new Nihonbashi Odenmacho area. But he continued to be a member of the designs. When Koryitsai finally decided to give it up, Eijudo commissioned kyaku “Yoshiwara League” and kept in touch with his Yoshiwara friends. the young, taiented Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815) to create prints under the After flourishing for almost a decade as one of the largest wholesale pub- I.52 / YOSHIWARA ACEOFTHEDANDY ! 153 lisher/booksellers, he was convicted in 1791 for publishing three sburebon attests to the active interest of Edo Japanese in sex and pornography. Even by Santa Kyoden in violation of the printing prohibition in the Kansei so, it should be emphasized that, in the seventeenth and most of the eight- Reforms. Unable to resist the temptation of yet another success, Tsuta-Ja eenth centuries, the Yoshiwara was a relatively chaste and prudish commu- had urged Kyoden to write new books and had sold the three volumes in a nity. Though pornography existed, it was not generated by the Yoshiwara box with the ostensible cover title of Kydkun tokubon (A moral textbook). population, nor was it particularly enjoyed by them. On the contrary,‘high- As a penalty, one-half of his wealth was confiscated by the bakufu. Tsuta-Ja ranking courtesans made a pc+t o&keeping on their writing desks The Tale died disheartened in 1797. His descendants, in greatly reduced circum- of Genii, classic imperial anthologies such as the Kokinsh or the Shin- stances, stopped publishing altogether by 1833 and lost the s&ken rights Kokinshi, or the Chinese anthology of poetry Tdshisen, or T’ung shib around 1840.22 bsiiun. Even less-educated prostitutes and shim& enjoyed reading innocent romances written in ea,sy kunu style rather than salacious material. To show Technical Instructions the atmosphere of the Yoshiwara, there is a senryti that says:

It is common knowledge even among the uninitiated that there is a large res- Ogiya e For visiting the bgiya, ervoir of pornographic ukiyoe by reputable as well as less than reputable ikunode T6shisen’ I studied narai the Chinese anthology artists. As a place that traded in sex, the Yoshiwara might well be regarded as a source of such material. We have covered the subjects of tsri education and the flowering of tsii literature and ukiyoe art, but we have not examined It was well known that the proprietor Ogiya and his wife were students of much of the primary business of the Yoshiwara: sex and, by extension, por- the scholar/poet Kato Chikage and their courtesans were exposed to culture nography. As the early Yoshiwara was primarily a place of entertainment -hence a senryfi of this type .24 Among primary-source materials on the and socializing, sex was a discreet and secondary aspect of the business. Yoshiwara, there is little reference to sexual matters for either instruction or Indeed, Edward Seidensticker has gone so far as to liken an evening at the titillation. Yoshiwara to an afternoon of tea.23 : From all appearances, during the Edo period the general attitude of the Certainly the Edo period produced an abundance of pornographic ukiyoe Japanese toward sex was positive and wholesome. One seventeenth-century prints of the genre called shungu (spring pictures) or wuruie (laughing pic- writer observes: “Since olden times, no intelligent man has disliked this mat- tures). Many centuries before the development of prints, picture scrolls of ter” and “No matter how swperior a man, if he does not buy prostitutes, he the Yamatoe painting tradition depicted explicit sexual acts. The scrolls is incomplete and tends to be uncouth.“ZS Furthermore, it seems to have were part of the education of aristocratic young ladies soon to be married. been the general belief that the correct amount of sexual activity was physi- When ukiyoe prints became available to the masses in the late seventeenth ologically necessary for good health. To wit, Saikaku said: century, and the genre of war&e and illustrated books became popular, the pretext of their educational function was dropped. They were clearly for the As I observe with care, the young merchants of fabric stores in Edo are full of enjoyment of the masses. blood, yet most of them are pallid in face and will gradually become iii; even- tually many of them die. This is because they are so occupied with their busi- In addition to sbungu, there appeared illustrated books with sparse but ness, sparing no time to go to the pleasure quarter. Their bachelor life suffices graphic texts by top ukiyoe artists such as Harunobu, Koryusai, Kiyonaga, with tea and shelled clams and cald rice for a quick supper, and for their only Utamaro, Toyokuni, and Hokusai. That such publications, some of which treat, drinking the famou,s good sake from Osaka. They have plenty of money were of high artistic merit, existed in spite of severe government controls to spend, but they have never seen the Yoshiwara.26 -

154 / YOSHIWARA AGE OFTHE DANDY / 155

Saikaku proceeds to observe that, on the other hand, the young clerks of the slightly scandalous Yoshiwara. Historian Nakayama Taro says that resi- fabric shops of Kyoto are so devoted to pleasure that they succumb to what dents of the Yoshiwara were definitely treated as second-class citizens and the Edo period Japanese calledjinkyo, or “hollow kidney (semen),” meaning suffered from it.2B Paradoxical though it may sound, sex was the last thing exhausted libido. It was believed thatjinkyo was a common (and incurable) they were interested in promoting or discussing in their writings. cause of premature death. “Therefore,” comments Saikaku, “virile men of Furthermore, pornographic material should not be confused with legiti- Edo die from frustration and melancholy, while young men of Kyoto die mate instruction books on sex. On% might think that the Yoshiwara would from excess of sex.” Everything in moderation, Saikaku cautions with his be a natural place for publications m the nature of sex manuals for the train- characteristic mock seriousness. ing of courtesans. Evidently, such books existed in the worfd outside the The Yoshiwara’s attitude toward sex was no different from that of the Yoshiwara.29 Yet, with all the “how-to” books on Yoshiwara matters, not masses: it is normal and healthy. But sex was not this pleasure quarter’s pri- one manual contains explicit material, illustrated or otherwise, that would mary interest; rather, the Yoshiwara was a skillful purveyor of romance and qualify it as a sex manual. Even the books of the category called showuke a manufacturer of dreams. As we have seen, the Yoshiwara promoted (ways of love), mostly products of the seventeenth century, which were showy, entertaining, attractive events. It provided a stage for its courtesans meant to give technical instructions, were not in a strict sense sex.manuals. as spectacles that were only faintly erotic. One exception that suggests cal- Even the most explicit of these,’ Secret Teachings, quoted earlier, was a culated but nevertheless mild titillation was the seventeenth-century practice book written by the proprietor of a Kyoto rather than an Edo bordello. This of the tuyti kicking her skirt open as she walked (as described by the exag- book too, while offering two or three explicit instructions on sexual mat- gerating Saikaku in Chapter 3). Saikaku’s description refers to contempo- ters, endeavors mainly to teach good manners, proper hygiene, beauty rary courtesarrs who did not luxuriate in many layers of kimono. In the later pointers, and the gracious and considerate handling of clients, period, high-ranking courtesans in procession would have found it difficult On,e obvious reason for the absence of pornography or open discussion of to flounce their heavy skirts to the point of flashing their calves. Moreover, sex in pleasure-quarter literature was official censorship. The general policy even more than their predecessors, they might have operated on the princi- of the Tokugawa bakufu was Confucian and moralistic. With its periodic ple that concealment is more mysterious and alluring. surveillance of the Edo populace-particularly during the period of the Through the eighteenth century, it was outsiders, not the Yoshiwara, three major reforms of the Ed’o period, Kyoho (1716-1745), Kansei (1787- who generated pornography, and it was publis,hed not for use in the plea- 1793), and Tenpo (1841-l 843)-the bakufu’s control of public morality sure quarter but for the pleasure of the general public. If the settings and was extremely severe. The first activity the bakufu scrutinized was publica- characters in books and pictures happened to accentuate the Yoshiwara and tions concerning the pleasure quarters. The Yoshiwara was well aware of it, its courtesans, it was because they were being commercialized by outsiders. and as a result was probably the most proper and genteel setting in all Edo. On the occasions when Yoshiwara residents wrote books, they concentrated Even the sharebon, written and published by outsiders, contain no element on the preservatio’n of Yoshiwara history, events, and anecdotes. They that could be considered pornographic. maint&red as sober and dignified a manner as any city official might have Another important reason for the lack of explicitly sexual books in the done while writing a book on his city. r7 Yoshiwara authors appear to be Yoshiwara was that any technical information courtesans required was vitally interested in the prosperity of the pleasure quarter, but their attitude passed down discreetly and orally by courtesans to younger trainees, or by was more that of an amateur histori,an than a bordello or a teahouse pro- mistresses and yarite to their charges. In their daily life together, there was moter. Their primary concern was legitimizing their position as first-class ample opportunity to speak privately; no books were needed. A famous citizens of Edo. Arguably, they had an inferiority complex as citizens of the senryR says: 156 I YOSHIWARA AGE OFTHE DANDY / I.57

Anejord Sister prostitute can’t stand it, I’m fainting,” and falls back limp; then she says weakly, “Give fukidasu ybna giving a hilarious me some hot water to drink.” This is all a lie, but there is not a man who denju o shi instruction doesn’t like it.‘O ’

The senryti suggests a scene in which a senior courtesan is teaching a shinz6 Saikaku’s statement notwithstanding, evidently not every man appreciated something of so delicate a nature that the embarrassed teenager bursts out such fakery. The writer of an early showuke book says, “Hateful is the cour- laughing. tesan’s faking and writhing, especially when she feigns sobbing.“31 Such On the whole, Yoshiwara women were highly professional. They were complaints indicate that simulation of climax was an important technique obedient and conscientious concerning their obligations, including their that courtesans were expected to learn. Sometimes, however, the pretense sexual duties. They maintained a dignified attitude that could even be went too far and a courtesan might acquire the reputation of being a described as asexual, though there is no evidence of, nor reference to, lesbi- screamer, as some early “Who’s Who” report in amusement.32 Two rare anism in the Yoshiwara. Prostitutes rarely chose their profession because of instances of explicit instruction on the falsification of passion appear in the a special fondness for men; as noted earlier, most of them became prosd- Secret Teachings: tutes for economic reasons. In view of the acceptance and prevalence of male homosexualism from the Heian through Edo periods, the absence of If you are drowsy and simply fall asleep, your client will feel rejected and lesbianism in such an atmosphere of unbalanced sexual distribution is strik- angry. In preparation for lovemaking, first encourage him to drink much sake ing. One can only speculate as to the reason. Certainly there was no tradi- in the parlor; as soon as you retire to bed, let him have his way. If, afterward, tion of homosexuality among women. The shunga depicting two women he tries to withdraw, pretend to get angry a little and force him to make love engaged in activities using an artificial device (which is said to have existed to you again. He will probably do it. At that time, tighten your buttocks and in the shogun’s harem) are usually products of highly imaginative non- grind your hip to the left and right. When the back is tightened, the “jade gate” Yoshiwara male artists. Such artificial devices would have embarrassed will be squeezed. This will make him climax quickly. He will be exhausted and fall Then you can relax and sleep . . .J3 Yoshiwara women or made them burst out laughing. asleep. When your jade gate feels dry, put some paper in your mouth and chew The official instruction for Yoshiwara courtesans and prostitutes from prior to making love. If the client asks, “What are you doing?” tell him, “This yarite and mistresses was simple: noninvolvement. Courtesans were to will avoid bad breath.” Keep the moistened paper in your mouth. When the encourage clients to fall in love, not to fall in love themselves, although this man begins to make love, say, “I’ll help you,” and quickly take out the paper was not always possible. For a courtesan to reach orgasm during the sexual and squeeze the saliva into the jade gate. But this is secret, do it stealthily.34 act was considered unprofessional. To this end, courtesans were taught how to simulate passion and to excite and tire their clients as rapidly as possible. Such explicitness was rare in Yoshiwara writings and soon showuke publi- Their employer and yarite wanted to protect them from physical exhaus- cations disappeared altogether, at least from the public eye. Even so explicit tion. On this subject, Saikaku was probably the most frank, unequivocal a book as the Secret Teachings insisted on a courtesan’s femininity in deco- writer: rum and appearance, expounding in some detail about the care of hair and skin and cleanliness. It cautioned against bad breath and body odor and rec- Faking is a shameful thing, but most men like it, so the courtesan fakes noises ommended frequent use of perfume and incense. and sobs, writhing so much that her hipbones threaten to come unhinged. Yoshiwara courtesans’ sense of sexual propriety verged on prudishness Thrashing her arms and legs, narrowing her eyes and breathing hard, she lets the man lick her tongue, holding tightly onto his neck. She pinches his sides in and extended to scorn for elaborate foreplay and afterplay. They were ecstasy and bites into his shoulder at his climax. She then cries out, “Oh, I known to slap a wandering hand or scold a client who ventured out of 158 I YOSHlWARA AGEOFTHEDANDY / 159 bounds. This custom was partly pragmatic, since exploring fingers could committing suicide.40 She remained awake even after he left, a gesture ac- hurt them. For this reason, a courtesan usually slept on her left side, so that knowledging that he would be thinking of her on his way home. This type the client’s right hand was not free to do mischief while she slept. (In Japan, of kindness and sincerity was much appreciated and made a Yoshiwara until quite recently, left-handed children were forced to practice using their courtesan popular. right hands until their natural tendency was totally eliminated.) The sexual propriety of women of illegal pleasure quarters outside the Yoshiwara was The Senryu seemingly more lax, and they were said to use oral sex as an added attrac- tion. Yoshiwara women, on the other hand, spurned such diversions, call- At times the bakufu’s censorship of anything related to the pleasure quarters ing them childish.35 grew ruthless. But the public did not easily accept oppressive measures with- The courtesan’s thoughtfulness and sincerity were considered more out protest, though the protest might be unobtrusive. Beginning in the early important by clients than sexual techniques and novelty. In turn, courtesans eighteenth century, the comic haiku known as senryii provided a vehicle for tended to appreciate kind, thoughtful men. The “Who’s Who” of circa 1664 the articulation of popular sentiment. Senrya mocked politics, social phe- speaks of the k&i Tamagawa of the Mataemon’s bordello on Sumicho. nomena, the foibles of people of note, and various professions and classes of Through her kamuro, a prospective customer presented her with a lovely people. To irreverent Edoites everything could be made into a game, a chal- branch of artificial yellow Chinese roses and a love poem. When she saw the lenge for the coining of clever puns and naughty double entendres defying thoughtful present and beautifully calligraphed poem, she lost her heart to official censorship. There is a wealth of senryti on myriad subjects, many of the man she had not yet seen and called the branch her “husband never to be a thinly disguised sexual nature. But precisely because of the disguise, such forgotten.” Tamagawa and the man later met and became lovers.36 Since the ssnryti usually require an interpreter, even for the Japanese. Here is an seventeenth century, writers of “Who’s Who” had said again and again, example: “The best in courtesans are those who are gentle and sincerely loving.“37 The high value placed on a courtesan’s sincerity is evidenced by the repu- Agezoko o Even with a false bottom tation of Yoso’oi II of the Matsubaya Hanzo, who prospered about 1800. shitemo sanbu no this bowl still costs utsuwa nari 3 bu Known for her skill at calligraphy, tea ceremony, poetry, and the art of identifying incense by fragrance, she was one of the women favored by the famous aristocrat-artist Sakai Hditsu (Sakai Tadanao, 1761-1828), As many senryt? do, this poem seems quite innocent. An agezoko, a raised younger brother of the Lord of Himeji. Yoso’oi II was not his final compan- or false bottom, is placed in a cake box, a bowl, or any type of container. ion (the Daimonjiya’s courtesan Kagawa lived with him for life), but she Even today it is used by storekeepers to make the contents appear larger or was treated more like a friend by this revered and beloved artist.J8 Yoso’oi more ample. In Tanuma days an agezoko box was regularly used to present had the reputation of being especially respectful of her clients’ privacy. She a gift of money in the false bottom covered with a layer of cake. This senryzi is said to have been the only courtesan ever to lock her bedroom door when could be read as a customer complaining, “The bottom of the box is raised she was alone with a client. Generally, courtesans kept their boudoir doors and contains really very little to eat; but it still costs 3 bu. How expensive!” unlocked so that they could flee if the client grew unreasonable or violent.3y To Edoites, however, the mere mention of “3 bu” was enough to indicate a Yoso’oi considered all clients important and, even for one night, her rela- &San-class Yoshiwara courtesan whose established fee was 3 bu. Thus the tionship with her guest remained loving and private. Her consideration for a senryti is a double entendre suggesting a courtesan who uses a contraceptive client went to the extent of staying awake, reading, while he slept. By keep- device, most likely a wad of soft tissue, which the client does not like. It ing vigil, on two occasions, she is said to have dissuaded her clients from could also be read as, “She is cheating, using a contraceptive device, but she 160 ! YOSHIWARA AGE OFTHE DANDY I 161 is still worth 3 bu; there is nothing like the chtisan for class.” The word in living sufficiently by music or massage. Originally, a hereditary aristocratic the last line, utsuwu, means any type of vessel or container, as well as a per- family in Kyoto was in charge of awarding various ranks to trained, quali- son’s capability or quality. fied blind men. As time passed and their fortunes declined, the poverty- Another example is: stricken aristocrats began to sell ranks to any blind man who could pay the price. In the mid-eighteenth century, blind men began to go into the busi- oyu &on0 Dear me, ness of moneylending and made tremendous profits. Many of them pur- sat0 ni uramon wa this quarter has chased the rank of kengyd (the highest rank blind men could hold) and arinsen no back gate! acquired property and wealth unattainable even for high-ranking samurai. These blind moneylenders were feared and hated for their ruthlessness in To an Edoite, this irregular-syllable senryfi would have been immediately the collection of their debts. The most notorious of the kengra was the rich recognizable as a scene in which a client is being rejected by a Yoshiwara and avaricious blind man Toriyama who patronized Segawa V of the Ma- courtesan. The clue is the form of speech, arinsen, the form peculiar to the tsubaya in the Yoshiwara. arimu kingdom, the Yoshiwara. The fact that she is saying “There is no The courresan known as Segawa V presumably had another name until back gate” confirms that the senryti is about the Yoshiwara, for this pleasure 1774. Examining the saiken of the years prior to that, I believe it could very quarter had only one entrance in front, the Great Gate. The hidden meaning well have been the zashikimochi Tominosuke, who had appeared in the of the sentyti describes a courtesan gently rebuffing a client who wants to spring of 1770 at the lowest end of the list and subsequently worked her sodomize her. Edoites like this senr-yti poet knew that such a sexual devia- way up to second from the top of the zushikimochi group. With the appear- tion was absolutely unacceptable to the Yoshiwara woman. ance of Segawa in the c/%-an rank, Tominosuke’s name disappeared. There are scores of such risque senrya, known as bareku (obscene verse), Because of Toriyama’s extravagant patronage, this courtesan was accorded concealing sexual references, but they are much fewer than those on other the mydseki Segawa. One account has it that, before Toriyama, she had had subjects. Evidently the Yoshiwara did not offer or encourage much obscen- a lover named Isshiki. He had fraudulently sponsored the promotion of his ity. Nevertheless, it shows that Edoites did write about sex, while at the mistress from the rank offurisode (long-sieeved) shinzb to tomesode (short- same time exhibiting their defiance against authorities, by concealing offi- sleeved) shinzd. A once-prosperous wholesale lumber merchant, he prom- cially reprehensible elements in seventeen syllables. In the end they seem to ised to sponsor Segawa for a promotion. But now bankrupt, he could not have enjoyed the challenge and their own cleverness more than the sexual raise the money necessary for it and tried to swindle a pawnbroker with allusions themselves. What started out as a clever evasion of bakuftl censor- false securities.41 ship became a unique body of limerick-like ditties that represented an The story is apocryphal at best; the episode of Isshiki is not found in Edoite exercise in witticism. other reports on Toriyama and Segawa, but only in the 1858 edition of Edo masago rokujicch. What is historically accurate and well known is that in 1775 the thirty-five-year-old Toriyama kengyd purchased Segawa’s contract Moneylenders and Toriyama Segawa for the enormous price of 1,400 ry6. It is said that because of this extrava- The corrupt society under Tanuma did not, of course, promote only posi- gance Toriyama received a disciplinary punishment from his coHeagues.42 tive and creative results such as new literary and art forms. One insidious Moreover, his arrogance and indiscretion heightened public antagonism phenomenon that tormented the populace was the proliferation of money- toward him and toward blind usurers in general. Through the An’ei and lenders, a profession monopolized by blind men. Under the protective pol- Tenmei eras, Toriyama’s name is mentioned in the most negative and slan- icy of the shogunate, blind men during the Edo period were able to earn a derous manner in numerous essays, sharebon, and kibyashi. 162 ! YOSHIWARA AGEOFTHEDANDY / 163

In 1778, along with other blind usurers, Toriyama was arrested and pleasure boating since the early Edo period. Boathouses, teahouses, and res- exiled for crimes against citizens, especially against impoverished samurai. taurants flourished there. The area was eventually landfilled by the bakufu The vast fortunes they had accumulated through high-interest lending were in 1771 and named Nakasu.47 Gradually, there appeared many amusement confiscated by the bakufu. 4J Segawa’s union with a notorious usurer was facilities, and by 1779 there were eighteen restaurants (some catering exclu- scandal enough, but her reputed behavior after his exile blackened her name sively to daimyb deputies), ninety-three teahouses, fourteen boathouses, forever. With her protector gone, Segawa is said to have married a samurai and at least twenty-seven geisha,.‘* there were brothels, theaters, and a vari- who had been her client in her Yoshiwara days. According to one account ety of food stalls. There had never been such a heavy concentration of she had two children by the samurai, but when he died some years later she famous restaurants and teahouses anywhere in Japan. It became an area of took a carpenter as a lover and abandoned her children. The public was street entertainers and spectacles as well; many sharebon and essays attest outraged by this act. The story goes that she lived with the carpenter for to the prosperity of Nakasu. many years and died an old woman in poverty.44 Santa Kyozan, Kyoden’s younger brother, writes how, at age seventeen, he was fascinated by Nakasu jugglers, freak shows, mimes, and street the- The Prosperity of Nakasu ater. He reports the excitement he felt at seeing the lanterns of restaurants and teahouses reflecting on the river water, creating an illusion of the myth- Another group of sponsors of the ‘foshiwara during its golden age of the ological Dragon Palace at the bottom of the sea where the Sea King lives.49 1770s and 1780s were the deputies of provincial daimyd, such as those Another writer, Doraku-sanjin, described one fine restaurant called “Shi- depicted in the Hanaogi episode quoted earlier. In the absence of their mas- kian” (Four Seasons Hermitage): ters who made their trips between Edo and their provinces, the deputies took charge of dealings with the bakufu and other provincial domains. As [Its] structure stood out in the area, being extremely elegant, the flowers of influential ban officials, they were treated with respect and courtesy by the four seasons blooming in its garden. Unusual new dishes and the fine dinner- bakufu. Most of them, with the exception of upright men like the deputy ware were so attractive that the stream of noble and common guests never from the Nanbu han, abused their high position for personal profit and ceased to flow in.I” lived extremely well, often from the bribes they extracted from Edo mer- chants. This restaurant was famous for its pond, where fish were kept alive until With the appearance of high-class restaurants in the last quarter of the they were cooked, and for its elegant rooms, which were often reserved by eighteenth century,45 meetings of ranking samurai, whether ban deputies or daimyd and deputies for private parties. haramoto, began to take place in noted restaurants in Edo and near the The area flourished especially after the 1787 Yoshiwara fire, when cer- Yoshiwara. Behavior at such gatherings was often the subject of critical tain displaced Yoshiwara proprietors were permitted to open temporary comment in contemporary essays. 46 For a samurai imbued with Confucian houses at this location. Ogiya Uemon, with his courtesans temporarily morality and high standards, expending his ban’s public funds on personal housed in the restaurant “Shikian,” in particular prospered. Free of the offi- pleasure and sinking himself into debauchery should have been unthink- cial restrictions and elaborate etiquette that governed the Yoshiwara, able. But such was the norm in the period under Tanuma. employers made more money and employees enjoyed greater personal free- One special locale in Edo noted as a place for entertainment and food dom. Young attendants, used to their strict seclusion in the Yoshiwara, took from 1771 to 1789 was a spot on the Sumida River called Mitsumata, or special pleasure in wandering the riverside streets as ordinary Edo children Three Forks, where Takao II was said to have been killed (Chapter 3). did. In return for some freedom, however, the courtesans might have been There the river forked in three directions, and the area had been favored for forced :o take more customers than they wished and to put up with less than 164 I YOSHIWARA AGEOFTHEDANDY I 165 comfortable room arrangements. The scenes of the booming temporary ketplaces, in front of shrines and temples, and at the post stations on the Yoshiwara at Nakasu are described by one writer: four major routes leading to Edo. 53 The administration permitted inn pro- prietors of these post towns to retain three waitresses each. These women, The Lord of Settsu might arrive at Nakasu on a cloud, or the young son of a humorously referred to as meshimori (rice scoopers), were generally known wealthy merchant might rush over in a palanquin; there might be a store clerk to pay more attention to travelers’ sexual needs than to their appetite for coming by boat. A samurai with only one sword or a priest disguised as a doc- food. No innkeeper adhered to the regulation number of three rice scoop- tor might wander around; there was the sound of melodies being hummed by a s&n [brothel window-shopper] and the clap of teaming sightseers’ clogs- ers, but the bakuftl was lenient in this matter. In Edo itself, as many as 162 all enhanced the excitement of the already-racing heart. There were no monbi. areas of illicit houses of prostitution thrived.s4 Formalities of tips to the rarite and ruakaimono and the special nujimi tips The boom under Tanuma Okitsugu could not last forever in the face of were dismissed; there was no difference among the first, the second, or the general disquiet and the indigence of the populace, as well as the inordinate third visit; and everyone could have a good time without ceremony. The result number of natural calamities that struck Japan during the Tenmei years. was that an unexpected number of visitors came. The courtesans did not have The Confucian memoirists of the period assiduously kept records of natural to pay rebates to the Nakanocho Boulevard establishments and there were no pestering boathouse staff and nodaiko, no need to send messengers to pawn- disasters and interpreted every, flood, earthquake, destructive storm, shops for sudden calls for formal wear. The girls could stay in their soiled strange phenomenon, eclipse, plague, famine, rise in rice prices, or peasant everyday clothes with an informal narrow obi, wearing only one hairpin, uprising as a sign of providential punishment. which they joked was their only weapon; there was no obligation, no con- In 1783, much of the Kanto region suffered from small earthquakes, long straint. Shim6 and kamuro were like birds freed from the cage. They looked rains from spring to summer, and intermittent dark, cloudy days. Then, at out with a spyglass from the second floor, fished for small fish on the evening midnight of the fifth day of the seventh month, there was a thunderous tide of the river, and enjoyed eating unusual food, forgetting their homesick- ness.sl noise in the northwest. When dawn came, the sky was still dark and the gar- dens were covered with ashes. Through the next day and the day after, the The prosperity that resulted from this unprecedented liberality so overjoyed noise continued and showers of ash and strange objects intensified. On the the brothel keepers that they applied for an extension of the permits for tem- ninth, the water of the Edo River turned muddy, and, while people won- porary locations. It is said that when they had to return to the Yoshiwara dered what could be happening, a torrent of huge uprooted trees, broken they actually looked forward to the next fire. pillars and beams of houses, dismembered carcasses of horses came swirling The Nakasu phenomenon did not last long, however. The landfill on down. “The river carried the corpses of men, women, and priests, and which it was built protruded into the river and caused repeated flood dam- bodies without hands and legs, without heads, one holding a child, another age to the farmers upstream. When Tanuma was finally ousted and Matsu- wrapped in a mosquito net, still another with a bit of fabric around the hip, daira Sadanobu, the new counselor of the shogun, began the reform known some hands holding each other, some bodies cut in half.“55 This horrid as the Kansei Reform in the late 178Os, he used the flooding as a pretext and scene was in fact the result of the famous 1783 volcanic eruption of Mount removed the landfill, restored the river to its original form, and Nakasu was Asama, one hundred miles northwest of Edo, in which 123 villages were gone forever in 1790.sz destroyed, 2,311 houses disappeared, and 650 horses and 1,401 people died.56 As a consequence of ashes and debris from the eruption and the abnor- The Tenmei Disasters mally warm winter and cold spring and summer that followed, the ensuing It was not only the Yoshiwara that thrived during the An’ei and Tenmei seven years saw one of the greatest famines in the history of Japan. The eras. The bakufu had long overlooked some illegal prostitution at busy mar- price of rice, which in bumper years was 17 or 18 ryd per koku, fluctuated 166 / YOSHIWARA AGE OF THE DANDY t 167 wildly, often exceeding 200 rya. In the northeast of Japan, where the famine rice brokers in order to help them while curtailing the power of profiteering was particularly severe, more than 500,000 persons died of starvation, and brokers. He negotiated with wholesalers’ guilds to lower prices of the com- in Edo, too, the poor were fortunate if they did not starve to death. Because modity. He finally disbanded the guild of rice brokers and henceforth per- rice was the basis of the price index, when a shortage occurred inflation mitted small rice merchants to participate in the exchanging of samurai’s always followed. To forestall inflation the baktrJu forbade hoarding and rice stipends for cash. He believed that the widespread taste for luxury was stockpiling of rice and permitted free trading of rice to nonmembers of the the cause of inflation and promulgated strict sumptuary laws. Like his rice guild, but the situation did not improve. The populace regarded the grandfather Yoshimune, he set an example by practicing thrift. But the Tanuma father and son as the source of its misfortune, and in 1786, when problems were not so simple, and his control gradually became too strict the younger Tanuma was stabbed by a country samurai named Sano Zen- and hypercritical of trivial matters. zaemon over a private grudge, the masses rejoiced. The price of rice Confucian Sadanobu was stern in moral reform also, but the target was dropped temporarily, and the populace praised Sano as yonaoshi daimy6 not the Yoshiwara or even the large illegal pleasure quarters. Rather, he jin, or “the august reformer god of the world.” Although Tanuma died two sought to eliminate less established illegal operators and prostitutes. In the days later, the glory was short-lived for his killer, who was sentenced to seventh month of 1789, the b&r.& arrested several thousand illegal prosti- death by seppuku. tutes in Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka. In Edo the arrested women were sent to Shortly after the death of his son, the older Tanuma was ousted from the Yoshiwara or banished to agricultural villages in nearby regions. This office (1786), but the remaining Tanuma faction in the baktifti fought was an attempt to solve two problems with one measure: Sadanobu hoped against the appointment of Matsudaira Sadanobu for some time. In the vac- both to cleanse Edo of vice and, by sending the arrested prostitutes to the uum, famine and inflation spread throughout the country. In the fifth countryside, to alleviate the shortage of marriageable women in rural vil- month of 1787, Osaka citizens banded together and broke down the doors lages.‘* Villages had been steadily losing their populations because the peas- of storehouses where rice was being hoarded. Edo followed suit, and ants had poor harvests year after year and could not pay taxes. Sadanobu quickly thirty-two cities had incidents of a riotous populace attacking rice tried to convert the economy from commerce back to agriculture, and he merchants. In various provinces throughout the country, peasants banded extended food and loan aid to peasants and samurai. together and revolted with hoes in hand, demanding food.57 Under Matsudaira Sadanobu, public morals and liberal thinking came The Kansei Reform under most stringent scrutiny, and ultimately what could only be character- ized as a police-state atmosphere prevailed. Sadanobu sent out special police In 1787 Matsudaira Sadanobu (1758-1829) was finally appointed to the squads to suppress any sign of loose morals or heretical ideas, especially in position of chief counselor after a long debate among the shogun’s counsel- publications. Some publishers including Tsuta-Ja, writers like Santa ors. The grandson of the eighth shogun Yoshimune and cousin of the tenth Kyoden, and artists on Yoshiwara subjects were confined to their homes, shogun Ieharu, Sadanobu was an austere and ultraconservative Confucian; where they had to wear handcuffs for a period of several months. Some he revered his able grandfather and sincerely desired to reform the govern- writers changed their theme, others their profession. Koikawa Harumachi, ment and save the people from the aftermath of the Tanuma affliction. samurai and creator of Kinkin sensei and many other delightful kibyashi, When he assumed the position of chief counselor, he appomted like-minded died mysteriously in 1789 when summoned by the bakufu authorities; he daimya to counselors’ posts and went to work on the most pressing prob- was rumored to have committed suicide. Publication of sharebon and lems. He and his colleagues tried to regulate rice prices and bring inflation kibybshi continued after the Kansei Reform, but with a marked reduction in under control. He canceled all the debts of daimyd and hatamoto against specific descriptions of the Yoshiwara. Though some passing references 168 I YOSHIWARA continued to appear, the Yoshiwara was no longer a major subject of litera- ture after the early decades of the nineteenth century, and sharebon and kibyashi as genres also disappeared in time. Under Tanuma, despite or perhaps because of his neglect of law and moral issues, the arts had flourished and a rich culture had developed on the 6 fringe of the Yoshiwara world. Moneylenders, rice merchants, brothel Rise of the Geisha: keepers, usurers, and merchants in general prospered during the An’ei-Ten- mei eras and were free to pursue the arts and all the sophisticated pastimes An Age of Glitter and Tragedy appropriate to a tsti. They indulged in the pleasures of restaurants, the the- ater, and luxury of all kinds. Corrupt officials and upper-class samurai joined them in their pursuit of pleasure, while lower-class samurai supple- mented their income by some form of cottage industry or menial work in construction and labor to make ends meet. However disgusted Edoites might have been with the Tanuma adminis- tration, they were ultimately disgruntled by the extreme austerity and the he Yoshiwara of the last half of the eighteenth century was an irre- police-state atmosphere created by Matsudaira Sadanobu.59 Even those of sistibly exciting place. The sharebon and kibyashi of the period the samurai class who praised him for canceling their debts complained because they were no longer able to borrow money from disillusioned rice Tamply attest to the lure of its night life. Drawing on these sources, brokers. Sadanobu himself knew that his measures would become unpopu- we can easily reconstruct a typical evening in the pleasure quarter. The lar after the initial welcome, and he had repeatedly requested permission to lively boulevard of Nakanocho is gaily illuminated with paper lanterns and teeming with people. Wakaimono of the bordellos hurry to order food and resign. Finally, in 1793, he was granted his wish. But all the colleagues he wine from a caterer, or to get a client from a teahouse, or to see Shirobei, had appointed remained in office, and his policy of moral reform continued until the playboy shogun Ienari (1773-1841) came of age in the late 1790s. keeper of the Great Gate. A kumuro darts out into the street, the shrill voice of a yatite calling after her, scolding her to calm down. Chastened, the kamuro begins to walk demurely, holding her sister courtesan’s letter to a client under the long sleeves folded across her chest. She enters a teahouse on the boulevard to hand over the letter and deliver a message at the top of her voice, like a child actor on a kabuki stage. A caterer’s employee emerges from Ageya Street, carrying stacks of food trays, and enters the ogiya on Edocho 1; perhaps the famous ky&a party of proprietor ogiya Uemon is in progress. His friend in kyaka, Kabocha no Motonari, proprietor of the Daimonjiya, is certain to be attending with a few other literati of Edo.’ A yobidashi courtesan and her retinue appear from Kyomachi 2, parading to a teahouse by the Great Gate to meet her patron. Accustomed to the privilege of meeting her clients by appointment rather than being selected indecorously by a chance customer in the latticed