160 | Amitava Chowdhury 19. Waldemar Westergaard, The Danish West Indies under Company Rule (1671-1754): With a Supplementary Chapter, 1755-1917 (New York: Macmillan, 1917); Richard Haagensen, Beskrivelse over Eylandet St. Croix i America i Vestindien [Description of the Island of St. Croix CHAPTER 8 in America in the West Indies] (Kobenhavn, 1758); Hall, "Maritime Maroons", pp. 484, 486; Lomarsh Roopnarine, "Maroon Resistance and Setdement on Danish St. Croix", Journal of Third World Studies 27, 2 The Yujo Release (2010): 101. 20. Hall, "Maritime Maroons", p. 482; Roopnarine, "Maroon Resistance", Act as Emancipation p. 104. 21. Ibid. of Slaves in Mid- 22. Hall, "Maritime Maroons", p. 485. 23. Ibid., p. 486. 19th-Century Japan 24. See Jes Bjarup, "The Concept of a Person according to Anders Sandoe 0rsted", Quaderni Fiorentini 11/12 (1982): 461-74. See also Knud Waaben, "A.S. 0rsted og negerslaverne i Kobenhavn" [A.S. 0rsted Yuriko Yokoyama and Negro Slaves in Copenhagen], Juristen 46 (1964): 321-43. For the famous Somerset case, see William R. Cotter, "The Somerset Case and the Abolition of Slavery in England", History 79, 255 (1994): 31-56; Daniel J. Hulsebosch, "Nothing but Liberty: Somerset's Case and the British Empire", Law & History Review 24 (2006): 647. Introduction 25. Bjarup, "Concept of a Person", p. 461; on free soil, see further Sue Pea- body, "The French Free Soil Principle in the Atlantic World", Africana Kashiku insists that she does not want to remain as a yujo (prosti- Studio 14, 1 (2010): 17-27; Ada Ferrer, "Haiti, Free Soil, and Antislavery tute) any longer no matter what happens to her. Please, with the in the Revolutionary Adantic", The American Historical Review 117, 1 mercy of the Tokyo municipal government, grant her the status of (2012): 40-66. normal citizen,1 26. See Bjarup, "Concept of a Person", p. 462. 27. Ibid., p. 470. n 2 November 1872 Kashiku, a lowly yujo in the Shin-yoshiwara 28. Ibid., p. 472. Oyiikaku (licensed red-light district) of Edo and Takejiro, a 29. TNA CO 318/141, 16 July 1839. Peter Carl Frederik von Scholten's servant, petitioned the municipal government of Tokyo, asking for proclamation (7 May 1838). the release of Kashiku from her status as a yujo, explaining that they 30. Ibid. were engaged to be married. Quoted above is an excerpt from the 31. See again TNA CO 239/68, Governor of Antigua to Lord Stanley, 22 petition, and although we do not know who wrote it, the clumsy Sept. 1842 for further evidence on Danish ameliorative measures. handwriting and awkward sentences reveal their background. At the 32. Hall and Higman, eds., Slave Society, p. 135. bottom of the document, the nail prints of both petitioners are sub- 33. TNA CO 318/143, Lord Glenelg's circular to the governors in the stituted for proper seals. Nail prints were used by women and lower- British Caribbean, Jan. 1839. 34. Ibid.; TNA CO 318/144, 16 July 1839, Normandy to Colebrooke. class males not authorized to use seals. In Japan, the Meiji Restoration 35. Ibid.; TNA CO 101/88, 14 May 1839, MacGregor to Normandy. had restored imperial rule in 1868 at the time of the demise of the 36. TNA CO 239/66, Lord Leveron to James Stephen, 29 Jan. 1841. bakufu—the Tokugawa shogunate—and the commencement of Meiji 37. Ibid. government. The new government promoted various modernization 38. Ibid. measures, including a transformation of the policy regarding prosti- 39. TNA CO 239/68. Spring Rice to Stanley, 14 Nov. 1842. tution following the enactment of Yujo Kaihd Rei {Yujo Release Act) 162 | Yuriko Yokoyama The Yujo Release Act as Emancipation of Slaves | 163 in October 1872. Yujo detained in the brothels welcomed the Act, y- thinking it a blessing, and Kashiku's letter shows the effect the Release + • S, Act typically had on them. A desperate Kashiku tried twice to obtain release, but her dream never came true. What were her motives? One should not regard the status of yujo as something equiva- lent to slavery merely because such individuals were kept in poor conditions, and indeed in the field of early modern Japanese history only a few studies recognize yujo as a form of slavery. Therefore, this • r article opts not to define slavery and look for evidence to support the & idea that that was what yujo was; instead it will clarify specifically what led people in the 19th century to believe it was and to strive for "emancipation". Consideration of the particular features of the various regions and states, peoples' ages and genders will make for a • more fruitful discussion, but of course if a person was kept in servi- ' iI rt. tude for an extended period of time based on a social system in a Mini RSBSET! traditional society, and if that person could be sold as a commodity, W B " a:« it would be reasonable to regard anyone caught up in such a position ~r~r - as being effectively a slave. However, this article explores the society i that gave birth to such status and the reality of each social system Figure 8.1 Photograph of the Brothel in Shin-yoshiwara in the Meiji Period. (Photo Database of Nagasaki University) supporting it, and then examines how the logic of emancipation developed.2 In doing so, we will focus on the following three aspects. First, we consider the self-determined actions of yujo, such as particularly in the form of the movement against the Contagious Di- Kashiku's response to the Release Act. Considering who they were, seases Acts led by Josephine Butler in the latter half of the 19th cen- their reactions to the Act are very important. For a comparative his- tury, and the widespread international criticism of the coolie trade. torical study of the emancipation of slaves all over the world,3 it is well worth paying close attention to who individual yujo were. Was a Yujo a "Slave"? Second, we will explain the origins of the Release Act and its historical meaning in Japan in the light of the status system on which Brothel Structure: Ranks in Brothels and the Yujo Japanese society was still based in the Edo period. Both the dissolu- This section examines the reality of yujo who were actually forced tion of the status system and the emancipation of slaves—which were into sexual activity under indefinite obligations of slavery that re- closely related to each other—occurred in various countries about sulted from what was, practically, human trafficking. To begin with, the time of the 19th century. In Japan, too, the Yujo Release Act was we present an overview of what a typical Edo brothel looked like (see enacted in the context of the abolition of the status system. Therefore, also Figure 8.1). this article takes the status system into consideration in exploring Figure 8.25 is a map of Shin-yoshiwara during the Tenpo era why this Act was passed. (1830-44), when it featured six chou (communities) consisting of the Third, we will stress the fact that in the 19th century the emanci- Shin-yoshiwara area (Edo chou 1-choume, 2-choume, Sumi chou, pation took place as much under the influence of a global movement Ageya chou, Kyomachi 1-choume and 2-choume). It shows the struc- as in local contexts, or nationwide.4 In Japan, especially, the emanci- tures inside them—privately owned houses, leased land or shops, pation of yujo would never have occurred had it not been for the also held under lease agreements. Edo chou 1-choume shown on impetus provided by the emerging concept of human rights, more the upper side of the map was populated with large-scale, high-class 164 | Yuriko Yokoyama The Yujo Release Act as Emancipation of Slaves | 165 Omagaki Table 8.1 Yujo Ranks ll*U,«*C Omm ft am* •A. v •« »m* e-e ** *n ES3fft naa*6>J> B » Year Rank Charges* Number ProP°rtion 4 HHnillffillHl I I 6 of yujo (%) s 1847 (High) Yobidashi Kin3Bu-lRyo 87 1.796 [JJ Not Shinzo-tsuki (yujo with r—m ^ i Harimise an attendant yujo) i (Middle) Yujo with her own room Kin 2 Shu-Kan 2 Bu 3670 71.8% i Harimise 1 DLTJ i i- i n (Low) Kogoushi, tsubone - 1354 26.5% CD Kogoushi (yujo with her own bed) m m li i . H Tsubone B ! Total 5111 100% tt 1871 Not Yobidashi Gin 72-84 Monme 0 0% I Harimise (Middle) Shinzo-tsuki (yujo with Gin 24-48 Monme 221 13.4% Harimise an attendant yujo) s Tsubone (Nagaya) Yujo with her own room 794 48.2% isi *«t«* (II«) i-wmsn, (u» r«fwsai*»*«i*J:j nu»o'jnj. *»/«««) (Low) Kogoushi, tsubone Gin 15 Monme 633 38.4% Figure 8.2 Shin-yoshiwara. (Nobuyuki Yoshida, Mibunteki Shuen to Kogoushi (yujo with her own bed) Shakaibunka Kozo [Class Marginality and Sociocultural Structure]. Kyoto: Tsubone Burakumondai Kenkyusho, 2003, p. 414) Total 1648 100.00% brothels called omagaki (large) brothels, whereas smaller kogoushi Notes: "Currencies Kin (gold): One ryo equals four bu equals sixteen shu brothels were clustered on the leased lands of Edo chou 2-choume, Gin (silver): One ryo in gold equals about sixty monme Sumi chou and Kyomachi 1-choume. Finally, Kyomachi 2-choume Sources: Morisada Kitagawa, Kinsei Huzoku Shi (Morisada Manko), vol. 3, ed. Hideki Usami at the bottom right of the map was occupied mainly by the lowest- [Iwanami Bunko] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1999); "Tokyo Shishiko Shigai Hen", status tsubone (small) brothels, some of which were known as nagaya vol.