Such an informative & important post Hiroko - I appreciate all your wonderful research and insights. It's so horrible reading how women were so abused and exploited in Japan history (like most worldwide) but more important to remember than to erase their stories all together as too many museums do in Japan. The 5-story pagoda on Miyajima island I heard was almost entirely finder by women I've heard and since it had the ashes of Buddha inside it must have shown these women had influence as well as money. I'd love to know more about them if you happen to come across any more details, thanks.
I loved your insights on how they held their kimono - I hadn't heard that before
Thank you so much for these insights on the Floating World. What a horrible fate these girls and women had, and there's this whole elaborate fiction of off-limit geisha, fantastic kimono, perfect make-up and hair that was based on their very real suffering. So sad that, all over the world, women's fate and suffering seems to count very little, everybody seems to be much more interested in the fiction and the fantasy...
that question seems to be as old as ancient times. so i don't know what's the mass compliant on that in the modern West. rarely in human history women did not involve themselves in prostitution by doing a man's job which was for life or death situations. like the women of Sparta. so i guess peace-time has its pros and cons
Thank you for your thoughtful article. I wish I could have seen the exhibit.
Every time I go to Tokyo I go to that “throw away” temple and leave something at the place where many of the urns for those girls are kept. I’m not the only one. People leave sake, hair clips, and the like.
If I remember correctly, a memorial area for the writer Nagai Kafu is just across from that small mausoleum. On some days you will find a man on a bench playing shakuhachi for the young women.
The former Yoshiwara district is walking distance from the Higuchi Ichiyō museum. Please please read her short story “Takekurabe” (or “Child’s Play” in some translations) to get closer to these women.
It took me a few trips over decades, but I eventually found the location of the Yoshiwara as well as the “throw-away temple” (still functioning, as you mention). The Yoshiwara street layout is the clue if you compare original and contemporary maps.
The area now (again?) features a lot of hostess clubs and soaplands. There are markers for the original main streets. There are no tourists. There are expensive, chauffeur-driven cars that cruise through.
One of the original Yoshiwara brothels (Kadoebi) is still operating, but there’s nothing glamorous at all. It’s a bit of an eye-opener, like your article.
Thank you for this post, especially since I missed the exhibition itself! I'm curious about visiting that temple now. Looking at beautiful ukiyo-e, it's so easy to romanticize the Yoshiwara & everything that happened there, even though I know most women died from various illnesses, poisoning from their own make-up, or took their lives etc.
Will save this as a reminder to refer back to if/when I set out to write about the Yoshiwara myself.
that tends to be the case during peace-time while there is nothing to hide during wartime. in the case of Japan considering that Yoshiwara was established during Japan's 200+ year peace-time
ukiyo-e, the floating world is perhaps what someone new in Tokyo like me knew just as an intuition. I don’t mean anything about the pleasure quarter but just the distance between us.
A question as simple as what’s a geisha is unresolved for me…
From the illustrations, in my view sometimes seem belonging actually to a “floating world”, say dreamlike or pleasing, and some others as you explain belonging to the world or real things.
As I start the comment, ukuyo-e, the floating world is also a fantastic way you perhaps have to describe the imaginary, …
Such an informative & important post Hiroko - I appreciate all your wonderful research and insights. It's so horrible reading how women were so abused and exploited in Japan history (like most worldwide) but more important to remember than to erase their stories all together as too many museums do in Japan. The 5-story pagoda on Miyajima island I heard was almost entirely finder by women I've heard and since it had the ashes of Buddha inside it must have shown these women had influence as well as money. I'd love to know more about them if you happen to come across any more details, thanks.
I loved your insights on how they held their kimono - I hadn't heard that before
Thank you! I'd like to keep writing about it whenever I can. People tend to focus on the beauty but I am more interested in the reality of it.
as if that's anything unique. look at Dynastic China in the Forbidden City Palace, somewhat like a harem
Thank you so much for these insights on the Floating World. What a horrible fate these girls and women had, and there's this whole elaborate fiction of off-limit geisha, fantastic kimono, perfect make-up and hair that was based on their very real suffering. So sad that, all over the world, women's fate and suffering seems to count very little, everybody seems to be much more interested in the fiction and the fantasy...
that question seems to be as old as ancient times. so i don't know what's the mass compliant on that in the modern West. rarely in human history women did not involve themselves in prostitution by doing a man's job which was for life or death situations. like the women of Sparta. so i guess peace-time has its pros and cons
Thank you for your thoughtful article. I wish I could have seen the exhibit.
Every time I go to Tokyo I go to that “throw away” temple and leave something at the place where many of the urns for those girls are kept. I’m not the only one. People leave sake, hair clips, and the like.
If I remember correctly, a memorial area for the writer Nagai Kafu is just across from that small mausoleum. On some days you will find a man on a bench playing shakuhachi for the young women.
The former Yoshiwara district is walking distance from the Higuchi Ichiyō museum. Please please read her short story “Takekurabe” (or “Child’s Play” in some translations) to get closer to these women.
It took me a few trips over decades, but I eventually found the location of the Yoshiwara as well as the “throw-away temple” (still functioning, as you mention). The Yoshiwara street layout is the clue if you compare original and contemporary maps.
The area now (again?) features a lot of hostess clubs and soaplands. There are markers for the original main streets. There are no tourists. There are expensive, chauffeur-driven cars that cruise through.
One of the original Yoshiwara brothels (Kadoebi) is still operating, but there’s nothing glamorous at all. It’s a bit of an eye-opener, like your article.
Thank you for this post, especially since I missed the exhibition itself! I'm curious about visiting that temple now. Looking at beautiful ukiyo-e, it's so easy to romanticize the Yoshiwara & everything that happened there, even though I know most women died from various illnesses, poisoning from their own make-up, or took their lives etc.
Will save this as a reminder to refer back to if/when I set out to write about the Yoshiwara myself.
Technology may have changed/advanced, but as you say, the way in which we all choose to represent the world (and how we choose to live in it) hasn't.
that tends to be the case during peace-time while there is nothing to hide during wartime. in the case of Japan considering that Yoshiwara was established during Japan's 200+ year peace-time
ukiyo-e, the floating world is perhaps what someone new in Tokyo like me knew just as an intuition. I don’t mean anything about the pleasure quarter but just the distance between us.
A question as simple as what’s a geisha is unresolved for me…
From the illustrations, in my view sometimes seem belonging actually to a “floating world”, say dreamlike or pleasing, and some others as you explain belonging to the world or real things.
As I start the comment, ukuyo-e, the floating world is also a fantastic way you perhaps have to describe the imaginary, …
i have another question, did geisha did occasionally work as prostitutes or is that more reserved for the Oiran?
i see.
excuse me, i have a question, may i ask to what Taikomochi is? i have heard that men originally did the geisha business before japanese women did.
The exhibition talked about them, too. They were male entertainers who sang and danced for customers.
How big is the Tokyo Dome?
It's a baseball stadium. Their website says 46,755m².
So twice that is a pretty good size. Probably a good 6 or 7 blocks of places.