The End of the Dream of Showing: Yoshiwara's Goyo-Culture of Gambling, Eradicated by Tayu and Ageya during the Genroku and Horeki Periods

The End of the Dream of Showing: Yoshiwara's Goyo-Culture of Gambling, Eradicated by Tayu and Ageya during the Genroku and Horeki Periods

Before the Horeki era, Yoshiwara was a social space for a limited class of people, centering on the extravagant entertainment of the tayu, the highest-ranking prostitute, at the ageya. The tayu's journey and the banquet at the stage of the house were a stage to show off the wealth and authority of the guests, and were a special cultural experience enjoyed only by the feudal lords and wealthy merchants. However, once the prosperity of the Genroku period ended, the deterioration of the shogunate's finances, the decree of thrift, and the turmoil caused by disasters and monetary reforms all combined to make lavish consumption socially and politically unacceptable. The tayu and ageya styles, which required enormous expense, could not be maintained, and the system gradually declined. As a result, Yoshiwara shifted to a form of direct play in the koiro (brothels), and oiran (courtesans) and lower-middle-class prostitutes became the mainstream. Play was transformed from a ritualistic
, grand affair to a realistic pastime in which time and money were managed. This change was not a decline, but an adaptation to attract townspeople and middle-class samurai, a shift that Yoshiwara chose to make in order to survive. The disappearance of the tayu symbolizes the end of the era of show-off dreams and the transition to an era of reality in which the balance of accounts continues to be maintained.