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 not the place for casual entertainment that we imagine it to be today, but a social space with ritualistic and political overtones that only a very limited class of people could enter. At the center of this social space was the tayu, the highest-ranking prostitute. The tayu was not a permanent resident of the brothel, but was only established when a customer invited her to the house, and her one-night stand was more of a stage for displaying her wealth and authority than a sex play.

The tayu's journey was in itself a magnificent spectacle. The sight of the tayu parading through the streets with their shinzoku and bald men, dressed in sumptuous costumes and taking their time, was a device to visualize the economic power and social status of their guests. The banquet at the upaya involved a combination of drinks and snacks, entertainment, furnishings, and gifts, and the cost ballooned enormously. The reason for the establishment of this game was that the feudal lords and wealthy merchants were able to compete against each other with ample funds during the economic upsurge of the Genroku period (1688-1704).

However, the prosperity of the Genroku period did not last long. The tightening of the shogunate's finances, a series of thrift orders, natural disasters, and the confusion caused by the recasting of the currency caused society as a whole to tighten its belts in the 18th century. Daimyō (feudal lords) were in debt, and wealthy merchants found it difficult to boast publicly about their lavish consumption. Under these circumstances, the extravagant entertainment of inviting a tayu to a yaya became not only costly, but also politically conspicuous.

As a result, the "upaya" system rapidly declined. The existence of the tayu required a great deal of money just to maintain, and as the clientele shrank, the system became impractical. Instead, the mainstay of Yoshiwara was the direct play in the koiro (brothel), where oiran (courtesans) and middle-class or lower-class prostitutes became the mainstream. Play was transformed from a ritual to a practical activity, from a showy extravaganza to a time- and money-controlled pastime.

This change was not a mere decline. Yoshiwara chose to survive by attracting townspeople and middle-class warriors instead of losing its culture of fun and games. The unit price of entertainment declined, and the emphasis shifted to length of stay and turnover, bringing to the fore the roles of backstage operators such as Hikitechaya and Mawashikata. If the era of the tayu was a grand stage for a single night, Yoshiwara from the Horeki era onward was transformed into an urban entertainment that continued to rotate on a daily basis.

The disappearance of the tayu and the fryhouse is often spoken of as the moment when the dream was lost. However, it reflects a shift in values experienced by Edo society as a whole. From opulence for the sake of ostentation, to the reality of keeping the books in order. At the boundary between the two, the era of Tayu quietly drew to a close.