Visit to the Bukan-sama and the sorrows of the water business--December, 1971 (Showa 46)

Visit to the Bukan-sama and the sorrows of the water business--December, 1971 (Showa 46)

In Asakusa, Tokyo, in 1971, the melancholy of a city in postwar turmoil and downtown humanity remained, and the mizu-shobai clung to their simple beliefs. The "Kakan Inari" located behind Senso-ji Temple is a deity revered by the Yoshiwara, geisha, and actors, and the name of the brothel and chivalrous actor Shinmon Tatsugoro is inscribed on the stone wall and torii gate. The torii gate that Tatsugoro dedicated to the shrine as thanks for curing his wife's fox possession symbolizes the depth of faith in this shrine. Although I am an atheist, I was drawn to the shrine by the sight of its prayers. There is no future in the water business, and the future is always dark. We have no choice but to rely on God. Asakusa at night, the man under the lantern, the street whore on the stone steps, and my own youth overlapped, and I felt the accumulation of time in the city. Even as the city was enveloped by the waves of rapid economic growth, the lives of these people on the periphery rem
ained unchanged, concentrated in small shrines. The "Shukan-sama mairi" was neither an escape nor an ideal, but rather an act of connecting with the spirit of life.