Shadows in the Genealogy of the Brothels: From Yoshiwara to Susaki and the Red Line (Tensho to the Late Showa Period)

Shadows in the Genealogy of the Brothels: From Yoshiwara to Susaki and the Red Line (Tensho to the Late Showa Period)

The beginning of brothels dates back to the Tensho period, when the embers of the Warring States period were still smoldering. It is said that the Odawara samurai family gathered the kamishiya (brothels) in Edo and allowed them to operate under their control. Eventually, the Edo Shogunate established brothels in the city to maintain order. In the Kan'ei era, Yoshiwara received a government license and later moved to Shin-Yoshiwara, where it became a symbol of the flamboyance of the townspeople's culture in response to Ukiyo-e and Kabuki.

However, despite the splendor of the Yoshiwara, it was a system that thoroughly restricted the lives of prostitutes. The contradictions of human bondage, overshadowed by illness and old age, came under criticism in the modern era and sparked a movement to abolish prostitution. In the Taisho era, Yoshiwara and Suzaki, where the author learned to play, still represented Tokyo's entertainment scene. Suzaki brothels flourished along the waterfront in Koto, boasting a scale comparable to that of Yoshiwara, and the riverside scenery and the bustle of the common people lived together in harmony. The Great Kanto Earthquake, however, shook both districts, and although Yoshiwara was rebuilt after being destroyed by fire, it never regained the strength of yesteryear.

In the postwar period, the brothels were legally dismantled in anticipation of the Anti-Prostitution Law, and a new special restaurant district known as the "red line" took shape. The areas around Yoshiwara and Suzaki were also designated as red-lined, and prostitution continued under the guise of restaurants, but this eventually came to an end with the tightening of surveillance. Thus, the lineage that began in Odawara in the Tensho period, continued through the publicly licensed Yoshiwara, the popular Suzaki, and the postwar red-light district, always reflecting the contradictions of society and urban desires.

The memory of experiencing Yoshiwara in the Taisho era is a fragment of a larger story that continues from the early modern era to the modern era and the postwar period, conveying the interplay of light and shadow to the present.