Tamanoi Alley: Shadows of the Post-Disaster City

Tamanoi Alley: Shadows of the Post-Disaster City

The Great Kanto Earthquake (1923) drastically transformed Tokyo's entertainment districts. In particular, the brothels in Asakusa and Senzoku-cho were devastated by fire and disappeared without being rebuilt. Tamanoi appeared to fill the void in Senzoku-cho. Tama-no-i was not a publicly licensed brothel, but a so-called private brothel, which proliferated in the urban reorganization that followed the earthquake.

The streets were dark and humid, with little electricity and only a few bare light bulbs illuminating the alleyways. The labyrinth of narrow streets confounded outsiders and created a closed-off space. The women showed their faces through the glass of their small rooms and called out to men passing by. While on the surface these women appeared to be free, in reality they were bound to their alleys and forced to live in the shadows of the city.

In the social context of the time, there was a contradiction regarding the public prostitution system. While the officially licensed Yoshiwara existed as "controlled brothels," unauthorized private brothels such as Tamanoi continued to flourish in the corners of the city. Although the police often conducted busts, the demand for such establishments never ceased. In fact, the housing shortage and poverty that followed the earthquake pushed women into this area.

Even in the Showa period (1926-1989), Tamano-i often appeared in literature and movies. The alleyways depicted in the writings of Kafu Nagai, Masuji Ibushi, and others symbolized the obscenity and melancholy of the backside of a modern city as opposed to the front side. The existence of the damp alleys of Tamanoi in the shadow of the glamorous Asakusa entertainment district reflects the contradictions of poverty and desire that Tokyo faced from the end of the Taisho era to the early Showa era.