Yugiri - Love and the Phantom of Hanamachi (Early Edo Period)

Yugiri - Love and the Phantom of Hanamachi (Early Edo Period)

Yugiri Tayu was a famous courtesan in Shimabara, Kyoto and Shinmachi, Osaka in the early Edo period. He is said to have died in 1678 at the age of about 27, and is said to have been born in Saga, Yamashiro Province. She belonged to Ogiya in Shimabara, Kyoto, and later moved to Osaka when the store was relocated. Her grave is at Jokokuji Temple in Osaka, where memorial services are still held as "Yugiri Memorial Service. Even after more than 300 years, her name continues to be passed down as a symbol of Hanamachi culture.

In the early Edo period, as the shogunate stabilized, the culture of the townspeople blossomed, and the brothels developed as a crossroads of art and knowledge. A tayu is a woman who is not only beautiful but also skilled in waka poetry, tea ceremony, koto, etc. Yugiri is one of the most outstanding women in this category. Yugiri was one of the "Three Famous Geisha of Kanei era" along with Takao Tayu of Yoshiwara and Yoshino Tayu of Kyoto, who were outstandingly cultured and beautiful. Her popularity was so great that wealthy merchants and literati lined up at the tatami room, and there was no end to the number of people who imitated her mannerisms and language.

Her tragic love affair with Izaemon Fujiya is indispensable to her story. They met at Yoshidaya, a fry-up shop in Shinmachi, Osaka, and fell deeply in love, but Izaemon was disowned for debauchery and fell into poverty. When Yugiri fell ill, he pushed himself out of poverty to see her and they were reunited in tears, but she soon died. It is said that Izaemon followed her. This story was adapted into Chikamatsu Monzaemon's "Yugiri Awanaruwatari" and the Kabuki play "Kurobunshin Yoshidaya," and has been handed down to posterity as an image of a woman martyred in love.

Even today, Yugiri's name, along with her glamorous costumes, is passed down to the next generation in Shinmachi and Kyoto, where Tayu-doju is re-enacted. Yugiri still lives in Japanese culture as a woman who lived a life of love and art, like a phantom of the Hanamachi district.