A Night of Sparks in the Souka: The Competition of Vanity and Vanity that Colored Yoshiwara (Late Edo Period)

A Night of Sparks in the Souka: The Competition of Vanity and Vanity that Colored Yoshiwara (Late Edo Period)
The "sohana" in Yoshiwara was the total amount of money paid by customers to prostitutes for flowers and banquets. If the amount of sohana was large enough, the name of the customer would be posted on the ledger board, making his or her presence in the brothel visible. This is very similar to the ranking of host clubs today, where the amount of money itself functioned as a social signifier of the value and influence of the customer.
Yoshiwara attracted a diverse class of people, including warriors, wealthy merchants, big store owners, and entertainers, all of whom wished to be ranked higher in the Yoshiwara hierarchy, regardless of their original status. The high price of sohana was a means of improving the treatment of prostitutes and obtaining respectful treatment from the stores, and at the same time, it was a way of showing off to other customers. The sobana competition was also a stage on which customers could display their Edo masculinity in terms of chic, worthiness, and discretion.
The nameplates posted in the bookkeeping were a kind of honor board, and as one rose in the rankings, a sense of superiority developed, and other customers spent more money out of a sense of rivalry. The brothels also skillfully encouraged the spirit of competition and made profits by stimulating competition. Historical documents such as Yoshiwara Hosomi and Morisada Manuscripts record examples of sohana competition and customers who engaged in excessive pretentiousness. Ukiyoe prints depict townspeople acting like feudal lords, and customers who paid large sums of money to play the role of fictional characters, indicating that sobana was a form of status play bought with money.
Sobana transformed Yoshiwara into a theater where money and vanity intersected, rather than a mere place of amusement. The opulence, competitiveness, and human vanity of Edo's urban culture were vividly reflected there.