A Night to Draw Money with Words: Bargaining between prostitutes and customers in Shin-Yoshihara after the Horeki Era

A Night to Draw Money with Words: Bargaining between prostitutes and customers in Shin-Yoshihara after the Horeki Era

In Shin-Yoshihara from the Horeki period onward, words exchanged between prostitutes and customers were not used to express love, but rather as a tool to maintain their livelihood. The system of tayu and yaya had already disappeared by this time, and Yoshiwara had become a place where merchants, artisans, and middle-class warriors went to, rather than a place where feudal lords and wealthy merchants enjoyed their debauchery. They had a certain amount of money, but it was not inexhaustible. That is why the words of prostitutes had to be carefully chosen to stimulate both the wallets and the self-esteem of their customers at the same time.

The prostitutes are not there as emotional subjects. They are the ones who look far ahead to the day when their years will come to an end, carrying the burden of repaying the money they have borrowed in advance and paying for their kimonos, cosmetics, and hair ornaments at their own expense. Without congratulations, extensions, or gifts, their debts will not decrease, and the hours they have worked will simply disappear. Therefore, their conversations were consistently rooted in economics. How can we get another step out of these guests? That was the one point on which they focused their verbal ingenuity.

A congratulatory gift is not a publicly set fee. Therefore, it is not possible to make explicit demands, but if one is vague, nothing will be gained. What emerged from this tension was a phraseology that included far-fetched comparisons and silence. Hinting at the names of other customers, they hint at the presence of someone who paid without saying anything. Or he would stop and let the guests imagine what he was saying. These expressions, which frequently appear in SANDO Kyoden's books of puns, were the very essence of the sophisticated conversational culture fostered in the city of Edo.

Words that encouraged extension were also not to be direct. The lower class of prostitutes had shorter hours and were priced in units of ten minutes. Extending the time would immediately lead to an increase in income, but explicitly asking for an extension would offend the customer. The girls would then talk about how short the night was and how much they had to talk about. By sharing the feeling that the night was not over and that it was not enough, they created a structure that allowed the customers themselves to choose to extend the night. The key to payment was to make the customer feel that he or she was the one who made the choice.

The phrasing of keeping customers in the room while talking about their physical condition is not a contradiction but a necessity. Even if they were really sick, prostitutes could not easily take a day off. However, the sight of them pushing themselves to the limit stimulates the customers' sense of superiority and desire for protection. The phrase, "I'm a little sick today, but if it's you," contained a calculation to elicit sympathy and special treatment at the same time. It was a ruthless strategy, but for the prostitutes of the time, it was a rational choice for survival.

The reason why the fashionable book relentlessly depicted these conversations was to simulate a passerby's gaze for readers who were unfamiliar with Yoshiwara. The book did not write about money up front, but let the reader perceive it only by the twists of words. By this method, Yoshiwara appears to the reader not as a mere prostitution district, but as a sophisticated world of language. As a result, we are left with a vivid verbal record that is more about life and economics than about love and affection.

The conversation between prostitutes and customers in Shin-Yoshihara after the Horeki era is not a sweet exchange. It was a real negotiation between debt, time, and self-esteem. It is this specificity that makes this chapter unforgettable for the modern reader.