Haruyoni-no-Sakuro - Yoshiwara's Geisha Hierarchy and the Time of the Harumise (Edo Period)

Haruyoni-no-Sakuro - Yoshiwara's Geisha Hierarchy and the Time of the Harumise (Edo Period)

Yoshiwara's brothels developed as the center of urban entertainment officially recognized by the Edo shogunate, and the geisha quarters were stratified into the Omise, Naka-mise, and Komise according to size and prestige. The Omise had high-class prostitutes and attracted the wealthy with its luxurious interior and generous entertainment, while the komise functioned as a place of amusement for the common people. In the komise, located on the ground floor of the kojo (brothel), prostitutes stood behind latticework and impressed customers with their costumes and gestures. Being selected was an important opportunity for a prostitute to influence her future, and at the same time, it was a place of intense competition. The living spaces inside the harumise and the koiro were not merely places for spectacle and prostitution, but also functioned as social spaces for deepening relationships through conversation, eating, and drinking. With the maturation of urban society and the rise
of the merchant class in the late Edo period, the culture of oiran (courtesans) became increasingly symbolic and, together with the oiran doju (courtesan procession), strongly impressed the appeal of Yoshiwara. However, behind the splendor of Yoshiwara, there was a complicated structure of exploitation and hard labor for the prostitutes. The hierarchical structure of the brothels and the role of the harumise are a microcosm of Edo society, where economy, culture, and class intersected, showing that Yoshiwara was both a cultural stage and a site of labor.