A Woman a Kyoka Poet Met in Yoshiwara: Mihozaki and Ōta Nanpo, 1785–1786

Ōta Nanpo, a leading kyoka poet of the late Edo period who went by the pen names Shihō Akara and and Shokuzan-nin, is said to have visited the Matsubaya brothel in Yoshiwara in November of Tenmei 5 (1785) and to have ransomed Mihozaki, a courtesan at that establishment, on July 15 of the following year, Tenmei 6 (1786). Records also indicate that Mihozaki changed her name to Oshizuka after being ransomed. Nanpo frequently visited Mihozaki and documented his experiences in kyōka poems and prose. Online sources related to Ōta Nanboku also indicate that Mihozaki was a new recruit at Matsubaya, approximately 22 years old at the time; they include the kyōka he composed upon his first visit to Matsubaya and a Chinese poem indicating her redemption. Furthermore, *Shōrō Shigo* (Private Conversations at the Pine Tower), based on what Nanpo heard from Mihozaki, is used as a source for understanding the internal customs of Yoshiwara at the time, such as courtesans’ “tsutsushide” (leaving the house) and “mizuage” (earnings). For Nanpo, Yoshiwara was not merely a place of entertainment. It was a cultural space where kyoka poets, publishers, and courtesans mingled, and his relationship with Mihozaki found its way into his works and records. Viewed through the lens of a single woman named Mihozaki, the lives of the women who actually lived there and the figures of Edo-period cultural figures who observed and recorded them emerge from behind the glamorous culture of Yoshiwara.