One summer day, as part of the Kanazawa Machi-Haku (Town Expo) project, the Amane Project organized a walking tour of the Higashiyama area, to the north of the city by the Asano River. I joined in, and after a lengthy lecture at the old Terashima samurai house, we headed up to the Higashiyama area to check out some of the sites that the Umeda Diaries mention. The Umeda Diaries were written by a man named Notoya Jinsaburo, who later took the surname Umeda, at the close of the Edo period, and a valuable and verbose resource for understanding normal civilian life at the twilight of the Shogunate. Later entries will deal with the diary in more detail, however. At the moment I would like to talk a bit about the Eastern Geisha District in Higashiyama that we strolled around.
This is currently one of Kanazawa’s preeminent tourist traps – I mean spots – and has, over the time I have been living in this city, been prettified up very nicely into a somewhat Disney version of itself. Nevertheless, despite the faux “Taisho-Romance” look to it, the Eastern Geisha District is still a very interesting place to wander around.
But, as always, it helps a lot to know just what you are looking at. While a complete history of the area would take a small book (or even a large one, depending on how many illustrations there were), we can still get a decent idea in a few paragraphs.
Yuna and the Bath Girls
Back in the early 17th century, pleasure girls (or “yuna” in Japanese, written with the characters for “play” and “woman” – they didn’t beat around the bush then; another way to write it was “bath [hot water] woman” which was not much of a euphemism either) were recorded as plying their trade along the banks of the river, but it wasn’t until 1820, two hundred years later, that the daimyo administration finally got around to bowing to the irrepressible (and in the interests of boosting the local economy) by setting up a special area to contain and control the more sensual pleasures. Edo had set aside the Yoshiwara back in 1617, with five rules that were strictly enforced: 1, no overnight guests; 2, no selling of people; 3, to cooperate with arresting criminals; 4, no plying their trade outside the area; and 5, no excessive ornamentation of teahouse or clothing.
As the Japanese word for pleasure quarter, yukaku (written with the characters for “play” and “compound”), suggests, these areas were in fact physically set off from the rest of the city. They were walled in, with gates, for control, both to keep people in and to keep people out. The black-lacquered gate can be seen in the following image.
Higashi Shinchi Ezu
Click on any image to see a larger version.
The regulations for setting up the pleasure districts were as follows:
“At this time, in the Sai River Ishizaka area, and the Utatsu Teahouse area, teahouses are being built, with girls placed within them, and both areas shall be enclosed with walls, with wooden gates in two or three locations, and inside those gates, patrol officials and town officials, as well as those that wear the sword, shall not be permitted any entry whatsoever, and this shall be relayed to the gate sentry.
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Issued this 6th day of the 9th month of the 3rd Bunsei year (1820)”
There were always two to three sentries at the gate, not to mention a cell for holding those that broke the regulations.
The Eastern Geisha District was some 3500 tsubo (11,570 sq km) in size, and when it was developed, the layout was made totally different to the existing streets, as can be seen on the following two maps:
Kaga Koku Kanazawa no Ezu , circa 1668
Kanazawa Sou-ezu, circa 1854
The Higashiyama district was divided into three streets, exactly as it is today, and like today, the middle one was the main one. These roads were termed Upper Street, Middle Street, and Lower Street, moving away from the castle, which was always Up. The streets were not of course the neat flagstones they are now, but gravel and dirt. In fact the streets were never flagstones: they were either unpaved, or, in the 20th century, tarmac. Thus the paving here and in the Nagamachi samurai area is as about authentic as Disneyland and done for the same reasons.
When the Kaga domain finally got around to authorizing the pleasure quarters in Kanazawa, they chose two sites, both suitably far enough away from the castle. One was to the south, on the far side of the Sai River, known as the Western, or Ishizuka, and the other was to the north, on the far side of the Asano River, was known as the Eastern. It is often said that the reason temples were placed on the outskirts of castle towns was defensive: their wide compounds and high boundary walls were perfect for troops to gather. I have often wondered if having the pleasure quarters at the entries to the city too might not have been defensive: distract the invaders, perhaps….
Regulating Pleasure
It is well known that the feudal governments considered the pleasure quarters not somewhere that persons of breeding or standing should go, and forbade entry to “those carrying swords,” which in the Edo period meant the samurai class. This was, it seems, a rule made to be broken, especially considering the number of times it had to be issued. Although there was another pragmatic reason—to prevent fights from getting deadly, and, in some cases, to prevent the girls, who were sometimes there against their will, from committing suicide. The other group that was forbidden was “those in cassocks” (a necessarily loose translation), referring to priests.
The regulations regarding this and other matters were posted on a board at the entrance. These boards were common throughout the Edo period cities for public notices—generally a list of things that were forbidden. The following is a translation of a part of the regulations on the pleasure quarters:
- Since the teahouses were first constructed, they have become gaudy, and this is counter to how they should be. Therefore, in future, a frugal manner is to be required.
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- The prohibition of the girls from leaving the gate is, as announced each time, something that must be respected.
- The clothing of the girls is to be as it was previously. Nevertheless, there are those that wear luxurious designs, and thus in the future as simple a taste as possible is to be used, and gorgeousness is in no way to be permitted.
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- As of this leap eleventh month of the 12th Bunsei year (1829)
The price for one girl for one Edo-period hour (two modern hours) was 10 momme (a silver coin) between two pm and two am, and half that between two am and two pm. According to the guide to the pleasure quarters issued very promptly after they reopened, the “Kiku-Kurabe”, there were 90 establishments in the Western Geisha District, and 56 geigi, 101 shougi, 6 kaburo, and 31 “dispatch” geigi. While certain tourist information would have the visitor believe that geisha, contrary to their clichéd image of prostitutes, were in fact semi-virginal entertainers and nothing more, the careful dividing of this listing contradicts that: roughly speaking, the geigi were the entertainers, but the shougi were the ones you slept with.
It did not take long, however, for more conservative elements in the Kaga administration to get their way: a scant 11 years after they were authorized, the pleasure quarters were banned. The reason was their deleterious effect on public morals. People were having fun, you see:
“It is announced that henceforth the teahouse areas of both locations shall be suppressed. In the future, no location whatsoever shall be permitted to engage in houses of assignation.
The above is to be communicated throughout the town.
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21st day of the 8th month (of 1831)”
A later edict required the removal of the gates, opening up the district and absorbing it into the rest of the city. While the “houses of assignation” were forbidden, some businesses did carry on with it on the sly until 1846 when the area was renamed (as Atago) and the houses forcibly converted into normal residential use. That year, an edict decreed that:
“The prohibition of houses of assignation is even now, we hear, not obeyed by certain people, and in the future, should we continue to hear this, the houses naturally, and also the names of the men and women who meet shall be taken down, and each of them shall be severely warned. Additionally, the houses of the teahouse and Ishizaka areas are tall, and have second floors or are of sizes that are not appropriate to the position of their owners, and these should be modified to be normal houses. This should be done as soon as possible, so that all the work is complete by next spring.
12th month, 3rd year of Kouka (1846)”
Just to confuse matters even more, in 1867 pleasure quarters were permitted again, only to have the selling of humans banned by the new Meiji government in 1871. But this was only a temporary setback: this time as legally free women, the geigi and shougi continued to ply their trade until 1958, when prostitution was finally banned. There are still some genuine geisha houses in the district however: very discrete, very proper, and very hard to get into without an introduction.
However the Shima house is open to anyone willing to part with the moderate entrance fee. It is well worth it, and very interesting to look around—the garden and kitchen area is particularly interesting, I find, but my personal favourite room is the second-floor one over the “hanare,” or rear wing, and its vestibule. Don’t forget to take note of the massive wooden door at the entrance to the house: this used to be standard for all town houses, though nowadays 99.9% of them have been replaced with double-sided sliding doors.
For dinner we were to have a meal created from dishes mentioned Umeda’s diary. And that will be the topic of the next entry.
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