Golgatha.
The following sad description of the last hours, death, and burial of an inmate of the Yoshiwara is gleaned from the “Yūkwaku no Rimen� (�廓���) published in 1903:—
“Even in the case of a courtesan who for a time has been famous as the star of her brothel, and who has become so skilful that she has robbed many men of their very souls, what will her ultimate fate probably be when suddenly attacked by a serious disease? I believe that there is no fate more piteous than that of a courtesan whose body has been sold to this prostitute quarter from a distant province, and who finds herself, sad and lonely, without a single acquaintance or relative, and with none to whom she can look for aid!
“Now that she is sick and has given up her business for one or two months, the myriads of guests, who formerly came crowding to see her in a never-ending stream while she was yet elegantly attired and beautiful to behold with her comely face and perfectly pencilled eyebrows, do not send her even a single letter. The servants who called her ‘Oiran, Oiran’[70] when she was in the zenith of her pride and popularity, and who served her obsequiously in consideration of the many gifts she lavished upon them, gradually become unaccommodating and churlish. But that is by no means all, for they even speak ill of her and backbite her. Then she falls into low spirits, and alone by herself she writhes in solitary agony. Her debit account for medicine increases. There is no one to soothe or comfort her, and indeed it is impossible to imagine how great is her misery as she dozes uneasily upon her pillow, in this unhappy place, among things hard to bear and painful to hear.
“In this manner her sickness increases in severity, and finally, falling into a state which offers no hope of recovery, she can only await the awful approach of death. Our imaginations fails to picture the unhappy state of the wretched courtesan who is about to draw her last breath, lying on a cold hard thin mattress in a miserable and lonely little room beneath the back staircase of the brothel, without a soul in the world to help the absolutely forsaken creature. When death is about to enter through the torn paper-covered windows of her room, there is no light in the chamber, and all is dark as pitch. In the upper portion of the house singing girls are probably playing merrily upon their samisen (banjo), while dancing-girls are dancing and frisking to the music. The sounds of boisterous laughter, music, and cheerful voices pierce the ears of the sick woman and grate upon her nerves, and she, lying in misery at the very point of death, with none to attend or nurse her, totters on the brink of the grave writhing and struggling in pain and anguish, and when she breathes her last she is mocked in the hour of her mortal agony by the babel of voices telling of licentious joy and happiness and voluptuous pleasure. Her limbs grow cold and rigid, her eyes, which have lost the light of life, become dull and glazed, and, remaining wide open, stare horribly into the darkness. Just at this moment some courtesan who has come down the stairs for a sitz-bath, or a brothel hag (yarite) coming along the passage, noticing that the faint noise of breathing has ceased, and wondering if anything has happened, may open the door and look in and exclaim—‘Ah! all is over.’ That is about all the expression of astonishment which will be ejaculated, and although perchance two or three of her courtesan friends may shed a few tears of sympathy and pity, this ends the matter. The brothel keeper immediately states that there is no one to take delivery of the corpse, and, without even waiting for the dawn, the mortal remains are hurriedly born away to the crematorium and disappear forever in the smoke of the furnace. Ah! what a fearful and cruel thing this is to contemplate!
“And to where are the calcined bones carried, and where are they interred?
“If there be any person who desires to know where the white bones of the miserable courtesan are going, and who wishes to follow the unhappy woman to the end of her terrible fate, I beg that he will go out of the great gateway of the Yoshiwara—where the flower has withered and fallen—past the Go-jikken-d�ri road, up the Emon-zaka hill, and grope his way along to the left of the dike at Dote-Hatch�.
“Before the eyes of the traveller spreads out on both sides of the dike a vista of beautiful fields and gardens. On the right, so far as the eye can see, separated by vast stretches of irrigated rice-fields, rise to varying heights the rows of the roofs of the brothels of Kotsugappara and Senju. Passing by this cluster of habitations, there are clumps of green trees and bamboo groves. Further on, if the weather be clear and fair, the white sails of craft on the upper part of the stream of the Sumida river can be faintly discerned, and, of course, the purple mountain of Tsukuba-yama can be seen among the clouds. Glancing around to the left of the dike, there will be noticed towns composed of tenant houses lately erected on ground reclaimed from the fields. Between the trees may be seen here and there the high roofs of various temples. The sight of the forest which crowns the high ridge of land reaching from Ueno to Higurashi and on to D�kwan-yama creates a pleasing sensation in the mind. As one goes on among this beautiful scenery, he at length nears the gate of the slaughter-houses, and his nostrils are assailed by the scent of blood borne on the breeze. Going on a little further beyond the dike, a road commences which forms an old fashioned avenue with rows of trees on both sides. Having arrived at this point, if one turns round and glances back he will be able to see, between the trees, just the numerous roofs of the Yoshiwara prostitute-quarter stretching out all over. The lofty buildings of the quarter, such as the clock-tower of the “Ebi-ya,� “Hikota,� and the “Shinagawa� rise up in such conspicuous majesty that one imagines that he is looking at some great castle-town. Quickening one’s steps, and going on one or two ch� more, the dike disappears, and you see the railway embankment crossing diagonally in front. Beneath this railroad line stands a temple, and this temple is indeed the place where the unfortunate courtesan is doomed to have her bones decay and rot! By the left side of the bank oozes a little dirty ditch-like stream, spanned by a small old-fashioned stone bridge. This stream skirts the temple grounds, and, washing the luxuriant growth of wild bamboo grass which overgrows into boundaries, disappears at the back of the railway track. Pleased with the extreme quietness and privacy of the place, you cross the little bridge and come to a black gateway which you recognize as that of the J�-Kan-ji temple. Ah! the Jo-Kan-ji at Minowa! Men of the world with their loves and hates, even if they have not already explored the actual place itself, have probably become acquainted with its name through the various books they have read.
Tombs of Courtesan and Guest who Committed Suicide together on the 1st October, 1880.
“Having entered the gate, you will see a little hut where flowers are sold. Proceeding to the rear of the not very large hond� (main temple) by the left side of the building, you will come to a place thickly studded with numberless graves, tombstones and sotoba (stûpa). Near the thicket-like hedge, and here and there between the tombstones, stand clumps of gnarled and ancient e-no-ki trees whose branches quiver sadly and mournfully as the wind soughs through them with a plaintive sobbing sound like the burthen of a requiem. Glancing at the well-nigh undecipherable inscription carved on the first tombstone that meets the eye, we can trace a posthumous name such as 柳生院花容童女之墓 (Ryū-sho-in Kway�-d�j� no haka,) or the words ◻◻樓代々�墓 (the family grave of the _______ brothel). Or we may even see stones on which two names are carved together, one name being that of a man and one that of a woman. None of these stones are more than two or three feet in height—they are all small and dirty—and for a very long period of time no incense has been burned or flowers offered before them.
“Going on into the heart of this lonesome place one at length arrives behind the main temple. Here the whole surface of the earth is damp and humid, and a dismal grave-like smell of mouldy earth pervades the locality. Probably the sunshine has never penetrated to this spot for centuries. The dead leaves of the e-no-ki trees have been allowed to lie as they have fallen year after year, so they have piled up, crumbled, mouldered, and rotted on the dark ground, and from the purulent mildewed soil have sprung into being myriads of weird uncanny poisonous toadstools and foul fungi fearful and horrid in shape and strangely ghastly in colour. Ah!, what a desolate uncanny appearance the place has; persons visiting it soon experience a deep sense of commiseration and sympathy, and feel as if they had entered a chilly underground vault. In this gloomy dismal place lie the bones of the courtesan who only up to yesterday resembled a beautiful butterfly or lovely blossom when seen in all the glory of her gorgeous apparel, with her glossy black hair ornamented with gold and her snowy-white body clad in rich brocade robes now exchanged for the cerements of death.
“And look! at the rear of two great e-no-ki trees rises a high stone wall. Upon it stands a stone column bearing the six Chinese characters 新�原無緣墓 (Shin Yoshiwara Mu-en-dzuka) “The tomb of those of the Shin Yoshiwara who are without kith or kin.� Around it is a rank growth of various weeds and grasses, and near by still stands undecayed a huge stûpa which was erected as an offering to the spirits of the dead at the time of the great earthquake of the 2nd year of the Ansei period (1855).
The “Mu-en-dzuka� in the “J�-kan-ji� temple at Minowa.
“As a matter of fact such things really do occur, but the courtesan who is thus buried in the Mu-en-dzuka must be counted as the most truly unfortunate, because most of the women are given burial in the family burying places of the brothel-keepers, while the bodies of those who cannot obtain even this latter consideration, who are from a far country and without a friend to take delivery of their remains, are carried stealthily out of the back entrance of the brothels in the grey light of the dawn, and here transformed into a heap of grisly bones. In any case the end of these brothel women is very sad and lamentable, and looked at from this point of view there is indeed nothing so miserable or so awful as the brothel quarter.�