Yoshiwara “Pot-pourri.�
The following items are given in the “Yoshiwara ÅŒ-kaga-miâ€� (å�‰åŽŸå¤§é‘‘ = The Great Mirror of the Yoshiwara) under the heading of “Sho-yaku Hyaku-monogatariâ€� (諸è¯ç™¾ã‚‚ã�®èªž One Hundred Miscellaneous Tales).
Things which are long: The Nihon-dzutsumi; a dispute between lovers; the magaki song at night; the night to a guest who has been jilted by a yūjo.
Things that are short: Night of a lovers’ meeting; the first letter from a yūjo to a strange guest.
Things one would like to see: The Diary of a yūjo; sincerity in a prostitute; a square egg; the false letters of a j�ro, and the end of a heartless courtesan.
Things one would like to hear: The name of a yūjo’s secret lover; the whispers of a courtesan.
Things that are funny: Apologies of a guest who has offended a yūjo; a guest who bestows too much attention on a kamuro (young female page).
Things that are enjoyable: A long sojourn of an intimate guest at a brothel; secret lover; love-quarrels between sweethearts.
Hurried things: A saké cup that is not offered to a guest by the courtesan of his choice on the occasion of their first meeting; feigned sleep on the morning of the guest’s departure; conversation about one’s acquaintances; the crest on the clothes of a courtesan made by a rival guest.
Pleasant things. Spiritedness of a courtesan; a sprightly joro.
Quiet things. The possession of a courtesan’s room at the first meeting; a tayū who has come down to be a k�shi-j�ro.
A clever thing. A demand for gratuities by means of broad hints.
Clumsy things. Squandering too much money in a tea-house; going into a sancha restaurant in the rain; demand by an unpopular courtesan to be engaged on a holiday.
Things for which one is sorry. A fire on the night of a lovers’ meeting; for a courtesan to unknowingly receive counterfeit money from a guest as a present.
Comfortable things. A snowfall on the night when one stays in a brothel; a hood that is put on the head from behind.
Offensive things. The night-sweat of a j�ro; warming the bowl of a tobacco pipe by a woman before the guest is well acquainted with her; the coarse skin of a guest; the relative one meets on his way to the Yoshiwara; a guest who doesn’t clean his teeth.
Things which are soiled. The nostrils of a guest; the tobacco-box of a slovenly courtesan.
Laughable things. A party of j�ro all of whom have their collars covered with paper to prevent soiling their clothes; sudden showers of rain which drench sightseers in the Yoshiwara; demand for a night-garment by an unpopular j�ro.
An unsightly object. The day-time slumber of a j�ro with her mouth wide open.
Annoying things. Frequent visits of other j�ro to the room where their comrade’s guest is staying; whispering in the ear of a guest by a courtesan at their first meeting.
Cruel things. Expiry of the term of engagement of an unpopular j�ro; corporal punishment of a kamuro by her ane-j�ro.
Detestable things. The physiognomy of a yarite; talk about rude things by a prostitute; the indiscretion of a gyū.
A hopeful thing. A woman who redeems herself.
Foolish things. Respectable samurai who visit the Yoshiwara; elderly visitors to the Yoshiwara; a drunkard who cannot control himself.
Contemptible things. A guest who keeps away from a brothel when accounts have to be settled; one candle for a company of three persons; a j�ro who slavishly obeys a yarite; a lantern which is used for two rooms conjointly.
Things for which one waits impatiently. An agreement to wait until the expiry of the term of a j�ro’s engagement; bed-time on the occasion of a first meeting.
Apparently reliable things. The address of a j�ro’s parents as told to her guest; the infant name of a j�ro.
Unreliable things. The tears of a j�ro when she inflicts a curtain lecture on her guest.
Dai-ya no koto.
(Cook-houses of the Yoshiwara.)
In former days the present “Dai-ya� (cook-houses) were called “Ki-no-ji-ya� owing to the fact that a man named Oda-wara-ya Ki-ue first established such houses. Originally only the smaller brothels were supplied with food from these dai-ya, but now-a-days all the brothels, irrespective of size or grade, draw their foodsupply from the cook-houses. These dai-ya supply every conceivable kind of food, be it sushi (a fish and rice roll), kwashi (cakes), soba (buck-wheat macaroni), midzu-gwashi (fruit), or what not; and according to the quantity of food, dishes are divided into three classes, viz:—Nami-dai (ordinary dish), Dai-sh� (medium-sized dish), and Ō-dai (a large-sized dish). These sizes are charged out at 25 sen, 37-1�2 sen, and 50 sen respectively, but the dai-ya are said to supply brothels at one third of the above prices, and if that be so then the latter earn a profit of two-thirds of the selling price to guests! The rule is to make a prompt cash payment on delivery of food, but as a matter of fact a wooden ticket, bearing the sign of each brothel, is given in exchange for dai-no-mono (food brought in) every time it is brought in, and payment is made the following day. It is stated by “those who know� that there are some brothels which have a debt of several hundred Yen to the dai-ya. There are a great many dai-ya in the Yoshiwara, but those which usually supply first-class brothels are “Koi-matsu� of Ageya-ch� Ni-ch�-me; “Yao-kyū� of the same street; and “Matsu-no� of Sumi-ch�. In counting the number of dai-no-mono, the auxiliary numeral “mai� is used: thus “nami-sammai� (ordinary three flat things) means three ordinary dishes of food. This is generally abbreviated to simply—“nami san� (ordinary three) etc., and the auxiliary numeral eliminated. An ordinary dish, with a bottle of saké thrown in, is known as “ichi-mai ippon� [one (dish) and one bottle.] Sometimes a guest orders food merely for the good of the house, and under these circumstances will be asked:—“What will you take?� He will no doubt reply:—“Nan demo ii yo� (“Anything will do�) and so the cook-house is instructed to send in a demo-dai (a dish of “anything�: demo is a contraction of nan demo = “anything�) which means that there is no particular choice on the part of the customer.
By the way, there is, in the “Sh�bai Ōrai� (倡賣往來) by Ikku, an item which shows a bill of fare in a dai-ya a hundred years ago. It is as follows:—“The bill of fare of the “Ki-no-ji-ya� consisted of:—
etc., all of which foods are suitable for those persons who stop in brothels for several consecutive days.
Famous Things of the Yoshiwara
ALSO
Peddlers, Hawkers, and Beggars.
| Takemura no sembei. | Rice and flour cracknels of Takemura. |
| Sanya-t�fu. | Bean-curd of Sanya. |
| Kobu-maki. | Rolled seaweed. |
| Shiso-maki. | Rolled shiso leaf. |
| Tsuke-na. | Pickled greens. |
| Ni-mame. | Boiled beans. |
| Nameshi. | Green rice. |
| Maku-no-uchi. | Boiled rice balls. |
| Dengaku. | T�fu baked and covered with sweetened miso. |
| Mugi-meshi. | Boiled wheat. |
| Aoyagi-sushi. | Sushi of Aoyagi. |
| Kanro-bai. | “Kanro� plum. |
| Hakuro. | “Hakuro� sweet-cake. |
| O-kagura. | “O-kagura� buckwheat. |
| Kabasho-dango. | Rice dumplings of Kabasho. |
| Shinowara-dango. | Rice dumplings of Shinowara. |
These things were very popular (even outside the Yoshiwara) from the An-ei (1772–1780) to Bunsei (1818–1829) eras, and the “Dote no kin-tsuba� (a cake made in the shape of the guard on a sword-hilt), was well known even after the Restoration. There is still one store which deals in this time-honoured cake, and it is as popular as ever.
The meibutsu (famous things) at present are the following:—The cuisine of the Kaneko restaurant; the kama-meshi (iron-pot-rice) of Horikawa; the tempura (fried fish) of Hamada; the kabayaki (roasted eels) of Ōtsune; Matsumo-zushi; shiruko (rice-cakes with a sauce of red beans and sugar) of Takaoka; Ki-no-ine-meshi (rice boiled with soy); kwashi (cakes and confectionery) of Futaba-ya; the saké of Okuda; the photographs of Kat�; the bath-houses of Ageya-ch� and Ky�machi; the patent medicines of Nakane and Konishi; the ez�shi (coloured pictures) of Sanuki-ya; the komamono (fancy goods) of Nori-ya; the z�ri (sandals) of Hishi-ya; etc.
Above all, the cooking of Kaneko is well known, and greatly esteemed, not only in the Yoshiwara but even outside the quarter as well. The construction and decoration of every room has been carried out in exquisite taste, and the furniture of the house is at once rare and costly: moreover, there is a fine bath-room in the restaurant, and, as everything is thus arranged comfortably for guests, many visitors to the Yoshiwara patronize the “Kaneko,� and go there accompanied by the yūjo they have chosen as their companions.
In the streets are to be found vendors of rice-dumplings (dango), boiled red-beans (ude-adzuki), fruit (midzu-gashi), oden (a kind of dumpling), saké (rice-wine); sushi (rice-cakes plastered over with fish or sea-weed on which vinegar has been sprinkled) etc., and crowds of miscellaneous hawkers and quacks, including tsuji-ura sellers (tsuji-ura are small pieces of paper on which are printed poems or mottoes: these are wrapped in cracknels made of rice (sembei) or put among parched-peas as a pastime), newspaper sellers, fortune-tellers (uranai-sha), natt�-sellers (natt� is a kind of food made from boiled beans), sellers of the t�fu (bean curd) of Komatsu-bashi, sellers of fūki-mame (cooked and sweetened beans), blind shampooers (amma) female hairdressers (onna kami-yui), washermen (sentaku-ya) messengers, etc. Then there are shinnai-bushi singers (shinnai-bushi is a style of popular song originated by a man named Tsuruga Shinnai), Kapporé-dancers, singers of hayari-uta (popular songs), ahodara-ky� (reciters of comic imitation of Buddhist sacred writings and prayers), and flute-players (shaku-hachi). Beggars swarm in front of the smaller brothels early in the morning and ransack the remnants of food left over by guests from the previous evening: the sight of these hordes of dirty unkempt beings, clawing at and hungrily devouring the broken victuals, is a sight at once sad and disgusting.