London Labour and the London Poor, Vol. 4

by Henry Mayhew

In the northern parts, it is said, that in the beginning of the seventeenth century a curious custom prevailed. When a woman was convicted of infidelity, her head was shaved. Her paramour was exposed to an equally disgraceful, but more whimsical penalty. The friends of his victim, whenever they met him, might strip him naked, and deprive him of his property. But the modesty with which youth are inspired from the cradle tends much to protect female virtue. The intercourse of the sexes, it will thus be seen, is regulated by very natural laws; the condition of the sex is somewhat high. Its virtues are prized by the men, and consequently are generally faithfully preserved.

We have said, however, that the men of Japan are licentious; since, therefore, the wives and daughters of the respectable classes are difficult to corrupt, a numerous sisterhood of prostitutes is rendered necessary. Accordingly we find them from the earliest period associating with every rank of men. In one of William Adams’s letters, published under the editorship of Mr. Rundall, we find the king coming on board our countryman’s vessel, bringing with him a number of female comedians. These formed large companies, and travelled from place to place, with a great store of apparel for the several parts they played. They belonged to one man, who set a price upon their intercourse with others, above which he dared not charge under pain of death. It was left to his own discretion to set a value on a girl at first; but afterwards he could not raise, though he might abate his charge. All bargains were made with him, and the woman must go whither she was directed. Men of the highest rank, when travelling through the islands, and resting at houses of entertainment, sent, without shame, for companies of these prostitutes; but the pander was never received by them, however wealthy he might be; after death he was also consigned to infamy. Bridled with a rope of straw, he was dragged in the clothes he died in through the streets into the fields, and there cast upon a dunghill for dogs and fowls to devour.

In Kœmpfer’s account of the city of Nangasaki we find a curious description of the prostitute system. The part of the town inhabited by these women was called “the bawdy-house quarter,” and consisted of two streets, with the handsomest houses in Japan, situated on a rising hill. At these places the poor people of the town sold their handsome daughters while very young, that is, from ten to twenty years of age. Every bawd kept as many as she was able in one house; some had seven, others 30, who were commodiously lodged, taught to dance, sing, play on musical instruments, and write letters. The elder ones taught the younger, who in return waited on them; the most docile and accomplished were most sumptuously treated. The price of these women was regulated by law; and one wretched creature, having passed through all the degrees of degradation, occupied a small room near the door, where she acted as watch all night, and sold herself for a miserable coin. Others were set to this task as a punishment for ill behaviour. The infamy of this vile profession attached justly, not so much to the unhappy women themselves, as to their parents who educated them to it. Many, as they grew up, changed their mode of life, and were received again among the reputable and chaste. Generally well educated and politely bred, they often procured husbands, and passed from a life of daily prostitution to one of unswerving fidelity. The pander and the tanner of leather occupied the same position in society; which shows that the prejudice of class, rather than the abhorrence of an infamous calling, ruled the Japanese.

The historian classes the temples and brothels together, and not without justice. Prostitution was greatly encouraged by the priests. In their public spectacles, representing the adventures of gods and goddesses, young prostitutes, richly attired, were engaged to act. Their performances resembled those of the European ballet—dress, gesture, and action expressing that which in a drama language would represent.

Such was the prostitute system in the great cities; throughout the country a similar system prevailed. The houses of entertainment lining the main highways, with the tea-booths of the villages, were frequented by innumerable girls. These usually spent the morning in painting and dressing themselves, and about noon made their appearance standing before the door of the house, or sitting on benches, whence, with smiling face and coy address, they solicited the passengers. In some places their chattering and laughter were heard above all other sounds; two villages, called Akasaki and Goy, were celebrated on this account, all the houses being brothels, each containing from three to seven prostitutes. The Japanese seldom passed one of these “great storehouses of whores” without holding intercourse with some of these women. Kœmpfer asserts, in contradiction to Caras, who married a native, that there was in his time scarcely one house of entertainment in the islands which was not a brothel. When one inn had too many customers, it borrowed some girls from a neighbour who had some to spare. This profligate system is said, in the Japanese traditions, to have taken its rise at a remote period, during the reign of a certain martial emperor. That monarch, who was perpetually marching his armies to and fro, feared lest his soldiers should become weary of separation from their wives; he therefore licensed public and private brothels, which multiplied to such an extent that Japan came to be known as “the bawdy-house of China.” This was in allusion to a period when prostitution was made in that empire an unlawful calling, and suppressed by severe laws. The people, deprived of the resources they had formerly enjoyed at home, made Japan the place of resort; so that its prostitution system flourished far and wide.

These accounts appear extravagant, and doubtless are so in some degree; all writers, however, coincide in describing the prostitution system of Japan as very extensive and flagitious. The French historian, Charleroix, repeats the statement of Kœmpfer. We have before us extracts from the autograph “diary of occurrants” written by Captain Richard Cock, who was chief of the English factory at Firando, from the year 1613 to 1623. There are many passages corroborative of the representations we have given. Of these some examples follow, which are also interesting as illustrations of Japanese manners.

“A.D. 1616, Sept. 8th (at Edo).—We dyned or rather supped at a merchant’s house called Neyem Dono, where he provided caboques, or women players, who danced and sung; and when we returned home he sent every of them to lie with them that would have them all night.

“October 24 (at Yuenda, between Edo and Firando.)—We went to bed, and paid 3500 gins; and to the servants, 300 gins; and to the children, 200 gins, or about 200l. This extraordinary charge was for that we had extraordinary good cheer, being brought hither by a merchant of Edo, our friend, called Neyemon Edo, and every one a wench sent to him that would have her. I gave one of them an ichebo, but would not have her company.

“1617-18, January 27th (at Firando).—Skiezazon Dono set the masts of his junk this day, and made a feast in Japan fashion. 29th. Skiezazon Dono and his consorts had the feast of Baccus for their junk this day, dancing through the streets with caboques or women players, and entered into an English house in that order, most of their heads being heavier than their heels, that they could not find their way home without leading.