“Periodical examination of all prostitutes takes place once a week, the different streets each having special days. For instance if Edo-ch� It-ch�-me has its inspection on Friday, the inspection of Ageya-machi will be on a Wednesday. When the inspection time arrives, the name of each prostitute is called by turn, and one by one each undergoes a local examination. If a woman is visibly infected, the doctor orders her into hospital, but prior to her entering the establishment she is permitted to temporarily return to her brothel, where she makes up a bundle of such little things as she needs and, accompanied by a servant of the house, proceeds to the hospital and applies for admission. In the hospital several nurses are in attendance, but while the name ‘nurse’ sounds fine enough in itself, the women who bear this title are terrible females, something like the old brothel hags (yarite) themselves, and are ready to do anything for a consideration. For this reason, the prostitutes need some pocket-money when entering the hospital, and if they only are provided with this they have very little trouble in getting their whims gratified in every respect. After a prostitute has been in the hospital three or four days, if she happens to be a popular woman, the brothel-keeper, and others who lose by her absence, do their best, by judicious presents, to get her discharged as soon as possible, so she is not put to any great inconvenience. On the other hand, if the woman is an unknown new comer, or unpopular, she is treated in a manner painful to witness, only getting what may be given to her out of sheer pity by one of the senior prostitutes of the brothel to which she belongs. The moment they hear the signal for dinner, these wretched girls rush into the dining hall, and scrambling for food devour it in the same greedy wolfish manner as we can imagine the hungry spirits doing in the Buddhist hell! As to the condition of the inmates of the hospital, most of them spend their time in reading obscene novels and stories, but this does not last long, and they begin to discuss their guests and the men they know, to talk about their lovers, to sing, and to make abusive remarks about their masters and the servants in their respective brothels. Or they dance and skip about, play cards, write begging letters, and generally raise a pandemonium as if the institution was a low-class boarding-house. Such being the conditions of this horrible place, with the exception perhaps of a few disappointed women, or women who get on badly with the brothel-keeper, the prostitutes regard with dread the ordeal of entering the hospital. The majority of the public place considerable faith in the efficacy of the medical examination, but they are woefully mistaken in thinking that immunity from disease is secured by such inspection, because many of the doctors of the prostitute quarters are miserable quacks, apparently regardless of their conduct, and so venal that they receive bribes from the brothel-keepers to deliberately pass unchallenged women who are plainly affected with venereal diseases—an act as dangerous as letting loose wild tigers to prey upon the public! Not only that, but some of the youngster assistant doctors who, though of course licensed, are still in the course of perfecting their medical knowledge by practical training, often intentionally overlook serious cases which, unless treated in the hospital, are incurable and likely to spread infection. This is done partly out of sympathy and partly for the sake of winning popularity with some of these ill-famed wenches who know so well exactly how to bewitch the impressionable young men with their sidelong looks and amorous glances. No doubt it is very wrong, but then what a potent influence for good or bad there is in the eye of a young and pretty woman! Moreover, many of the girls are in collusion with their masters for the purpose of hoodwinking the examiners. These girls employ some of the low quacks who haunt the quarters to make preliminary inspections, and if they are found infected and likely to be ordered into hospital on the examination day, they get ‘fixed up’ for the official inspection by having the inflamed parts treated with medicinal applications which temporarily, but effectually, conceal all visible symptoms of disease. For those reasons, it is by no means safe to put one’s trust in the medical inspection. But these are not the only tricks of the trade. It sometimes happens that the quacks discover cases which it is impossible to conceal from the examiners by any known method of ‘fixing,’ and when this happens, the brothel-keepers often request the mercenary charlatans to prepare false certificates stating that a change of air is necessary. Armed with these certificates, keepers pretend that the patient has gone into the country, whereas she is carefully hidden in the house and secretly treated by the quacks. The consequence of this is that many women who are actually in attendance on guests, and apparently healthy, are a frightful menace to society and dangerous as the sharp points of poisoned needles concealed in a bag, whose awful pricks spread death and desolation in the paths of those with whom they come into contact. As to the sanitary conditions of the quarters, the laws of hygiene are utterly defied, for notwithstanding the exterior splendour of the palaces of vice in the Yoshiwara, filthiness is the order of the day, and in unseen corners, and dirty yards and alleys, lie heaps of festering garbage containing the germs of every imaginable form of virulent disease. While some attempt is made to detect venereal maladies by means of periodical inspections, internal diseases are practically left uncared for, therefore the callous and selfish brothel-keepers, taking advantage of this fact, are apt to force girls (who are really ill and ought to be inmates of a hospital ward) to wait on guests, and allow women suffering from such sicknesses as consumption and syphilitic eye diseases to continue their calling. Partly owing to the heartlessness of the masters, and partly owing to their carelessness in matters of sanitation, many instances have occurred where women have not only communicated to their guests the most loathsome diseases, but actually died from illness while sleeping beside their patrons. Decency forbids a too close description of all the horrors of these brothels, but one or two more instances of the terrible inattention to sanitary precautions may be pardoned. In some of the smaller houses the keepers are too mean to provide daily baths, so it often happens that the women appear before their guests innocent of the use of soap and water. In these houses the girls are treated like veritable dogs and cats, and remain year in and year out in cramped unclean chambers, known as kwambeya, furnished with dirty ragged bedding which is so filthy that it gives off a strong sweaty effluvium! In these dens, owing to the absence of hot water, the inmates are supposed to wash in cold water, but in the winter-time the low temperature causes them to dread their ablutions, and so the risk of infection to themselves and guests is materially increased. On the other hand, when they do cleanse themselves as expected, the frequent application of cold water results in bringing on various forms of uterine affections and dooming the unfortunate wretches to life-long misery. In the alleys where the restaurants (daiya) stand, lie piles of mouldy fish-bones, rejected articles of food in a high state of putrefaction, and even heaps of excrement, all vieing with each other in the exhalation of offensive and poisonous odours, and advertising far and wide the ‘sanitary’ ideas of the charming residents of this sink of corruption. Thus are the laws of hygiene observed in the great Yoshiwara of T�ky�!�
Whether the author’s scathing denunciations of the medical staff of the Yoshiwara are justified or otherwise is not known, but, collating the results of enquiries instituted, the writer is of the opinion that the allegations are somewhat sensational, although of course scandals may occasionally arise, and it must be remembered that the miserable salaries paid are not likely to tempt high-class practitioners to remain in the service for any great length of time. That a host of shady quacks haunt the quarters and assist the brothel-keepers to enable the women to hoodwink the regular examiners is, the writer is informed on reliable authority, a sober fact, and it is probable that in some cases the official doctors have to bear the opprobium of sins committed by these unscrupulous outside charlatans.
As to the gross inattention to sanitary methods charged against the denizens of this immense social sewer, it is probably impossible to exaggerate the mephitic abominations of the disgusting place, or to overestimate the danger of infection run by its thoughtless frequenters in consequence of the virulent disease-germs which are incubated in and infest every hole and corner of the unclean stews, vitiating the atmosphere and spreading the seeds of sickness and death far and near.
The monthly report sheets of the hospital contain blanks analysing the various forms of disease as follows:—
INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
Syphilis:
| 1 | Primary sclerosis and ulcers. |
| 2 | Painless buboes. |
| 3 | Disease of the lymphatic glands. |
| 4 | Skin diseases. |
| 5 | Diseases of the mucous membranes. |
| 6 | Opthalmia. |
| 7 | Diseases of the bones and periosts. |
| 8 | Diseases of the joints. |
| 9 | Diseases of the muscles. |
| 10 | Diseases of the viscera and brain. |
| 11 | Soft chancres. |
| 12 | Acute buboes. |
| 13 | Gonorrhœa. |
| 14 | Itch. |
| 15 | Tuberculosis. |
| 16 | Unenumerated. |
NON-INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
| 17 | Diseases of the digestive organs. |
| 18 | Diseases of the respiratory organs. |
| 19 | Diseases of the circulatory organs. |
| 20 | Diseases of the urinary organs. |
| 21 | Diseases of the generative organs. |
| 22 | Diseases of the nerves and sensitive organs. |
| 23 | Diseases affecting the general development and nutrition of the body. |
| 24 | Diseases of the skin and muscles. |
| 25 | Diseases of the bones and joints. |
| 26 | Surgical diseases. |
| 27 | Unenumerated. |