At present, a first customer to a tea-house is called “sh�kwai� (first meeting): the second time he comes “ura� (behind the scenes) and the third time “najimi� (on intimate terms). According to prevalent custom, guests have to pay a certain sum of money as “footing� on their second and third visits, and persons who are anxious to pass as “in the swim� are often willing to pay both these fees (ura-najimi-kin and najimi-kin) down at once. Ordinarily the najimi-kin is fixed at from 2-1�2 yen or 3 yen, according to the brothels to which a visitor wishes to go, and the tea-houses do not guide visitors who do not patronize either a first (�mise) or second (naka-mise) class establishment. In addition to other small fees the visitor is expected to give a tip of 20 or 30 sen to the maid who acts as his guide, but if he does not hand it over voluntarily it is carefully included in his bill under the heading of “o-tomo� (your attendant). Jinrikisha fares advanced will also appear in the bill (tsuké = contraction of “kakitsuke� = an account, writing, or memo) under the title of “o-tomo� (your attendant). Experience of hikite-jaya will convince visitors that these establishments never fail to charge up every possible or impossible item in their accounts: when a man is returning home in the morning with a “swollen head� after a night’s debauch his ideas of checking a bill are generally somewhat mixed up.
The expenses of planting flowers in the streets in Spring, setting up street lanterns (t�r�) in Autumn, and maintaining street dancing (niwaka) are defrayed by the tea-houses.
The profits of hikite-jaya are chiefly derived from return commissions on the fees paid to courtesans and dancing girls, and percentages levied on the food and saké consumed by guests. (A large profit is made upon saké, as this is kept in stock by tea-houses themselves). Besides, they draw a handsome revenue from visitors in the shape of “chadai� (tea money) which rich prodigals bestow upon them in return for fulsome flattery and cringing servility. The guests will also often give a s�bana (present to all the inmates of the house) when they are well treated, and at special seasons of the year, festivals, and occasions of rejoicing, the liberality of visitors brings quite a shower of dollars, all nett profit, into the coffers of the chaya proprietor.
It is one of the many curious customs of the Yoshiwara that the expression “fukidasu� (to blow out) is disliked, as also is the blowing out of the ground cherry (hozuki).[20]
Outside of a Third-class Brothel at night.
I must not omit to state that there is a low class of tea-houses which resort to extortion and barefaced robbery in dealing with strangers to the Yoshiwara. These houses are known by the general term of “bori-jaya� and their modus operandi is to detail their rascally employés to prowl about outside the quarter and inveigle uninitiated visitors to the kuruwa. Under various pretexts, inexperienced persons are guided to bori-jaya by these touters, welcomed effusively, and pestered with the most fulsome flattery and attention. Saké and food is served to them, including a number of dishes never even ordered by the guest, and by and by geisha are called in to sing and dance, although the visitors have not requisitioned their services. Later on, when the guests are primed with liquor, they are urged to visit a brothel on the condition that the expenditure shall be kept as low as possible, but, once within the low stews to which they are taken, they are persuaded to squander money on geisha and other things. If meanwhile the visitor, fearing heavy expenses, should desire to settle his bill, the keeper of the house will put off the matter and invent various plausible excuses for delaying the making up of the account. Time flies and morning succeeds the night, but no bill is rendered, and every artifice and trick is employed to detain the guest, until the latter, overcome with saké and fatigue, rolls over on the floor in a drunken sleep. Meanwhile the pockets of the unfortunate victim are surveyed in order to discover the extent of his means, and as soon as it is evident that there is no more money left to be sucked he is allowed to depart. Sometimes, however, the visitors prove too smart to be successfully swindled, but in these cases the houses afford them a very cold reception indeed. Sometimes it happens that the bori-jaya proprietors overestimate the pecuniary resources of guests who have fallen a prey to their wiles, and find that their purses are not lined sufficiently well to meet the bills run up against them. In such a case the proprietors will allow the guest to depart under the escort of one of the employés of the house. This man exercises strict surveillance over the guest, and follows him like grim death wherever he goes until the bill is settled. He is known as a tsuki-uma (an attendant—or “following�—horse) and if payment is not made he will inflict the disgrace of his presence upon the luckless wight he follows, tracking the latter home to his very doorstep and there making a noisy demand for the money owing. It is only fair to add, however, that such low tea-houses are not to be found in the Naka-no-ch�.
Name of the Present “Hikite-jaya� (1899)
Those marked “w� are kept by women.