“This preface winds up with a poetical appeal—quite untranslatable owing to puns on words—that the patronage of guests “may not be as short as the dream of a spring night,� but as steady and constant as the bedding used in this house is thick and beautiful. [In Japanese the word “thick�—atsui—has a double meaning: it means “thick� as an antonym of “thin,� and also “plentiful, liberal, and bountiful.� It also has the sense of “excessively friendly� or “intimate,� and is sometimes used to express the idea of “in love with.�]
Photograph-album of the Kado-ebi-r�:—
“The Chinese character k�zen (紅髯 = red beard) may be also read k�zen (浩然 = resolute: firm) on account of the similarity of sound, and the characters kair� (海考 = a shrimp. These characters also sound as “ebi�) which is part of the name of this house and resemble in pronunciation the letter kair� (�� = becoming old together and being buried in the same spot undivided even by death.) In the letters in use from times immemorial are ideas not fully expressed. Individual selection may be left to individual taste.�
Guests making their toilettes preparatory to leaving the house.
Sh�gi no nedan ai-jirushi.
(The signs and cyphers showing the fees of courtesans.)
According to the “Kyokutei-Zakki� (曲享雜記) written by the well-known novelist Bakin, the tayū were all represented by the mark ⧗ in the saiken[30] (guide-books) during the Ky�h� era (1716–1735). * * * * At that time the price was 60 momme (10 Yen). A class of courtesans called ky� no tayū came into existence at the time, but dropped out of fashion without receiving much attention from the public. The various classes of women were represented by the following marks from the era of Ky�h� (1716–1735) to the H�reki era (1751–1763):—
⧗ Tayū: ⌗ K�shi-j�ro:
