The nightless city; or, The "history of the Yoshiwara Yūkwaku"

by J. E. De Becker

“When a woman speaks the Yoshiwara dialect it successfully conceals her awkward pronunciation, no matter from what distant part of the country she may have come, and stamps her as a regular denizen of the quarter. For this reason, study of sato-kotoba has been greatly encouraged.�

It is, however, suggested by some people that the dialect was transmitted from Shimabara, Ky�to (a noted prostitute quarter) for under the “Shimabara� section of the “Ukiyo Monogatari� (浮世物語) reference is made to the popular sato-kotoba words “kinanshita ka?� (have you come?), and “hay�inanshi� (go quickly.)

According to ancient records, up to the period of Meiwa (1764–1771) the honorific irregular verb masu (to be), which is always used as a terminal in conjunction with other verbs, was corrupted to “nsu� therefore such words as omoimasu (to think) gozaimasu (to be: to have) and m�shimash� (to say, to be) were changed to “omoinsū,� “gozarinsu,� “m�shinsh�,� etc. From the end of Anyei (1772–1780) this again changed to “isu� and words like “gozaimasu� and omoimasu were pronounced “gozarisu� and “omoisu.� At that period “gozarimasu� was often pronounced as “gozansu,� or even “ozansu,� and in the vulgar colloquial it was sometimes pronounced as “gozensu� or “gozēsu�: accordingly “nasarimasé� (please deign to do) changed to “nasansé,� but in the Yoshiwara dialect this was further abbreviated to “nanshi.� Thus instead of “o kun nasai� (an abbreviation of “o kure nasarimasé� = please do) and “o agari nasaimashi� (an abbreviation of “o agari nasaimasé� = please come in: (or) please eat) were developed the words “o kun nanshi,� and “o agan nanshi,� etc. From the end of Ky�wa (1801–1803) until the Bunkwa era (1804–1817) “masu� and “mashi� changed to “namashi,� and afterwards into zansu, zaisu, zaimasu, ossu, osu, ariisu, etc.

It also appears that in former times the various brothels had their own special dialects, but these, not being specially interesting, all the dialectical differences are omitted here.

A few examples of sundry sentences and expressions may be cited to give an idea of the language:—

Yoshiwara Dialect.	Modern Japanese.	English.
Nushi wa mada chaya ni iinsuka?	Anata wa mada chaya ni i-nasaru ka?	Are you still in the tea-house?
Kore wo o mi nanshi.	Kore wo goran nasai.	Please look at this.
Oide nasen ka e?	Oide nasaimasen ka?	Won’t you go? (or) Won’t you come?
M� chitto shite mērinsh�.	M� chitto shite mairimash�.	I will go (or “come�) a little later on.
Uso-uso shimē yo.	Sawaij� ikenai.	Don’t be excited.
Sonnara o tano-m�-shinsu.	Sonnara o tanomi m�-shimasu.	Well then I will leave the matter in your hands.
Sore wa tareshi mo s� de ozansu.	Sore wa dare demo s� de gozaimasu.	That is the case with everybody.
S� ossēsu ga.	S� osshaimasu ga....	You say so but....
Kurashinsu zo e.	Uchimasu yo!	I’ll strike you!
O busharezansu na.	Baka ni suruna.	Don’t try and make a fool of me.
Hagurakasu.	Age-ashi wo toru.	To catch a person tripping.
Sonna koto wa shirinsen.	Sonna koto wa shirimasen.	I don’t know anything about it.
Yabo.	Fu-anai no hito.	A stranger who is unacquainted with a place.
Sui.	Tsūjin.	An adept: a person posted up on all points; one who “Knows the ropes.�
Yonde kiro.	Yonde koi.	Call him.
Hayaku oppashiro.	Isoide yonde koi.	Call him quickly.
Itte koyo.	Itte kuru.	I will go.
Ayobiyaré.	O aruki nasai.	Please walk (on).
Fukkobosu.	Kobosu.	To spill; To grumble.
Kechi na koto.	Warui koto.	A wicked thing.
Kosoppai.	Kosobaii.	Ticklish.
Unasaruru.	Osuwaruru.	To have the nightmare.
Daijin	Fu-kyaku.	A rich guest.
Daté.	Daté.	Luxurious and elegant: a fop.
Hanka.	Nama-naka.	Impertinent and pedantic.
Shara-kusai.	Nama-iki.	To pretend to be something that one is not. “Cheeky.�
O kan.	Atsu-mono.	A hot object.
Tanabata.	Tama ni kuru kyaku.	An occasional guest.
Kuzetsu.	Chiwa-genkwa.	A curtain lecture.
Sashi.	Ai-gataki kyaku.	A guest with whom one cannot meet.
Nushi.	Iro-otoko.	A paramour.
O yukari sama.	Najimi kyaku.	A familiar guest.
Muk� no hito.	Y�-tashi akindo.	A Yoshiwara storekeeper.
Shir�to-ya.	Futsū no sh�ka.	Merchants and shopkeepers.
Go te san.	Go teishu.	The proprietor of a tea-house or hotel.
Okasan.	O kamisan.	The wife of the above.
Ani-san.	Musuko.	The son of the above.
Gebiz�: Kurai-nuke.	B�shoku suru hito.	A glutton.
Inasé.	Sugata no yoi hito.	A person with an elegant figure.
Shitta ka y�.	Bakarashii.	Ridiculous.
Jirett�su.	Jirett� gozaimasu.	I am vexed.
Y�-zansu.	Y� gozaimasu.	All right: Very well.
Nan zansu ka?	Nan de gozaimasu ka?	What is it?
Kii-shita.	Kimashita.	Has come.
Dashi-kitte.	Arawasu.	To show (or) manifest anything.
Shinobi-komeru.	Hisoka ni.	Secretly.
Samisen-ban.	Mise no samisen wo adzukaru {shinzo}.	{Samisen} keeper.
Nanto demo ii nanshi.	Nanto demo o ii nasai.	Say whatever you like (I don’t mind).
Chotto mi nē!	Miyagaré.	Oh! just look at (hear) him!
Ii ame dakké nē!	(The same).	What good rain![31]
Akire-kēru yo.	Akire-kaeru yo.	I am astonished.
Pochi-pochi.	Oiran ni kawai-garareta hito.	A guest loved by a courtesan.
Chaki-chaki.	Oiran ni niku-mareta hito.	The reverse.
Ki-fū.	Kiita-fū.	Pedantic style.
Shiwo-ya. Enjir�.	Jiman unubore no hito.	A conceited fellow.

A saying in vogue about the Bunkwa era (1804–1817) was:—You can distinguish the Ōgi-ya by “watakushi� the Tama-ya by “shitsukata� the Ch�jiya by “zansu� and the Matsuba-ya by “osu.� This was said because of the peculiar dialects, spoken in the respective houses, changed into zansu, zaisu, ossu, osu, ariisu, etc. The sato-kotoba has now entirely disappeared, but as many of the women come from the Western provinces, in the neighbourhood of Ky�to, it is common in the Yoshiwara to hear such words as “anata itsu kiyaharimasu� (when will you come?), “s� dakka� (is that so?), “ah�rashii� (nonsense!), etc.

Sh�gi no okonau juho.
(Magic charms practised by the Yoshiwara courtesans.)

The Yoshiwara inhabitants are all peculiarly superstitious people and great believers in omens, consequently they carefully avoid anything which may be construed as fore-shadowing ill-luck. The word cha (tea) is supposed to be unlucky because it occurs in the phrase o cha wo hiku (literally “to pulverize tea,� but idiomatically it is applied to women of ill-fame who are unpopular and means “to be out of employment�) therefore it is carefully eschewed not only by courtesans but by geisha also.[32] The courtesans call “tea� “agaribana� (“going-up-flower�: meaning a guest who is going up the stairs) or “yamabuki� (“yellow rose�) or Uji (the name of a place) because the liquor of the infused tea is the colour of the yamubuki flower, and because Uji (near Ky�to) is a noted tea-district. Geisha speak of tea as “o-de-bana� (“august-going-out-flower�) because this expression conveys the sense of their “going out� and gathering presents (hana) from guests. Sitting on the staircase is looked upon with aversion, as this is supposed to decrease the number of guests. When a cat, or a domestic fowl, passes through a room it is immediately caught and brought back to the direction from whence it came, because the local folk believe that the toleration of such an event will tend to make guests go away without stopping at the house. There are a great many silly superstitions of a similar nature in the Yoshiwara, and charms of all kinds are extensively practised. Every evening the bant� of each brothel says a prayer before the “Engi-dana� (the shelf of good luck: this was formerly furnished with emblems of phallic worship), a bundle of wooden clog-checks (to which a long rope is attached) is held up and struck several times against the floor of the house, and then an imitation of a rat’s squeak is made while the bant� strikes a pillar of the house with his hand. This process is said to be a charm for attracting many guests. It would require a thick volume to contain a description of all these charms, therefore only a few of the principal ones as mentioned in the “Sh�bai Ōrai� (倡賣往來), written by Jippensha Ikku, are given here.

Charm for attracting a person for whom one is waiting:—It is a most efficacious method to stick an eel-skewer in the wall and pray for the advent of the party whose presence is desired.