Contemptible things. A guest who keeps away from a brothel when accounts have to be settled; one candle for a company of three persons; a j�ro who slavishly obeys a yarite; a lantern which is used for two rooms conjointly.
Things for which one waits impatiently. An agreement to wait until the expiry of the term of a j�ro’s engagement; bed-time on the occasion of a first meeting.
Apparently reliable things. The address of a j�ro’s parents as told to her guest; the infant name of a j�ro.
Unreliable things. The tears of a j�ro when she inflicts a curtain lecture on her guest.
Dai-ya no koto.
(Cook-houses of the Yoshiwara.)
In former days the present “Dai-ya� (cook-houses) were called “Ki-no-ji-ya� owing to the fact that a man named Oda-wara-ya Ki-ue first established such houses. Originally only the smaller brothels were supplied with food from these dai-ya, but now-a-days all the brothels, irrespective of size or grade, draw their foodsupply from the cook-houses. These dai-ya supply every conceivable kind of food, be it sushi (a fish and rice roll), kwashi (cakes), soba (buck-wheat macaroni), midzu-gwashi (fruit), or what not; and according to the quantity of food, dishes are divided into three classes, viz:—Nami-dai (ordinary dish), Dai-sh� (medium-sized dish), and Ō-dai (a large-sized dish). These sizes are charged out at 25 sen, 37-1�2 sen, and 50 sen respectively, but the dai-ya are said to supply brothels at one third of the above prices, and if that be so then the latter earn a profit of two-thirds of the selling price to guests! The rule is to make a prompt cash payment on delivery of food, but as a matter of fact a wooden ticket, bearing the sign of each brothel, is given in exchange for dai-no-mono (food brought in) every time it is brought in, and payment is made the following day. It is stated by “those who know� that there are some brothels which have a debt of several hundred Yen to the dai-ya. There are a great many dai-ya in the Yoshiwara, but those which usually supply first-class brothels are “Koi-matsu� of Ageya-ch� Ni-ch�-me; “Yao-kyū� of the same street; and “Matsu-no� of Sumi-ch�. In counting the number of dai-no-mono, the auxiliary numeral “mai� is used: thus “nami-sammai� (ordinary three flat things) means three ordinary dishes of food. This is generally abbreviated to simply—“nami san� (ordinary three) etc., and the auxiliary numeral eliminated. An ordinary dish, with a bottle of saké thrown in, is known as “ichi-mai ippon� [one (dish) and one bottle.] Sometimes a guest orders food merely for the good of the house, and under these circumstances will be asked:—“What will you take?� He will no doubt reply:—“Nan demo ii yo� (“Anything will do�) and so the cook-house is instructed to send in a demo-dai (a dish of “anything�: demo is a contraction of nan demo = “anything�) which means that there is no particular choice on the part of the customer.
By the way, there is, in the “Sh�bai Ōrai� (倡賣往來) by Ikku, an item which shows a bill of fare in a dai-ya a hundred years ago. It is as follows:—“The bill of fare of the “Ki-no-ji-ya� consisted of:—
etc., all of which foods are suitable for those persons who stop in brothels for several consecutive days.