In some houses however, all the inmates have dinner together in the kitchen, and so there is an old saying—“Yūjo wo nabe-kama nashi no shotai-mochi� (“Yūjo are like house-holders who are possessed of neither pots nor pans.�) In the Kajita-r� the yūjo used to make their servants boil rice for them in their own rooms over charcoal fires.
Hiké no koto.
(Closing hours in the Yoshiwara.)
Mention is made in the “Yoshiwara Ōkagami� (�原大鑑) that the hiké was fixed at 10 o’clock, but afterwards this was considered too early, and no clapping of hy�shigi (a pair of wooden blocks which are struck together as a signal) was made at that hour. The great gate (Ō-mon) was shut at 10 o’clock, but the kuguri-do (a small low door cut in a gate) was left open so as to permit ingress and egress. When the hour of midnight struck, (then called kokonotsu-doki), the hy�shigi were clapped together four times, and the place was finally closed up.
K�ch� no koto.
(The next morning.)
In the “Yoshiwara Ōkagami� (�原大鑑)—referred to in the preceding chapter—it says that “the parting and return home in the morning is called “K�ch�� (後�), but in ordinary Japanese the parting of two lovers in the morning is idiomatically termed “Kinu-ginu no wakare.�
Hiru-jimai Yo-jimai no koto.
(The day and night engagements of courtesans.)
The “Yoshiwara Ōkagami� (�原大鑑) also says that there were formerly two kinds of shimai (仕舞 here the word means “engagement�) viz:—Hiru-jimai (day engagement) and Yo-jimai (night engagement.)[36]
Raku-seki no koto.
(The removal of names from the register of the Yoshiwara.)
The “Yoshiwara Ōkagami� (�原大鑑) says:—
There are three kinds of rakuseki. One is to leave the Yoshiwara at the expiry of the term of engagement (nenki aki); the second is to be redeemed by a guest before the term of service has expired (mi-uke); the third is to be redeemed by parents (also mi-uke). When a woman is discharged by her master, owing to the expiry of her term of engagement, she receives back from him her contract (sh�mon) of service and goes away after bidding farewell to her friends and acquaintances. At the same time a check or pass (tegata), couched in the following terms, is given to the woman to serve as a token of her right to pass out of the great gate:—