The tayū and k�shi prosper and the sancha and baicha also become popular, their voices echoing like the twittering of singing birds. The great houses of Yamaguchi and Miura are famed for their wealth and prosperity, and indeed they are the famous things of Sumich�. Ha-a! ho-ho! Look at the Daijin-mai (dance.)
(Next Daijin): Yamamoto no H�jun is a well-known resident of Shimmachi, Kago-guke (the feat of passing though a hollow cylinder of basket-work) of Tsunokuni is the famous thing of Sumi-ch�, the Tosa smoked bonito sold by Temmaya is that of Ni-ch�-me, and Hishidaya Matayemon is said to be a descendant of Sh�ji Jimbei. Look at the Daijin-mai (dance.)
(Next Daijin): The beginning of Sin-goza must be attributed to Iseya Jūbei. He redeemed a well-known yūjo—Katsuyama—belonging to Ōmatsu-ya of Ni-ch�me. Yukata-mono (people belonging to respectable samurai families) is the commencement of Shin-goza. Ha-a! ho-ho! Look at the Daijin-mai (dance.)
(Next Daijin): As to the beginning of yubi-kiri (finger-cutting) it first took place between the leading yūjo of Tsuta-ya, named Fujishiro, and Totsuno Yohei, and then the practice gradually spread until it took place between Hana-Murasaki of Ōbishiya and Takayasu Hikotar�. Ha-a! ho-ho! Look at the Daijin-mai (dance).
(Next Daijin). [Here the text is so obscure that nothing can be made of it.]
As to the tunes played when the Dai-jin-mai was danced, these have been explained by Mr. Ōtsuki J�den and by the widow of the late noted painter Naga-aki Anshun. (This lady was formerly a geisha in the Yoshiwara called O-Hata, and is well versed in music as well as the ancient customs of the Yoshiwara: she lives at 42 Sh�den-ch�, Yokoch�, Asakusa, T�ky�). These songs are said to have usually been sung and danced by the h�kan before guests during the New Year holidays.
Daikoku-mai no koto.
(Daikoku-mai dancing.)
The custom of performing this Daikoku-mai dance has now completely disappeared in the Yoshiwara.
According to the reply given by Shichizaemon, manager of the dancing, and also a subordinate chief of beggars (hi-nin kogashira) to an enquiry made of him by the nanushi of the Yoshiwara in the 12th month of the 13th year of Temp� (January 1843,) there was, during the Genroku era (1688–1704), a subordinate chief of beggars, named Manjir�, living at the creek-side of Nihon-bashi, and this Manjir� was very proficient in the art of singing popular songs. One day he picked up a mask (representing the god Daikoku) floating in the creek, wore it, and danced comic dances in the Yoshiwara to the strains of the samisen played by his friend Shichiz�. This was the origin of the Daikoku-mai. Shichiz� (or Shichizaemon), who furnished this information, was a lineal descendant of the samisen-player Shichiz�. The “D�b�-Goen� says that in the first month of each year Daikoku-mai dancers came into the Yoshiwara, performed various antics, and entertained people with their buffoonery and comic imitations of things and persons.
They used to frequent the Yoshiwara from the 2nd day of the first month of the year until the first “horse day� (hatsu-uma) in the second month. After that the “Daikoku-kagura� players frequented the Yoshiwara. The Daikoku-mai dancers, however, visited the Yoshiwara on all principal holidays, especially on the bean-throwing day (mame-maki no hi) in the twelfth month and the last day (�-misoka) of the year. These players were great favourites with many of the yūjo, and considerable money was given to them by the latter. It is said that a good many secret love passages took place between the yūjo and these dancers. In the whole of the Yoshiwara only Kado Tsutaya at Yedo-ch�, Ni-ch�-me, made it a rule of the house not to grant admission to the Daikoku-mai dancers. Prior to this, puppet dancers (ningy�-tsukai) also frequented the Yoshiwara, but since the appearance of the Daikoku-mai dancers their visits ceased.