The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes, and Effects throughout the World

by William W. Sanger

JAPAN.

The recent connection established by American enterprise with the semi-fabulous empire of Japan (the Zipangi of Columbus) makes the institutions of that country more than usually interesting. From the earliest accounts of the Dutch and Jesuit writers to the present time, we know that the Japanese, like the Chinese, have attained a high degree of civilization, and among both, the vices which, in the present experience of mankind, seem the accompaniments of that improvement, have been developed in a remarkable degree.

Among savage tribes female honor is held in very little esteem; the woman is merely property. As we advance in the scale of intelligence they take higher grade, and virtue and modesty are more cherished. Our information concerning Japan is, even yet, comparatively limited, but no circumstance of its ordinary life seems more clear than that female virtue among the higher classes is much valued, and that, at the same time, there is an enormous extent of public prostitution, in which men of all ranks indulge.

The Jesuit Charleroix, Kœmpfer, Adams, and some Dutch writers, have given accounts of Japan from the sixteenth century to the present time. Like most Oriental nations, the manners and habits of the Japanese have undergone so little change, that the practices of a century ago are the fashions of to-day. The most recent traveler (for those who composed Commodore Perry’s expedition can hardly be said to come under that denomination) is Captain Golownin, and he had opportunities for close observation not equaled since the times of the early writers. He was commander of the Russian sloop-of-war Diana, and visited the Japanese empire in 1811. Having paid a visit of ceremony ashore, he was induced, by the duplicity of the Japanese, who are adepts in all the political arts of lying and hypocrisy, to trust himself in their hands a second time without arms or escort. The Japanese had an old grudge to settle with the Russians on account of injuries done them by certain individuals of that nation, and took the opportunity of rendering a quid pro quo by entrapping the unlucky Golownin, who was thus made prisoner. He was treated at first with much indignity and severity; afterward with more indulgence, but did not regain his liberty for upward of two years.

The Japanese can marry only one wife, but have as many concubines as they please. The precise value of the distinction is not readily appreciated, as the concubine does not lose caste by her position. There are great facilities of divorce, and without cause shown; but a gentleman who exercises this privilege loses his character as a husband, and can only procure another wife or additional concubines by paying a large price to his father-in-law. Adultery is punished with death, either by law or at the hands of the husband. Japanese husbands are represented as jealous, and as keeping their wives and women in strict seclusion. This strictness is relaxed in the cases of the middle and poorer classes, the necessities of the household removing those artificial obligations imposed on the higher ranks by pride or fashion. But even the women of the humbler ranks do not converse with, or even speak to strangers, unless in the presence of their husbands.

An anecdote is told in Adams’s narrative which somewhat resembles that of Lucretia in Roman history, and which would imply great self-respect among the high caste of Japanese ladies. A nobleman made dishonorable advances toward a lady of rank during her husband’s absence on a journey, and, notwithstanding a repulse from her, seized an opportunity to gratify his passion by violence. On the husband’s return the wife treated him with reserve, and declined any explanation of her singular conduct, which, however, she promised to afford at a banquet to be given the following day. Accordingly, during the feast, at which the author of the outrage was present, when the guests had satisfied their appetites, the lady made her appearance. She told her husband and his friends what had happened, denounced herself as unworthy to live, received the caresses of her husband and relations, by whom, however, she refused to be comforted, and then leaped from the parapet of the house, and so killed herself. Meanwhile the criminal had escaped; but when the horror-stricken guests rushed out to pick up the devoted wife, they found the nobleman weltering in his own blood at her side. He had ripped himself up, the ordinary way of committing suicide in Japan.

The Japanese brothels are of great splendor, and very numerously frequented, containing thirty, forty, fifty, or even a larger number of women. Every place of public entertainment or refreshment maintains prostitutes as a part of the establishment. On stopping at a tavern, it is customary for the courtesans of the house to come out, painted and bedizened, and set forth the claims of their house to the traveler’s patronage, exhibiting themselves as one of the items of the bill of fare. No village, however insignificant, is without one or more houses of ill fame, and there are villages on much-frequented roads, in popular districts, the whole of whose female inhabitants are prostitutes. Two in particular, Agasaki and Goy, are thus described by Kœmpfer. The females are designated Keise, which literally signifies a castle turned upside down. It is uncertain whether the government licenses these places, or merely tolerates them. The former is the more probable, when it is considered that in their mythology they have a goddess analogous to the Corinthian Venus, in whose worship prostitution is a recognized part of the ceremony. Attached to the temple of this impure deity are a large number of priestesses, six hundred or upward, who all prostitute themselves to the worshipers. Notwithstanding this large force, there are constant offers to recruit the ranks by young girls.

The extent of this vice, which is universal throughout the empire, would cause it to be taken as a regular institution of Japan. Nothing is done sub rosa. Courtesans form part of a pleasure party; parents sell their children to brothel-keepers, or apprentice them for a time to such places, and at the expiration of their term they resume (it is said, but this is doubtful) their places in society without any stain on their reputations. Husbands make bargains for the transfer of their wives’ charms, which is a legitimate charge over and above the gratuity to be accorded to the lady. Kœmpfer, in describing the prostitute quarter of Nagasaki, says it consists of very handsome houses. The poor people sell their prettiest daughters to the brothel-keepers, who bring the girls up with various accomplishments. The price of these women is regulated by law, and many of the prostitutes are enabled to abandon their calling, for their good education and agreeable manners procure them husbands, and in their married condition they are fully as good as others.

In his lifetime the brothel-keeper is said by some writers to rank with the skinner or tanner, an opprobrious calling, while others say he ranks with merchants, and his company is not deemed objectionable. This latter statement, if true, may be owing to the circumstance that he holds a government license. In Japan, as in China, the crown is the fountain of all distinction, and every government official has peculiar privileges and a distinct position in the social scale. After his death, however, the brothel-keeper is held in great disesteem. The sanctity of the burial-place, to which particular reverence attaches, would be polluted by his unholy presence, and his odious remains are denied the rite of sepulture, and are dragged in the clothes in which he died to a dunghill, there to be devoured by wild beasts and birds of prey.