Prostitution as a public institution is said to have been introduced into Japan by a certain warlike emperor or usurper, who, leading his troops from one place to another in the empire, feared lest, from want of home comforts and domestic ties, they might become disgusted and abandon his service. Accordingly, as a substitute for lawful enjoyments, he had stations for bands of prostitutes at various points, to the nearest of which he led his fatigued soldiers after his engagements.
Another statement as to the origin of this system is that, on one occasion during a revolution, the spiritual emperor having fled, attended by his foster-mother and a numerous band of female attendants, temporary nuns, the emperor and his foster-mother drowned themselves in fear of capture by the enemies; whereupon the attendant nuns, cut off from all other resource, adopted libertinism as a means of livelihood, and this gave the first public example and sanction to a reprobate state of life.
There are in Japan various religious institutions of a character similar to convents and monasteries. The vow of celibacy and chastity is one of the requisites of this state, yet, notwithstanding this vow, the monks are described as living very intemperately, seducing both women and girls, and committing other shameful enormities.[371]
Among the mendicant religious orders to which both sexes belong, the nuns are numerous. They are described as being very fine-looking women. They are generally the children of indigent parents, and good looks are essential to success in their calling, between which and prostitution there seems no difference save in name. Indeed, many of these mendicant nuns go direct from the brothel to their new employment, which, combining various qualifications, is probably more lucrative.
We have been unable to find any information as to the nature or extent of venereal diseases, if any, in Japan. Of infanticide also we have no account.
Commodore Perry, in the Narrative of his Expedition, confirms the facts above stated so far as his opportunities for observation extended. Difficulties were at first thrown in the way of his seeing the Japanese women, and when he walked about the interpreters preceded him, and, under a show of doing him honor, ordered all the women into their houses. Afterward, on the commodore’s remonstrance, the women were allowed to make their appearance, and their manners and looks were not by any means unpleasing. When the officers of the expedition were entertained, they sometimes waited on the party with tea, coffee, and other refreshments. Their manners were mild, their countenances were soft and pleasing, the only objectionable point about them being the abominable habit of blackening their teeth with a highly corrosive pigment partly composed of iron filings and a fermented liquor called saki, which affected the gums very offensively, and caused an appearance and odor decidedly unpleasing to the tastes of Western travelers.
The women of the working classes were engaged in hard field and out-door labor, but not to a greater extent than in densely populated countries in most parts of the world. Commodore Perry assumes that licentiousness must be prevalent in large cities, but he bears his testimony to the good conduct of the women whom the people of the expedition met while on shore.[372]
The opportunities of information and particular inquiry were, however, not very great, owing to the more important political objects of the visit, and the not very protracted stay of the squadron in Japan.
Not content with the excess of incontinence in which the Japanese as a nation indulge, they largely practice unnatural vices, and the youth of the province of Kioto, which is the peculiar appanage of the spiritual emperor, are celebrated on account of their beauty, and command a high price in this horrid traffic.