contributor
26,975
edits
Changes
From SamuraiWiki
Jump to navigationJump to searchno edit summary
Unlike in the West prostitution has long been seen as sinful and immoral specifically because female promiscuity was itself seen as sinful and immoral, debates in pre-modern and early modern Japan regarding prostitution largely revolved around concerns about its negative impacts on household and community, and on agricultural productivity, as men worried that prostitutes would distract or lure men away from their work, or from their wives and families.
Unlike in the West prostitution has long been seen as sinful and immoral specifically because female promiscuity was itself seen as sinful and immoral, debates in pre-modern and early modern Japan regarding prostitution largely revolved around concerns about its negative impacts on household and community, and on agricultural productivity, as men worried that prostitutes would distract or lure men away from their work, or from their wives and families.
Still, whereas in the West prostitution has long been seen as marginal and undesirable, and as a result has been outlawed in many modern countries, in pre-modern and early modern Japan it was an integral part of the economy in certain important ways, and contributed as well to popular culture and fashion. Many examples of local and regional administration in [[Edo period]] Japan show that despite officials expressing serious concern about the negative social impacts of prostitution, they in many cases acted in favor of the positive economic impacts prostitution would have for their communities, as the expansion of prostitution was tied in with ideas of urbanization & economic development.
Still, whereas in the West prostitution has long been seen as marginal and undesirable, and as a result has been outlawed in many modern countries, in pre-modern and early modern Japan it was an integral part of the economy in certain important ways (including as a way to pay off debts or taxes), and contributed as well to popular culture and fashion. Many examples of local and regional administration in [[Edo period]] Japan show that despite officials expressing serious concern about the negative social impacts of prostitution, they in many cases acted in favor of the positive economic impacts prostitution would have for their communities, as the expansion of prostitution was tied in with ideas of urbanization & economic development.
[[Courtesans]], especially of the [[Yoshiwara]], were highly romanticized in the popular publications (''[[ukiyo-e]]'' woodblock prints, [[printing and publishing|illustrated books]], etc.) of the Edo period, and had a dramatic impact on popular culture and fashion. Courtesans' fashions were the inspiration for fashions among both commoners and elites, and they were seen as models of cultured elegance and refinement. As a result, much modern scholarship, especially in art history, has similarly emphasized the Yoshiwara as a site of great cultural dynamism and activity, and as a wellspring of popular culture. However, scholars such as Amy Stanley point out how oppressive life in the Yoshiwara was for the women living and working there, the vast majority of whom were indentured servants.
[[Courtesans]], especially of the [[Yoshiwara]], were highly romanticized in the popular publications (''[[ukiyo-e]]'' woodblock prints, [[printing and publishing|illustrated books]], etc.) of the Edo period, and had a dramatic impact on popular culture and fashion. Courtesans' fashions were the inspiration for fashions among both commoners and elites, and they were seen as models of cultured elegance and refinement. As a result, much modern scholarship, especially in art history, has similarly emphasized the Yoshiwara as a site of great cultural dynamism and activity, and as a wellspring of popular culture. However, scholars such as Amy Stanley point out how oppressive life in the Yoshiwara was for the women living and working there, the vast majority of whom were indentured servants.
Historian [[Amy Stanley]] argues that this set of attitudes in Edo period Japan represents an ironic reversal from many feminists' attitudes today regarding prostitution. Whereas many feminists today might celebrate a woman's agency, her freedom and power to choose to do what she wishes with her body, it was that self-same agency that made Edo period prostitutes the object of stigma.
Historian [[Amy Stanley]] argues that this set of attitudes in Edo period Japan represents an ironic reversal from many feminists' attitudes today regarding prostitution. Whereas many feminists today might celebrate a woman's agency, her freedom and power to choose to do what she wishes with her body, it was that self-same agency that made Edo period prostitutes the object of stigma.
In the 17th century, prostitution was concentrated chiefly in urban centers, as those cities emerged and grew into some of the largest in the world.
In the 17th century, prostitution was concentrated chiefly in urban centers, as those cities emerged and grew into some of the largest in the world. The shogunate established licensed quarters in several of the major cities, restricting licensed, legal prostitution to designated areas including the Yoshiwara in Edo, the [[Shimabara (Kyoto)|Shimabara]] in Kyoto, and the [[Maruyama]] district in Nagasaki. All other prostitution in those cities was considered illegal, and was occasionally powerfully suppressed, but continued nevertheless. The [[Kabuki]] theater, as it emerged in the early 17th century, was originally closely connected to prostitution, with most if not all of the performers available for sexual services, and with the dances and skits serving, essentially, as advertisement of their bodies. After women were banned from the kabuki stage in [[1629]] (along with young men in [[1642]], though they were later allowed to return), the theater became more distanced from brothel prostitution, though male-male prostitution continued to be available chiefly through the theater world.
In the 18th-19th centuries, with the licensed quarters of [[Edo]], [[Kyoto]], [[Osaka]], and [[Nagasaki]] well-established, the expansion of prostitution was seen mainly in other areas, including [[shukuba|post stations]], port towns, mining towns, regional villages, and so forth, fueled by the growth of travel culture and the expansion of commercial/trading networks.
In the 18th-19th centuries, with the licensed quarters of [[Edo]], [[Kyoto]], [[Osaka]], and [[Nagasaki]] well-established, the expansion of prostitution was seen mainly in other areas, including [[shukuba|post stations]], port towns, mining towns, regional villages, and so forth, fueled by the growth of travel culture and the expansion of commercial/trading networks.
===Meiji Period===
===Meiji Period===
Giving in to pressure from both domestic and international critics, the [[Meiji government]] enacted in [[1872]] a [[Prostitute Emancipation Act]], freeing all [[geisha]] and prostitutes from their contracts of indentured servitude. This had the significant impact of introducing the possibility, and the concept, of "liberation" to the national conversation about prostitution. However, while a great many women were in fact freed by this act, for many others it had little meaningful impact, as they were left with no other source of work or income to turn to, and so prostitution resumed, but merely went further underground. In [[1875]], indentured contracts began to be recognized as legal again.
Giving in to pressure from both domestic and international critics, the [[Meiji government]] enacted in [[1872]] a [[Prostitute Emancipation Act]], freeing all [[geisha]] and prostitutes from their contracts of indentured servitude. This had the significant impact of introducing the possibility, and the concept, of "liberation" to the national conversation about prostitution. However, while a great many women were in fact freed by this act, for many others it had little meaningful impact, as they were left with no other source of work or income to turn to, and so prostitution resumed, but merely went further underground. In [[1875]], indentured contracts began to be recognized as legal again.
As in the Edo period, Meiji period discourses surrounding "liberation" of prostitutes brought increased, rather than decreased, stigmatization. Where women were seen to be helpless victims of indentured servitude, they could be pitied, or admired for their filial piety in suffering this work to help their parents. But, if such contracts were void, and prostitutes liberated to choose their life path, those who chose it anyway came to be seen in a particularly negative light. This stigma was compounded by a skewed lens through which people of the Meiji period (and indeed of every period of time since then) viewed the prostitution of their own day as lower, less refined, less cultivated than that of the past. In the Meiji period, nostalgic views of the Edo period romanticized the courtesans of the Yoshiwara as cultured, elegant dancers, musicians, poets, fashionistas and so forth, ignoring entirely the many unlicensed prostitutes who operated elsewhere in the big cities, and in the provinces. By the 1950s-60s, people came to see the prostitutes of the Meiji period as filial and relatively restrained and refined, in contrast to the frivolous and self-interested ''panpan'' girls who serviced the American servicemen during the Occupation. Similarly, in the 1990s, there was widespread criticism or concern about the practice of ''enjo kôsai'' (compensated dating), in which high school girls went out on dates with older men in exchange for money.
Despite Westernizing processes and the growth of Western-influenced attitudes about prostitution as particularly undesirable, the increased urbanization and industrialization of the Meiji period brought a dramatic increase in prostitution. Even as prominent figures such as [[Mori Arinori]] and [[Fukuzawa Yukichi]] pushed that marital sex was the only moral sex, railroads, urbanization, and industrialization brought more men to factories, garrisons, naval yards, and so forth, and thus created increased demand for prostitution. Scholar Morisaki Kazue famously described the result as a ''baishun no ôkoku'' ("Kingdom of Prostitution"). Between 1884 and 1916, the number of registered brothel prostitutes (娼妓, ''shôgi'') nearly doubled, from over 28,000 to just over 54,000, while the total Japanese population increased by only 50 percent. This number does not include the nearly 80,000 geisha and nearly 50,000 registered barmaids many of whom also provided sexual services. By [[Sheldon Garon|Sheldon Garon’s]] estimate, by the [[Taisho period|Taishô period]], about 1 in 31 Japanese women was employed in the sex trade, many of them from poor families, and disproportionately from the northeast.
Regular medical screenings of prostitutes began in the 1880s, spurred initially by the demands of foreigners in [[Yokohama]] and other [[treaty ports]], who wished to ensure that they could partake of sexual services without fear of disease.
==Terminology==
==Terminology==
