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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 many of these more rural areas, prostitutes operating independent of any brothel or master but only for their own individual livelihoods or profit came to be known as ''goke'' (後家), or "widows," after the idea of a fisherman's wife, or villager's wife otherwise, who sells sex as a way to support herself after the death of her husband; not all ''goke'' were actually widows, however.
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 many of these more rural areas, prostitutes operating independent of any brothel or master but only for their own individual livelihoods or profit came to be known as ''goke'' (後家), or "widows," after the idea of a fisherman's wife, or villager's wife otherwise, who sells sex as a way to support herself after the death of her husband; not all ''goke'' were actually widows, however.
The shogunate lifted in [[1718]] a ban on prostitution in post-stations, allowing at that time two serving girls per inn. Inns at many post-stations quickly began to resemble brothels, and those post-stations which engaged in prostitution quickly came to enjoy greater economic prosperity than those which didn't. At some, women went so far as to literally drag travelers into their establishments; some travelers sought out stations with such lively activity, but confraternities (''[[tanomoshi ko|kô]]'') also published travel guides helping travelers avoid such harassment. Most post-stations flaunted a far greater number of prostitutes than the two girls per establishment limit, but as with most such things in Edo period Japan, it was hardly enforced. Urban post-stations, such as at [[Kanagawa-juku]] and [[Kawasaki-juku]] (not far from Edo), which served a somewhat more urbanite and sophisticated clientele, often recruited from ''shitamachi'' (low class) neighborhoods of the city. However, at more rural post stations, such as those along the [[Nakasendo|Nakasendô]], many of the girls came from more rural regions, especially [[Echigo province]].
===Meiji Period===
===Meiji Period===
