Changes

The city was home to several competing pleasure districts, including the upper-class Nakamichi ''[[yujo|yûjo]]'' district, and the somewhat lesser Teramachi district, where the girls were called ''ukimi''. Nakamachi attempted to petition in 1730 for a monopoly on prostitution in the city, such as was officially held by the [[Yoshiwara]] in [[Edo]], and argued that the ''ukimi'' dressed and played [[shamisen]] like ''yûjo'', thus diluting their product; the petition was denied, however, as city officials maintained their position of neither banning prostitution nor officially permitting (let alone encouraging) it. ''[[Shinbo jowa|Shinbo jôwa]]'', a volume written by one of the town magistrates in or around the 1790s, presents the position that while prostitution is recognized as a societal evil, and while local officials are opposed to it presenting any distraction or problem for local boys/men, it cannot be banned for fear that merchant sailors will bypass Niigata for other more "pleasurable" ports, thus doing great harm to the economic prosperity of the city, and of the domain. By the early 19th century, the sex trade had grown so strong and prevalent in the city - and so essential to the city's economic prosperity - that officials found they could not curb it even if they wanted to. Ultimately, unable to regulate prostitution in any way without risking harming the city's economy, officials eliminated the legal distinction between prostitutes and other women, thus opening the door for individual women, unaffiliated with a brothel, to begin operating as prostitutes independently. Such women, decidedly not working to support their parents as an act of [[filial piety]], but for their own personal livelihood or profit, came to be known as "widows" (''goke'', 後家). Many had experience working in inns, teahouses, or brothels elsewhere in the realm.

The city was home to several competing pleasure districts, including the upper-class Nakamichi ''[[yujo|yûjo]]'' district, and the somewhat lesser Teramachi district, where the girls were called ''ukimi''. Nakamachi attempted to petition in 1730 for a monopoly on prostitution in the city, such as was officially held by the [[Yoshiwara]] in [[Edo]], and argued that the ''ukimi'' dressed and played [[shamisen]] like ''yûjo'', thus diluting their product; the petition was denied, however, as city officials maintained their position of neither banning prostitution nor officially permitting (let alone encouraging) it. ''[[Shinbo jowa|Shinbo jôwa]]'', a volume written by one of the town magistrates in or around the 1790s, presents the position that while prostitution is recognized as a societal evil, and while local officials are opposed to it presenting any distraction or problem for local boys/men, it cannot be banned for fear that merchant sailors will bypass Niigata for other more "pleasurable" ports, thus doing great harm to the economic prosperity of the city, and of the domain. By the early 19th century, the sex trade had grown so strong and prevalent in the city - and so essential to the city's economic prosperity - that officials found they could not curb it even if they wanted to. Ultimately, unable to regulate prostitution in any way without risking harming the city's economy, officials eliminated the legal distinction between prostitutes and other women, thus opening the door for individual women, unaffiliated with a brothel, to begin operating as prostitutes independently. Such women, decidedly not working to support their parents as an act of [[filial piety]], but for their own personal livelihood or profit, came to be known as "widows" (''goke'', 後家). Many had experience working in inns, teahouses, or brothels elsewhere in the realm.

The shogunate, under ''[[roju|rôjû]]'' [[Mizuno Tadakuni]], seeking to exert greater control over domestic and foreign trade, and over coastal defense, added the port of Niigata and the neighboring village of Niigata-hama to the set of cities under direct shogunate control in [[1843]]. Though domain elders (''[[karo|karô]]'') protested against relinquishing the domain's chief source of economic viability to the shogunate, the [[Makino clan]] ''daimyô'' of the time, possibly for political reasons, put up little resistance. This set the stage for Niigata to become opened to foreign trade as a [[treaty port]] in the 1850s.  

The shogunate, under ''[[roju|rôjû]]'' [[Mizuno Tadakuni]], seeking to exert greater control over domestic and foreign trade, and over coastal defense, added the port of Niigata and the neighboring village of Niigata-hama to the set of cities under direct shogunate control in [[1843]]. Though domain elders (''[[karo|karô]]'') protested against relinquishing the domain's chief source of economic viability to the shogunate, the [[Makino clan]] ''daimyô'' of the time, possibly for political reasons, put up little resistance. The shogunal [[bugyo|magistrate]] placed in charge of the city at that time, [[Kawamura Nagataka]], implemented a variety of policies restricting legal or recognized prostitution to certain areas where it was already prevalent, and officially categorized establishments and women in those districts according to categories employed in other shogunal cities.

 

The conversion of Niigata to a shogunal city set the stage for it to become opened to foreign trade as a [[treaty port]] in the 1850s.  

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