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Kawamura Nagataka was a shogunate official who came to oversee the port city of [[Niigata]] after it was placed under shogunate authority in [[1843]]. There, he oversaw both local city administration (including matters of justice, urban society, and port trade) and the transformation of Niigata into a key site of national coastal defense along the [[Sea of Japan]] coast.

Kawamura Nagataka was a shogunate official who came to oversee the port city of [[Niigata]] after it was placed under shogunate authority in [[1843]]. There, he oversaw both local city administration (including matters of justice, urban society, and port trade) and the transformation of Niigata into a key site of national coastal defense along the [[Sea of Japan]] coast.

Faced with a considerable and largely unregulated sex trade in the city, Kawamura consulted his staff and other local officials as to how to restrict or eliminate prostitution in the city. Ultimately, he compromised, recognizing the importance of prostitution to the economic viability of the city, and rejecting suggestions to restrict it to a single licensed quarters, or to attempt to eliminate it entirely. Instead, in an effort to endear himself as a "compassionate" and "benevolent" administrator over the people of this city, Kawamura had existing pleasure districts officially designated, and categorized according to legal categories extant in other shogunal cities. Several districts became home to "teahouses" (''tomari jaya'') employing "tea-serving girls" (''chakumi onna''), while others became home to "sailors' inns" (''funayado''), staffed by "laundry girls" (''sentaku onna''). [[Sumptuary regulations]] were also put into place, but little action was taken against prostitutes or establishments operating outside of the official districts.

Faced with a considerable and largely unregulated sex trade in the city, Kawamura consulted his staff and other local officials as to how to restrict or eliminate prostitution in the city. Ultimately, he compromised, recognizing the importance of prostitution to the economic viability of the city, and rejecting suggestions to restrict it to a single licensed quarters, or to attempt to eliminate it entirely. Instead, in an effort to endear himself as a "compassionate" and "benevolent" administrator over the people of this city, Kawamura had existing pleasure districts officially designated, and categorized according to legal categories extant in other shogunal cities. Several districts became home to "teahouses" (''tomari jaya'') employing "tea-serving girls" (''chakumi onna''), while others became home to "sailors' inns" (''funayado''), staffed by "laundry girls" (''sentaku onna''). [[Sumptuary regulations]] were also put into place, but little action was taken against prostitutes or establishments operating outside of the official districts.

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==References==

==References==

*Amy Stanley, ''Selling Women: Prostitution, Markets, and the Household in Early Modern Japan'', UC Press (2012), 125-131.

*Amy Stanley, ''Selling Women: Prostitution, Markets, and the Household in Early Modern Japan'', UC Press (2012), 125-131.

[[Category:Edo Period]]

[[Category:Edo Period]]

[[Category:Samurai]]

[[Category:Samurai]]