- Japanese: 湯女 (yuna)
Yuna were bathhouse girls whose official job was bathing and massaging clients, but who served as unlicensed prostitutes outside the Yoshiwara from roughly 1630 until 1657.
The yuna were officially banned by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1648, but this did not put an end to the phenomenon. It was only in 1657, due to pressure from the Yoshiwara in an effort to eliminate the competition, that the yuna disappeared. Many came to work within the Yoshiwara as teahouse waitresses, called sancha.
References
- "Arts of the Bedchamber: Japanese Shunga." Honolulu Museum of Arts, Exhibition Website. Accessed 10 December 2012.