Changes

Despite its marginal status, the Yoshiwara managed to exercise some degree of political autonomy, and pressure on the shogunate, at times. In [[1665]], managers of the Yoshiwara managed to persuade the shogunate to forcibly shut down much of the Yoshiwara's competition, outside of the district. The authorities shut down two hundred bathhouses and arrested 600 of the girls who worked there, marking the effective end of the phenomenon of ''[[yuna]]'', or bathhouse girls, many of whom relocated to the Yoshiwara and took up work there, often as ''[[sancha]]'' (teahouse waitresses).<ref>Stanley, 61.</ref> Meanwhile, up until the 1740s, the Yoshiwara served a role for the shogunate as a site of criminal punishment for women - under certain circumstances, after committing certain crimes, a woman could be given over by the authorities into a life of servitude in the Yoshiwara. This became more systematized after the issuance of the ''[[kujikata osadamegaki]]'' of standardized penalties in [[1742]]; unlicensed prostitutes were now to be sentenced to three years service in the Yoshiwara.<ref>Stanley, 50, 61.</ref>

Despite its marginal status, the Yoshiwara managed to exercise some degree of political autonomy, and pressure on the shogunate, at times. In [[1665]], managers of the Yoshiwara managed to persuade the shogunate to forcibly shut down much of the Yoshiwara's competition, outside of the district. The authorities shut down two hundred bathhouses and arrested 600 of the girls who worked there, marking the effective end of the phenomenon of ''[[yuna]]'', or bathhouse girls, many of whom relocated to the Yoshiwara and took up work there, often as ''[[sancha]]'' (teahouse waitresses).<ref>Stanley, 61.</ref> Meanwhile, up until the 1740s, the Yoshiwara served a role for the shogunate as a site of criminal punishment for women - under certain circumstances, after committing certain crimes, a woman could be given over by the authorities into a life of servitude in the Yoshiwara. This became more systematized after the issuance of the ''[[kujikata osadamegaki]]'' of standardized penalties in [[1742]]; unlicensed prostitutes were now to be sentenced to three years service in the Yoshiwara.<ref>Stanley, 50, 61.</ref>

The Yoshiwara was the only licensed district in Edo. The authorities attempted to control prostitution and other such unsavory activities by giving them somewhere legal to be, and limiting them to that space. For a time from the 1660s onward, Yoshiwara brothel proprietors were even entrusted with leading raids on clandestine prostitution operations outside of the district, enforcing their monopoly firsthand; still, despite their oppositional nature, the proprietors of operations within and outside of the Yoshiwara were actually very well-connected with one another, in terms of information, recruiting, and so forth, and thus to a certain extent were supportive of one another's activities. By the end of the Edo period, in fact, the Yoshiwara proprietors were supportive of the reestablishment of the [[Fukagawa]] district, despite the competition it would create, seeing the Fukagawa proprietors, rather, as allies in expanding their business.<ref>Stanley, 63-65.</ref> In the 1840s, there were around 7000 prostitutes operating in the Yoshiwara; historian Amy Stanley estimates a total of 10-15,000 operating within the greater Edo area, including roughly one thousand ''[[meshimori onna]]'' (serving girls) at post-station inns, and whatever number of prostitutes operating in unlicensed districts.<ref>Stanley, 2.</ref> From time to time, the shogunate would crack down on illegal prostitution operating elsewhere in the city. Sometimes, as in [[1842]] when over 4,000 prostitutes were arrested, they were simply relocated to the Yoshiwara; other times, of course, the penalties were harsher. On one occasion, in [[1639]], eleven managers of bathhouses and other Yoshiwara operations were crucified outside the Great Gate of the district for illegal activities committed outside the quarter. By the 19th century, however, prostitution outside the Yoshiwara's walls was established enough, and supported or ignored enough by the authorities, that the division between legal and illegal prostitution came to be defined less by the walls of the Yoshiwara, and more by the quality of the prostitutes' contracts; those properly associated with an inn or teahouse came to be largely tolerated, while those with no contract, such as women operating independently, or being pimped out by their husbands, became the chief target of arrests.<ref>Stanley, 65.</ref>

The Yoshiwara was the only licensed district in Edo. The authorities attempted to control prostitution and other such unsavory activities by giving them somewhere legal to be, and limiting them to that space. For a time from the 1660s onward, Yoshiwara brothel proprietors were even entrusted with leading raids on clandestine prostitution operations outside of the district, enforcing their monopoly firsthand; still, despite their oppositional nature, the proprietors of operations within and outside of the Yoshiwara were actually very well-connected with one another, in terms of information, recruiting, and so forth, and thus to a certain extent were supportive of one another's activities. By the end of the Edo period, in fact, the Yoshiwara proprietors were supportive of the reestablishment of the [[Fukagawa]] district, despite the competition it would create, seeing the Fukagawa proprietors, rather, as allies in expanding their business.<ref>Stanley, 63-65.</ref>  

 

The district grew rapidly from just under 550 prostitutes in [[1661]], right after the rebuilding following the Meireki Fire, up to over 2,700 by [[1689]], the second year of [[Genroku]]. These numbers remained fairly stable, in fact dropping a bit, to remain around 2,200 to 2,400 for the next hundred years, until the 1770s or so, when the number of prostitutes operating in the Yoshiwara began to grow rapidly again. In 1800, the district boasted just under 5,500 women, a figure which rose to just under 5,800 by the 1830s, and to an all-time peak of 7,144 around [[1845]], before falling back down to around 4,500 in the 1850s-1860s.<ref>Gallery labels, ''Yûjo no jitsuzô'', Edo-Tokyo Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/9340221433/sizes/h/]</ref> Historian Amy Stanley estimates that including both the Yoshiwara and beyond, there may have been a total of 10-15,000 operating within the greater Edo area, at the peak in the 1840s, including roughly one thousand ''[[meshimori onna]]'' (serving girls) at post-station inns, and whatever number of prostitutes operating in unlicensed districts.<ref>Stanley, 2.</ref> From time to time, the shogunate would crack down on illegal prostitution operating elsewhere in the city. Sometimes, as in [[1842]] when over 4,000 prostitutes were arrested, they were simply relocated to the Yoshiwara; other times, of course, the penalties were harsher. On one occasion, in [[1639]], eleven managers of bathhouses and other Yoshiwara operations were crucified outside the Great Gate of the district for illegal activities committed outside the quarter. By the 19th century, however, prostitution outside the Yoshiwara's walls was established enough, and supported or ignored enough by the authorities, that the division between legal and illegal prostitution came to be defined less by the walls of the Yoshiwara, and more by the quality of the prostitutes' contracts; those properly associated with an inn or teahouse came to be largely tolerated, while those with no contract, such as women operating independently, or being pimped out by their husbands, became the chief target of arrests.<ref>Stanley, 65.</ref>

Not only a center of prostitution and related activities, the Yoshiwara was also a center of cultural production. While most novelists, artists, publishers and the like made their homes in the commercial districts closer to the center of the city, some lived in or just outside the Yoshiwara, taking the environment as a muse, and the Yoshiwara customers and residents as patrons. [[Tsutaya Juzaburo|Tsutaya Jûzaburô]], likely the most famous of Edo period publishers today, was born and raised in the district; he was the son of a brothel owner, and was adopted as a child by the owner of a teahouse. As an adult, he maintained his shop just outside the Yoshiwara's gates for ten years, from [[1773]]-[[1783]], after which he moved to Toriabura-chô, where most other publishers were located. The author [[Santo Kyoden|Santô Kyôden]] ([[1761]]-[[1816]]) similarly lived much of his life in the Yoshiwara, running a tobacco shop there, and marrying two ''[[shinzo|shinzô]]''<ref>Teenage attendants who had not yet become full-fledged courtesans, or those who wouldn't or couldn't become full-fledged courtesans on account of not possessing the beauty, wit, and/or various skills necessary.</ref> over the course of his lifetime.<ref>Segawa Seigle, 150.</ref> There is also evidence of popular discourses, whether tongue-in-cheek or relatively sincere, regarding the Yoshiwara as a liminal or alternative space; at least one map of the district names it "Geppon" (The Land of the Rising Moon), in parody and contrast to the regular world of Nippon (The Land of the Rising Sun). [[Timon Screech]] has also written of the symbolic or metaphorical association of various landmarks along the river route to the pleasure districts as parts of an imagination of the journey as one from the "hell" of everyday life to the "heaven" or "paradise" of the Yoshiwara.<ref>Timon Screech, Morishita Masaaki (trans.), ''Edo no daifushin'' 江戸の大普請, Kodansha, 2007.</ref>

Not only a center of prostitution and related activities, the Yoshiwara was also a center of cultural production. While most novelists, artists, publishers and the like made their homes in the commercial districts closer to the center of the city, some lived in or just outside the Yoshiwara, taking the environment as a muse, and the Yoshiwara customers and residents as patrons. [[Tsutaya Juzaburo|Tsutaya Jûzaburô]], likely the most famous of Edo period publishers today, was born and raised in the district; he was the son of a brothel owner, and was adopted as a child by the owner of a teahouse. As an adult, he maintained his shop just outside the Yoshiwara's gates for ten years, from [[1773]]-[[1783]], after which he moved to Toriabura-chô, where most other publishers were located. The author [[Santo Kyoden|Santô Kyôden]] ([[1761]]-[[1816]]) similarly lived much of his life in the Yoshiwara, running a tobacco shop there, and marrying two ''[[shinzo|shinzô]]''<ref>Teenage attendants who had not yet become full-fledged courtesans, or those who wouldn't or couldn't become full-fledged courtesans on account of not possessing the beauty, wit, and/or various skills necessary.</ref> over the course of his lifetime.<ref>Segawa Seigle, 150.</ref> There is also evidence of popular discourses, whether tongue-in-cheek or relatively sincere, regarding the Yoshiwara as a liminal or alternative space; at least one map of the district names it "Geppon" (The Land of the Rising Moon), in parody and contrast to the regular world of Nippon (The Land of the Rising Sun). [[Timon Screech]] has also written of the symbolic or metaphorical association of various landmarks along the river route to the pleasure districts as parts of an imagination of the journey as one from the "hell" of everyday life to the "heaven" or "paradise" of the Yoshiwara.<ref>Timon Screech, Morishita Masaaki (trans.), ''Edo no daifushin'' 江戸の大普請, Kodansha, 2007.</ref>