Changes

The Yoshiwara got its start when Shôji Jin'uemon was granted license in [[1617]] by the shogunate to consolidate all the brothels in the city into a certain area, the Yoshiwara neighborhood.<ref>[[Eiko Ikegami]], ''Bonds of Civility'', Cambridge University Press (2005), 268.</ref> He had applied in [[1605]] to start a brothel keepers' guild, but was denied by the shogunate. In [[1612]], he returned with a new proposition. He argued that prostitution throughout the city created opportunities for daughters from "good" families to be abducted into the sex trade, for young men to be distracted from their work & led to squander their money in brothels, and for samurai to plot rebellion in courtesans' private quarters. Jin'emon proposed that all of these social problems could be controlled if he were to be granted monopoly rights on operating brothels in the city; the shogunate could restrict all prostitution to a single pleasure district, and within that district, Jin'emon and his fellow brothel keepers could keep records of customers coming and going, and could report to the authorities on any suspicious activities.<ref>Stanley, 45.</ref>.

The Yoshiwara got its start when Shôji Jin'uemon was granted license in [[1617]] by the shogunate to consolidate all the brothels in the city into a certain area, the Yoshiwara neighborhood.<ref>[[Eiko Ikegami]], ''Bonds of Civility'', Cambridge University Press (2005), 268.</ref> He had applied in [[1605]] to start a brothel keepers' guild, but was denied by the shogunate. In [[1612]], he returned with a new proposition. He argued that prostitution throughout the city created opportunities for daughters from "good" families to be abducted into the sex trade, for young men to be distracted from their work & led to squander their money in brothels, and for samurai to plot rebellion in courtesans' private quarters. Jin'emon proposed that all of these social problems could be controlled if he were to be granted monopoly rights on operating brothels in the city; the shogunate could restrict all prostitution to a single pleasure district, and within that district, Jin'emon and his fellow brothel keepers could keep records of customers coming and going, and could report to the authorities on any suspicious activities.<ref>Stanley, 45.</ref>.

The district was quickly built over the course of the next year, opening for business in [[1618]]. Brothels and teahouses were organized along four streets, in a twenty-acre area<ref name=allenxiv>Laura Allen, "Introduction," in ''Seduction: Japan's Floating World'', San Francisco: Asian Art Museum (2015), xiv.</ref> surrounded by high plaster walls, and accessible only by a single point of entrance/egress, the Great Gate, or Yoshiwara-Ômon. A sign was placed just outside the gate declaring the district's monopoly, and requiring that only physicians could enter on horseback or in a palanquin, and that all must leave spears or longswords outside. By [[1626]], the last holdouts against the Yoshiwara monopoly - brothel owners based in Sumichô - relocated to the Yoshiwara, leaving only unlicensed (and thus, illegal) prostitution in the remainder of the city. At that time, courtesans' contracts were limited to ten years; however, they would later extend over much longer periods.  

The district was quickly built over the course of the next year, opening for business in [[1618]]. As the area was originally known as ''Ashihara'' (芦原, "field of reeds"), a homophone for "field of bad/evil" (悪し原), Jin'emon renamed it "field of good/luck" (吉原) - Yoshihara, or Yoshiwara. Over the course of the period, the district came to be called by numerous euphemistic names, including Geppon ("the land of the rising moon"), Karyûkai ("world of flowers and willows"), and Fuyajô ("No-Night Castle").<ref>Amy Stanley, ''Selling Women: Prostitution, Markets, and the Household in Early Modern Japan'', University of California Press (2012), 52.; Christine Guth, Art of Edo Japan, ''Yale University Press'' (1996), 92.</ref>

 

Brothels and teahouses were organized along four streets, in a twenty-acre area<ref name=allenxiv>Laura Allen, "Introduction," in ''Seduction: Japan's Floating World'', San Francisco: Asian Art Museum (2015), xiv.</ref> surrounded by high plaster walls, and accessible only by a single point of entrance/egress, the Great Gate, or Yoshiwara-Ômon. A sign was placed just outside the gate declaring the district's monopoly, and requiring that only physicians could enter on horseback or in a palanquin, and that all must leave spears or longswords outside. By [[1626]], the last holdouts against the Yoshiwara monopoly - brothel owners based in Sumichô - relocated to the Yoshiwara, leaving only unlicensed (and thus, illegal) prostitution in the remainder of the city. At that time, courtesans' contracts were limited to ten years; however, they would later extend over much longer periods.  

A typical contract, as of circa 1800, is signed by the girl's father or legal guardian, who receives a lump sum in exchange for her indentured servitude for a set period (e.g. 25 ''[[currency|ryô]]'' for five years of service); the contract assures the brothel that the girl is not [[Christianity|Christian]], and notes her registration with a Buddhist temple. Other terms include that the family is responsible for any expenses or losses the girl may incur during her period of service (thus putting strict expectations on her behavior), that if she dies the brothel may bury her as they choose (without the family's involvement), and that if the parents/guardians should die before the term of indenture is up, the brothel may sell the girl into service elsewhere or marry her off. Further, if someone should wish to buy out the girl's contract, so long as the girl is not entered into sex work again, she may be sold in that manner to anyone, anywhere, without the parents' involvement. Amy Stanley notes that this bears much similarities with, for example, a contract for indentured service for a housemaid, though there are key differences including that a housemaid could not be sold further, married off, or buried by the employers but would instead be returned to her family.<ref>Stanley, 57-58. Such contracts bear strong resemblance as well to those for girls sold by their families into work in silk mills and other factory work in the [[Meiji period]], showing that the exploitation of poor peasant families by strict contracts of indentured servitude, which held the family responsible for any expenses or losses caused by the girl, did not end with the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate, and the advent of "modernity." Such girls, whether in the Yoshiwara or in the silk mills of more modern times, were seen as virtuous filial daughters, working hard for the sake of their parents, but were also under incredible pressure to not do anything wrong - let alone try to escape - for fear of impoverishing her family even further. The case of the silk mill women is vividly depicted in the 1979 film ''Aa, Nomugi Toge''.</ref>

A typical contract, as of circa 1800, is signed by the girl's father or legal guardian, who receives a lump sum in exchange for her indentured servitude for a set period (e.g. 25 ''[[currency|ryô]]'' for five years of service); the contract assures the brothel that the girl is not [[Christianity|Christian]], and notes her registration with a Buddhist temple. Other terms include that the family is responsible for any expenses or losses the girl may incur during her period of service (thus putting strict expectations on her behavior), that if she dies the brothel may bury her as they choose (without the family's involvement), and that if the parents/guardians should die before the term of indenture is up, the brothel may sell the girl into service elsewhere or marry her off. Further, if someone should wish to buy out the girl's contract, so long as the girl is not entered into sex work again, she may be sold in that manner to anyone, anywhere, without the parents' involvement. Amy Stanley notes that this bears much similarities with, for example, a contract for indentured service for a housemaid, though there are key differences including that a housemaid could not be sold further, married off, or buried by the employers but would instead be returned to her family.<ref>Stanley, 57-58. Such contracts bear strong resemblance as well to those for girls sold by their families into work in silk mills and other factory work in the [[Meiji period]], showing that the exploitation of poor peasant families by strict contracts of indentured servitude, which held the family responsible for any expenses or losses caused by the girl, did not end with the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate, and the advent of "modernity." Such girls, whether in the Yoshiwara or in the silk mills of more modern times, were seen as virtuous filial daughters, working hard for the sake of their parents, but were also under incredible pressure to not do anything wrong - let alone try to escape - for fear of impoverishing her family even further. The case of the silk mill women is vividly depicted in the 1979 film ''Aa, Nomugi Toge''.</ref>