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]]. 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>

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.  

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.