Love For Sale by Nils Johan Ringdal

Author:Nils Johan Ringdal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Published: 1997-01-05T05:00:00+00:00

The client reached Yoshiwara in one of four ways. Those who intended to indulge in the cheapest prostitutes could trudge the one and a half miles along the country road. But this might be fraught with danger, especially if one wanted to return to Edo before the city gates closed. Even a samurai could be set upon if he had partaken of a surfeit of sake and sexual excitement and now longed only for his tatami mattress in the south of Edo. Taxis could be worth their price for the return—sedan chairs were not too expensive to hire. A slim riverboat called a yoki was so intimately linked in men’s imaginations with Yoshiwara that the very word had an arousing effect. A particularly impatient young customer would hire many oarsmen and enjoy the delight of passing most of his rivals on his way up the Sumida River.

The ultimate in stylish arrivals was by horseback, preferably on a proud white steed. A young mounted samurai wearing white leather trousers, a white silk kimono, his shining black hair set up, and both his short and his long sword in matching white sheaths must have been an impressive sight. Very few owned horses. Normally, they were hired for the occasional visit, and along with the horse came a singing stable boy who followed behind.

Most guests stopped under a tall willow tree just outside the great gateway into Yoshiwara, or at one of the roadside teahouses. There they would brush off the dust, fix their hair, and check their appearance. Now they were ready. The upcoming love encounter would, in the most romantic cases, last until sunrise, as contemplated in an anonymous poem of the time:

What time is it? Late! must go.

Your smile tells me to hurry up.

How unkind time is!

A poor samurai went straight to a cheap brothel near the gate, where he could take a direct look at the most reasonable girls. To meet a prostitute of high rank and price, one first had to visit an agoya, an elegant hotel with a courtyard garden. Entrance was permitted only to those who were known or carried a recommendation as a guarantee of background and economic standing. If the client requested a visit with a specific girl, he composed a letter that was delivered directly to the girl, normally quartered some streets away.

The visitor would order sake and food for himself and his entourage, and usually hired actors and musicians to perform sketches and sing merry songs while he chatted with the great watermelon, or the hotel owner and his wife. Then the renowned tayu would arrive with her entourage. Leading the procession came the adult woman chaperone, followed by one or two young girls serving their apprenticeship, then a couple of prostitutes of lower rank. From the late 1700s, it became customary to take along a couple of geisha, male or female entertainers who were versed in traditional song, music, and storytelling and knew all the rituals of the tea ceremonies. A

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