Women of the Pleasure Quarters by Lesley Downer
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11. New York Times, December 6, 1899, referred to in Kano, pp. 189–202.
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12. Louis Fournier, Kawakami and Sada Yacco (Paris: Brentano’s, 1900), p. 17, quoted in Kano, pp. 189–202.
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13. Kano, pp. 189–202.
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14. The material on Sada Yakko is primarily from Ezaki, Jitsuroku Kawakami Sadayako (see Japanese language bibliography).
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Chapter 7
1. Saikaku Ihara, Comrade Loves of the Samurai and Songs of the Geishas, no. 12, p. 109.
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2. “Ichiriki” in The Kirin: For Marketing and Culture, Kirin beer in-house magazine, Spring 1985, pp. 104–111.
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3. Ibid.
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4. For an extensive discussion of kimonos, a whole study in its own right, see the last chapter of Liza Dalby’s Geisha and also her Kimono: Fashioning Culture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
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Chapter 8
1. “Kani kaku ni Gion wa koi shi neru toki mo makura no shita o mizu no nagaruru.” Author’s translation. Poem inscribed on a stone beside the Shirakawa stream in Gion by Isamu Yoshii, celebrated writer of geisha songs, 1886–1960.
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2. Figures taken from Fujimoto, p. 27; see also Hiroshi Misobuchi, Dance of the Season in Kyoto (Kyoto Shoin, 1992) and Sato and Watanabe, p. 82.
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3. “Gaijin no Shitsuren” in Osaka Maenichi Shimbun, March 3, 1903, quoted in Kosakai, Morgan Oyuki: Ai ni iki, shin ni shisu.
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4. From Kosakai.
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5. Quoted in Sato and Watanabe, p. 88. In 1889 the jingoistic Rudyard Kipling wrote: “The Chinaman’s a native, that’s the look on a native’s face, but the Jap isn’t a native, and he isn’t a Sahib either.” Quoted in Tames, p. 86.
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6. From Kosakai.
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7. From Dalby, pp. 69, 80.
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8. Ibid., p. 77.
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9. Seidensticker, Kafu the Scribbler, p. 119.
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10. From Dalby, p. 80.
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11. Ibid., pp. 82, 86.
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12. Sumidagawa, translated in Keene, Modern Japanese Literature, p. 197.
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13. Seidensticker, Kafu the Scribbler, p. 23.
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14. Ibid., p. 121.
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15. Geisha in Rivalry (Udekurabe), tr. Kurt Meissner.
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16. Seidensticker, Kafu the Scribbler, pp. 86, 87–88.
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17. Kafu’s Diary, vol. xxii, p. 317, quoted in Seidensticker, Kafu the Scribbler, p. 165.
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18. Mark Gayn’s Diary, p. 32.
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19. Ibid., pp. 232, 212.
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20. Kafu’s Diary, February 25, 27, quoted in Seidensticker, Tokyo Rising, p. 186, and Kafu the Scribbler, p. 174.
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21. From Dalby, p. 182.
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Chapter 9
1. Longstreet, pp. 15, 224.
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2. “On a Geisha Party at Yanagibashi” by Yodo Yamauchi (1827–1872), former daimyo of Tosa; translated by Donald Keene in Dawn to the West, p. 42.
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3. Saikaku Ihara, Comrade Loves of the Samurai and Songs of the Geishas, no. 13, p. 109.
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4. Translated in Hibbett, p. 72.
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5. Yasunari Kawabata, Snow Country, tr. and with an introduction by Edward G. Seidensticker, Charles E. Tuttle, Tokyo, 1956, p. 3.
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Chapter 10
1. Crihfield, Ko-uta, no. 20, p. 77.
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select bibliography
English Language
Ashmead, John. The Idea of Japan, 1853–1895: Japan as Described by American and Other Travellers from the West. Harvard Dissertations in American and English Literature. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1987.
Bornoff, Nicholas. Pink Samurai: Love, Marriage, and Sex in Contemporary Japan. London: GraftonBooks, 1991./New York: Pocket Books, 1991.
Brown, Sidney Devere and Akiko Hirota, trs. The Diary of Kido Takayoshi. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1983.
Buruma, Ian. A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Culture. London: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1984.
Cobb, Jodi. Geisha: The Life, the Voices, the Art. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
Crihfield, Liza. Ko-uta: “Little Songs” of the Geisha World. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1979.
Dalby, Liza. Geisha. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983; with a new preface: “Twenty-Four Years Later,” Berkeley, 1998.
Dazai, Osamu. Return to Tsugaru. Tr. James Westerhoven. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1985.
De Becker, Joseph E. The Nightless City. London: Probsthain & Co, 1899.
Elisonas, Jurgis. “Notorious Places, A Brief Excursion into the Narrative Topography of Early Edo.” In Edo and Paris: Urban Life and the State in the Early Modern Era, eds. James L. McClain, John M. Merriman, and Kaoru Ugawa. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1994.
Fujimoto, T. The Story of the Geisha Girl. London: T. Werner Laurie Ltd, 1902.
Gayn, Mark. Japan Diary. New York: William Sloane Associates, Inc., 1948.
Gerstle, C. Andrew, ed. 18th-Century Japan: Culture and Society. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1989.
Golden, Arthur. Memoirs of Geisha. New York: Random House and Chatto & Windus, London, 1997.
Hendry, Joy. Marriage in Changing Japan: Community and Society. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1981.
Hibbett, Howard. The Floating World in Japanese Fiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959.
Hiromi, Sone. “Conceptions of Geisha: A Case Study in the City of Miyazu.” In Gender and Japanese History, Volume 1: Religion and Customs/The Body and Sexuality, eds. Haruko Wakita, Anne Bouchy, and Chizuko Ueno; tr. ed. Gerry Yokota-Murakami. Osaka: Osaka University Press, 1999.
Ihara, Saikaku. Comrade Loves of the Samurai and Songs of the Geishas. Tr. E. Powys Mathers. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1972 (first edition 1928).
———. The Life of an Amorous Man. Tr. Kengi Hamada. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1963.
———. The Life of an Amorous Woman and Other Writings. Tr. Ivan Morris. London: Chapman and Hall, 1963.
Kano, Ayako. “The Role of the Actress in Modern Japan.” In New Directions in the Study of Meiji Japan, eds. Helen Hardacre and Adam Kern. Leiden: Brill, 1997.
Keene, Donald, ed. Anthology of Japanese Literature: to the Nineteenth Century. New York: Grove Press, 1955.
———. Modern Japanese Literature: From 1868 to Present Day. New York: Grove Press, 1956.
———. World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Premodern Era 1600–1867. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1976.
———. Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era. Volume 3: Fiction. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1984.
Kido, Takayoshi. See Brown and Hirota.
Kirkwood, Kenneth P. Renaissance in Japan: A Cultural Survey of the Seventeenth Century. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1970; first published 1938.
Komachi, Ono. See Teele.
Longstreet, Stephen, and Ethel Longstreet. Yoshiwara: The Pleasure Quarters of Old Tokyo. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1970.
Loti, Pierre. Madame Chrysanthème. Paris: Calman-Levy, 1888. Tr. Laura Ensor. London: George Routledge and Sons Ltd, 1888.
Louis, Lisa. Butterflies of the Night: Mama-san
McCullough, Helen Craig, tr. Tales of Ise: Lyrical Episodes from Tenth-Century Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968.
———. Yoshitsune: A Fifteenth-Century Japanese Chronicle. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1966.
Miner, Earl. An Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968.
Morris, Ivan. The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1975.
Nagai, Kafu. Geisha in Rivalry. Tr. Kurt Meissner. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1963.
Nishiyama, Matsunosuke. Edo Culture: Daily Life and Diversions in Urban Japan, 1600–1868. Tr., ed., Gerald Groemer. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.
Otaka, Yoshitaka. Five Political Leaders of Modern Japan. Tr. Andrew Fraser and Patricia Murray. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1986.
Saikaku. See Ihara, Saikaku.
Sansom, G. B. Japan: A Short Cultural History. London: Cresset Press, 1931.
Sato, Tomoko, and Toshio Watanabe, eds. Japan and Britain: An Aesthetic Dialogue 1850–1930. London: Lund Humphries, in association with Barbican Art Gallery and the Setagaya Art Museum, 1991.
Scott, A. C. The Flower and Willow World. London: Orion Press, 1960.
Screech, Timon. Sex and the Floating World: Erotic Images in Japan, 1700–1820. London: Reaktion Books, 1999.
Seidensticker, Edward. Kafu the Scribbler. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1965.
———. Low City, High City: Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake, 1867–1923. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983.
———. Tokyo Rising: The City Since the Great Earthquake. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990.
Seigle, Cecilia Segawa. Yoshiwara: The Glittering World of the Japanese Courtesan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993.
Statler, Oliver. Shimoda Story. New York: Random House, 1969.
Stevenson, John. Yoshitoshi’s Women: The Woodblock-Print Series, Fuzoku Sanjuniso. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press in association with Avery Press, 1986.
Swinton, Elizabeth de Sabato. The Women of the Pleasure Quarter: Japanese Paintings and Prints of the Floating World. New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1995.
Tames, Richard. Encounters with Japan. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.
Tamura, Naomi. The Japanese Bride. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1904.
Teele, Roy E., Nicholas J. Teele, and H. Rebecca Teele, trs. Ono no Komachi: Poems, Stories, Noh Plays. New York: Garland Publishing, 1993.
Waley, Paul. Tokyo Now and Then. New York: Weatherhill, 1984.
Yamata, Kikou. Three Geishas. Tr. Emma Crawford. London: Cassell & Co Ltd, 1956.
Japanese Language
Ezaki, Atsushi. Jitsuroku Kawakami Sadayako (The True Story of Kawakami Sadayakko). Tokyo: Shinjinbutsu Oraisha, 1985.
Hayasaki, Haruyu. Gion yoi banashi (A Drunken Story of Gion). Kyoto: Kyoto Shoin, 1991.
Kabuku bi no sekai (Early Seventeenth-Century Genre Paintings: The World of Lively Entertainment). Nagoya: Tokugawa Art Museum, 1997.
Kosakai, Shumi. Morgan Oyuki: ai ni iki, shin ni shisu (Oyuki Morgan: To Live for Love and Die for Belief). Tokyo: Kodansha, 1975.
glossary
ageya house of assignation, where patrons made appointments with courtesans in the pleasure quarters; precursor of the geisha teahouse.
asobi literally, “play”; time spent with geisha, courtesans, or other entertainers.
awase lined kimono worn in autumn and winter.
biwa four- or five-stringed traditional Japanese lute played with a plectrum.
cha-tate onna “tea-brewing women”—precursors of the geisha.
-chan suffix used for children or intimate friends as in Ken-chan (akin to “cute little Ken” or “Kenny”).
chokibune light, swift, single-oared boats, used to take customers along the River Sumida to the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter.
daimy provincial princes or warlords who governed their own domains but had to swear loyalty to the shogun.
dango round, white rice flour dumplings, steamed on skewers.
danna literally “husband” or “master”; a male customer or patron of geisha or tayu.
Edo name for Tokyo until 1868; also name of period of Japanese history from 1603 to 1868.
Edokko “child of Edo”; a native of Edo, Edo born and bred.
enkai banquet, geisha party (word used by customers but not geisha).
eri stiff brocade collar or neckband worn under the top layer of kimono.
erikae “changing of the collar”; ritual marking the transition from maiko to geisha.
furisode “swinging-sleeve” kimono worn by unmarried girls; term used for fake maiko of Asakusa.
gei arts or entertainment.
geiko “arts child”; term for geisha in Kyoto and some other cities.
hakama traditional starched and pleated man’s kimono.
hana-dai “flower money”; a geisha’s wages.
hanamachi “flower town”; geisha district.
han-gyoku “half-jewel”; trainee geisha in Tokyo (the equivalent of a maiko in Kyoto).
haori a loose, square-cut jacket worn over the kimono; adopted by Fukagawa geisha from the late eighteenth century.
hari “attitude” or “style”; used of the Yoshiwara courtesans of the seventeenth century.
hiki-iwai celebration of retirement from geisha life.
homu baa “home bar”; a small private bar in a teahouse.
ichigen san kotowari “the first-time customer is refused”; the “no strangers” rule followed by geisha.
iki “chic,” “style,” or “cool”; originated among the geisha of Edo.
jiutamai form of classical Japanese dance practiced by geisha, particularly the geisha of Gion, linked to the dance forms of the Noh theater.
joruri Japanese narrative music.
kabuki traditional popular theater, characterized by spectacular drama, splendid costumes, and melodramatic performance style; many kabuki plays tell stories of the floating world.
kabuku “to frolic” or “to be wild or outrageous.”
kaburenjo “music dance practice place”; headquarters of each geisha district, housing a theater, classrooms, and the union offices of that district.
kamuro child attendant(s) of a courtesan.
karaoké “empty barrel”; popular evening entertainment in Japan, in which customers sing to recorded accompaniment.
kata “form”; the proper way of doing something.
katsuyama the most complex of the maiko’s topknot hairstyles, named after a seventeenth-century courtesan who popularized it.
kawaramono “riverbed folk”; underclass in Edo-period Japan, primarily popular entertainers, including musicians, jesters, actors, and courtesans, who performed in dry riverbeds.
keisei “castle topplers”; courtesans of legendary beauty.
kemban the geisha union or registry office; each geisha district has its own kemban.
kiyomoto form of classical narrative song practiced by geisha.
koky “North-Chinese-barbarian bow”; ancient three-stringed lute played with a bow.
kshi second rank of courtesan.
koto thirteen-stringed classical zither.
ko-uta “short song”; characteristic geisha songs accompanied by the shamisen.
maiko “dancing girl”; apprentice geisha in Kyoto.
mama-san “mother”; owner of a bar.
maneki nekko lucky “money-beckoning cat.”
minarai “learning by observation”; early stage of geisha training before becoming a maiko.
misedashi “store opening”; maiko’s debut.
mizu shobai “water trade”; the sex industry.
mizu yokan eggplant-colored jelly made of aduki beans and eaten in summer.
mizuage ??
momme silver nugget; 1/60 of a ryo in Edo-period Japan.
nigo-san “number two wife”; concubine.
Nihon buyo “Japanese dance”; the main form of classical Japanese dance practiced by geisha, closely linked to the dance and dramas of kabuki.
Noh Japanese classical theater, patronized by the samurai classes since
the late fourteenth century; considered “respectable” whereas kabuki was not.
obi wide, stiff sash worn around the waist, over a kimono.
ochaya “honorable teahouse”; place where banquets are held and geisha work, offering music, dance, and conversation; food, if offered, is brought in from a caterer.
odori-ko “dancing child”; professional dancing girls.
odori-kai dance meet.
ofuku maiko’s second hairstyle; in the past it signified that she was no longer a virgin; now the mark of a second-year maiko.
ohayo dosu or ohayo san dosu “good morning” (dialect of Kyoto women, particularly geisha).
oiran highest rank of courtesan in Edo, from the eighteenth century onward.
oka basho “hill places”; unlicensed teahouse and brothel areas in old Japan.
okami-san proprietress of a geisha house or teahouse.
oksan “mother”; proprietress of a geisha house.
ki-ni “thank you” (Kyoto dialect).
okiya house where geisha live.
okobo high wooden clogs worn by maiko.
on-san “older sister.”
onnagata male kabuki actors specializing in women’s roles.
onsen spa; hot spring resort.
onsen geisha geisha who works at a hot spring resort.
otokoshi “male staff”; geisha’s assistant, nowadays usually a middle-aged woman rather than a man.
o-zashiki “honorable tatami room”; geisha term for a banquet or party.
rabu Japanese phoneticization of “love.”
rakugo Japanese comic monologue.
ro loosely woven silk gauze, used to make summer kimonos.
rnin “wave men”; lordless samurai.
ry currency in Edo-period Japan worth 4 gold nuggets; about $450 in contemporary currency.
rytei high-class Tokyo restaurant, serving Japanese haute cuisine and where geisha can be called to entertain.