A Monument Bearing Chiyojo's Haiku At Kukencho Cherry Blossoms at Night - Matsukawa Hanzan (1818-1882)
The Tayuu And The Merchant -
A Story About The Tayuu Of Osaka
Osaka is a city of merchants. Vibrant, industrious, rough and ready. Not as refined as stuffy old Kyoto, nor as polished as high and mighty Tokyo. Osaka embraces anyone and everyone and prosperity is just around the corner of one of its famous canals. The ideal breeding ground for a quiet revolution, where the underdog had the last laugh. This particular underdog story isn't about the Tayuu though. It's about the group of people that caused her demise: The merchants.
While Japan's pleasure quarters were being established in the background, we move our attention to many little storehouses, taking up business storing rice for the local Daimyo. The grains were the noble samurai's main income and the service akin to having an account at a bank. With time, the merchants operating the storage houses added money lending, trading and speculation to their services, growing their enterprises in sophistication and infrastructure alike. After the first rice exchange was set up to broker on future harvests all over Japan, Osaka rose up to become the economic hub of the country. The merchant class had traditionally enjoyed little prestige, they did not produce nor fight, but slowly the access to samurai wealth made their businesses very lucrative.
Japan was experiencing times of peace during the Edo period, which brought prosperity to the budding middle classes, but also made the fighting class scramble for income. Samurai don't work, their wealth is dependent on bounty and taxation. Still, they were expected to live lavish lives of luxury as dictated by Confucian ideals. To remedy this need for cash, the samurai turned to high-interest loans, racking up debts with the merchants in their little storehouses. Even though the noble samurai despised this intimate symbiosis with a class beneath them, openly showing hostility and disdain, they gradually lost ground to the merchants in terms of influence. Some of them gained unparalleled social mobility, receiving official appointments and even marrying into samurai status. This was a revolution in Japanese society that had been previously impossible.
The shift of wealth to the middle classes sent ripples through society, essentially creating Pop culture in its truest sense: Art for the masses. Disseminated through new food, folk music, woodblock prints, Kabuki and Bunraku, an Osakan specialty. High art? Not so much. It was widely known that Osakans are stingy, lewd, vulgar and direct, absolutely not the stoic and learned ideal of the samurai. Nobody expected a nouveau riche store owner reading Chinese classics or contemporary intellectuals any time soon. Should he have been interested, well too bad: It was prohibited!
The ruling class saw it necessary to distance themselves from this growing mass of bought influence, so sumptuary laws were put in place in the early 1600s. The focus was on restricting consumables like silk, gold, dyes and swords and weapons were made exclusive to the samurai to clearly show who's boss. However these restrictions applied just as much to the spreading of ideas, knowledge and a redefined sense of self. To the noble Samurai, there was scarcely a more alien thought than the concept of merchants being their equal in status. Bad enough that they had all this money that was rightly theirs anyway. Whenever a new law was set to keep the plebs from becoming too cocky, a fashion came up to get around it like a game of whack-a-mole. The most insidious way to keep the merchants down, was to keep them uncultured and keep them entertained with stupid, vapid noise. For centuries, only the privileged classes were granted the leisure to study, create and play on a level of refinement that separated them from the people beneath them. This was to change with the redirected money flow.
Now, simple folk enjoyed some free time too and their tastes shaped a very different fare. To get the most out of this increased consumerism while keeping some type of order in all the debauchery, new pleasure districts were designated. Private forms of prostitution like streetwalking, bathhouses, teahouses etc., got raided and shut down. Public prostitution in brothels however found their legitimacy through taxation. Edo, Kyoto and Osaka made efforts to group existing and new brothels in one spot and walled them in along with restaurants, taverns, theaters and artisan workshops. Usually these new quarters had one, maybe two gates and a moat around them, managing the flow of visitors and prohibiting unauthorized exits, creating little microcosms of pleasure and despair.
Contrary to Shimabara's elitist flair and Edo's excesses in the beast that was the Yoshiwara, Osaka's Shinmachi had an undeniable "Business first" attitude. Established during 1616-1628, it quickly became a place to socialize professionally and close a deal. Safe to say that a lot of money was made in these places and the atmosphere of intoxicating financial success with girls and booze gave Shinmachi a very specific bourgeois flavor. It wasn't that important if you came from a noble family, all that mattered was that you could pay for the next round. The middle classes were partying like it was 1599! And the samurai too, having nothing to do in these peaceful times, visited the pleasure quarters hidden in palanquins, hiding their face under big straw hats. All on credit of course.
Kyoka Anthology On Life Of Shinmachi Pleasure Quarters In Osaka - Saito Shuho, 1803
Yuugiri, The Big Bang Of Osaka
Not a lot is known yet about Osaka Tayuu-culture apart from the legends around Ougiya Yuugiri (1652?-1678), one of the Big Three, and apparently the first Tayuu of Osaka after her Okiya moved from Kyoto to Shinmachi. Yuugiri was an instant star, having gained some notoriety in the Shimabara prior. There is no source to clearly confirm she was indeed the first Tayuu in Osaka. But it's an interesting statement that made me wonder about how Tayuu came to be in Osaka.
A quick recap on how Tayuu are made: Their education starts as early as possible, sometimes at 3 years old but usually around 5 or 6, for them to learn as many high arts as possible by the time they can debut at around 13 years old. There is another discussion to be had, whether a teenager can actually be the source of real spirited entertainment, but it's for another day. The title of Tayuu was reserved for the highest accomplishments among the girls of a brothel and their reputation was of highest importance. Tayuu trained the subsequent generations of Tayuu themselves, the brothel supplied the resources. Some of these houses focused on Tayuu exclusively which in turn added to the value of their girls. Their names were known far and wide and associated with high art, so the time invested in grooming these children was part of their prestige. Unlike the lowlier ranks of girls processing many clients a day, the ideal of a queenly Tayuu, just budding in her physical maturity yet able to hold a conversation, was exactly what the samurai wanted in a counterpart. It was very different from the dutiful and quiet, invisible wife at home. In the ageya, the samurai wanted to meet their match.
Let's face it: Even though Tayuu are fabled as rare creatures of great genetics and big investments by their creators, there are just as many stories of Tayuu simply getting promoted after being discovered or scouted. Katsuyama, one of the most influential Tayuu of all time, started her career in a bathhouse, where she was discovered while offering her services outside of official regulations. Promoted to the rank of Tayuu due to her unique style, she was certainly not groomed to be one from childhood. Safe to say the term "Tayuu" is not a nationwide seal of equal quality, on the contrary, regional variations were their USP. In a generous narrative, there might have been similarly talented and spirited working girls in their own definition of Tayuu, but Shinmachi wanted to be on the same page as Yoshiwara, Shimabara and Maruyama. It was a point of pride for the inhabitants to keep up or excel in lifestyle and culture, an indication to the Osakan's new sense of self.
Over the course of a couple of decades the pleasure quarters had come a long way to something we might compare to Las Vegas today. It was a machine, fueled by grooming and abusing children, spitting them out relentlessly as more got brought in from the countryside and slums. Even prohibiting slave trade in 1587 did nothing to stop the cruel procurement of girls for the brothels. Kamuro went in at a defenseless age and came out as shadows of their own potential. Expected to earn their keep as young as 10 years old, one can only imagine how the pleasure quarters must have looked from their perspective. It's insane to think that these children were considered the epitome of sex by their contemporaries, romanticized in novellas and prints. Woodblocks make them look all doll like, erasing any characteristics, they do a fine job of hiding the fact that the portrayed Tayuu might be just 14 years old.
Osaka Tayuu In Media
Yuugiri was described in 1682's "The Life Of An Amorous Man" as the ideal Tayuu, being beautiful, meek and wise. All other Osakan working girls mentioned, are either referred to as Courtesans or in a more derogatory manner as Harlots. In the same book the term Tayuu is reserved for just one other Courtesan in Kyoto, keep in mind that Yuugiri was from Kyoto originally as well. Texts don't state it outright, it is the suspicious silence around Osaka Tayuu that questions if they were even comparable to their counterparts in Edo and Kyoto. And most interestingly in retrospect, is the insignificance of identifiable Osaka Tayuu in Ukiyo-e or in this case, Kamigata-e, during their golden age up until the early 1700s.
Shozan-Dayu From The Higashi Ougiya Accompanied By Rikimatsu And Miha - Senritei Yabutora (act. 1818-30)
Courtesan Ukihashi From The Uemuraya Brothel - Hiroshige, Ando or Utagawa, ca 1821
One reason for this, is the considerably smaller market in Osaka compared to Edo, where woodblock art flourished and produced a prolific amount of images of the floating world. Kamigata print scholar Matsudaira Susumu (1933-2000) estimated the bulk of all media was consumed regionally, seldom exported and subsequently destroyed by fires, wartime disasters etc. Additionally, he states that the favorite subjects of Osaka-style print are waitresses and maids, teahouse-girls, Kabuki-actors and people you might meet on the streets, which probably didn't sell as well outside of their core audience. We could speculate that popular artists and painters simply didn't have access to Shinmachi Tayuu, similarly that there was no demand for these out-of-reach birds of paradise among the plebs. The rare Osaka Tayuu seem to shroud themselves in mystery, which is very Tayuu-coded at least.
Where would a new patron turn to for information on Tayuu, if he was planning to shoot his shot on his next visit in Shinmachi? Most common are the Saiken, guidebooks on a certain district, on Courtesans, their qualities, prices etc. Some Hanamachi had their own, some were compiled together while there are also texts comparing and ranking the different Yuukaku. In one of these, the "Guide to the Quarters of the Land" (Shokoku Irozato Annai), published in 1688, at the height of enthusiasm in the pleasure districts, we read that out of 983 registered Courtesans (again, that same catch all term) there are only 7 Tayuu in Shinmachi. That number sounds somewhat reasonable compared to Shimabara's 13 Tayuu at the time. That would mean that there were only a handful of patrons with the financial pull to keep Tayuu afloat. Some sources count up to 2200 working girls in all of Osaka, so the numbers may vary for Tayuu too.
To Meet A Tayuu In Shinmachi
Reading between the lines of historical context of societal changes at the time, we might gather that the Tayuu in Shinmachi must have had a more lax standard in accepting patrons. The idea doesn't seem too crazy: To refuse a nouveaux riche merchant for an impoverished but important aristocrat seems out of character for an indebted Tayuu, if not her boss, specially in Osaka. However the cost to socialize with a Tayuu was still out of reach for most. The brothel owner's syndication dictated the exact cost for a night with a Tayuu and this included the two palanquins taking them from the the ageya to the brothel, costs of musicians, drinks and food, new futons and pillows, library of entertainment, miscellaneous items for the client like toothpaste, perfume and even toothpicks. Of course everything was of the highest quality, all of it curated by the Tayuu for her new favorite Danna, all of it kept the artisans in Shinmachi working like a beehive around their queens.
The new bedding suggests somewhat exclusive arrangements with individual men. I mean, how many futons can a Tayuu keep reserved in her quarters, right? It is well known that as a Danna to a Tayuu, the gentleman was bound to her only, while she was free to have as many sponsors as she deemed worthy. Actually binding yourself to a Tayuu was a big deal, with contracts and witnesses akin to getting married. An option only for those who could afford to shrug off people whispering behind their backs. A gentleman of certain standing would certainly get a hint or two by his superior, if he was rumored to be recognized in the pleasure quarters i.e. a frequent visitor. For nobles, discretion was vital. For people of lower status however, socializing in the Yuukaku was perfectly acceptable and might only raise a brow if the wife made a fuss about the spendings. If you have to ask if you can afford it, you can't afford it. Now, some Shimabara Tayuu might have turned their noses up at the thought of having a lowly shop owner as patron but in Osaka this was not uncommon. As always it came down to how far a brothel would push their reputation to make money.
Some Tayuu got away with having poor lovers in secret, as recounted in many Kabuki plays, risking their reputation and livelihoods for love. But this was fantasy, even if it might have come true in very rare cases. A savvy Tayuu was interested in the long game of finding the man to bail her out of her contract and pay her way exclusively. And this was a gamble on the brothel's side too: They wanted a Tayuu to debut early, get as much mileage out of her as possible and then marry her off for a huge profit just before she was starting to fade in her mid twenties. Most of them didn't even consider the possibility she might be able to pay off her debt by 26 as per her contract.
In Osaka, where in all probability all Tayuu came out of poor households themselves, the prospect of living a modest life wasn't as bad as it might have been to a noble girl in Shimabara's Okiya. If a girl was born in the Yuukaku, what was she to loose if she got the chance to flee with a merchant man and get her out of this vale of tears.
And i don't want to be the bearer of bad news but even Yuugiri didn't make it. It's sad irony that even THE legendary Yuugiri, the ideal Courtesan, the Tayuu closest associated with Shinmachi, didn't reach that ultimate goal of getting out. Rather, her end was tragically common. Ravaged by sickness, she died after (allegedly) being provided the best care her brothel owner could provide.
Yuugiri's status as a living legend might have been the exact reason why she didn't find a buyer of her contract. She was probably way too famous and lucrative to let go, so her brothel must have asked for an exorbitant amount of any genuinely interested suitor. It's cruel to think that being an excellent Tayuu didn't do anything to save her from her life in the pleasure quarters. Specially since she was so known for her gentle heart, generosity and kindness to people of all walks of life, throughout all the sorrow she must have experienced.
Her contemporary Chikamatsu Monzaemon immortalized her 1712 in "Yuugiri Awa No Naruto", later adapted as "Kuruwa Bunshou" for Kabuki in 1808. The visual traditions of Shinmachi Tayuu are carefully kept alive in these plays and ensures that at least here, they are not mashed in with Oiran or Shimabara's Tayuu.
Bunraku Puppet Theater - Courtesan Akoya - Hideki Hanabusa, ca 1926
Shinmachi Kukencho - Utagawa Hiroshige, ca 1834
The Last Laugh
Some numbers: Osaka's population around 1650 was estimated at 220'000 (Seiji Saito, Wikipedia) while the samurai class ranged from 5% to 10% of total Japanese population. Osaka castle was one of the hubs for samurai families, as was custom to settle near the lord that granted their stipend so most nobles' estates could be found in that area. Tayuu were famously allowed to leave the quarters to entertain at their patron's estates so certainly there was at least a niche market for high class Tayuu. The ruling classes saw it naturally fit to have Tayuu on hand in the vicinity as a service provided to them. But still, merchants made up a whopping 90% of inhabitants in Osaka, so it doesn't seem as if the Tayuu would prosper here in a significant way.
With passing time, this almost homogenous demographic grew into their own, molding the city's cultural climate to suit their tastes. Subsequent generations of merchants, still subjected to sumptuary laws and censorship, created their own quiet luxuries: Silk inner linings of otherwise modest Kimono, intricate patterns and elaborate embroidery in place of jewels. Some laws were simply ignored, some even relaxed if the grumblings got too loud. Simultaneously, the higher ups of the pleasure quarters implemented more and more intricate financial hurdles for their wealthy patrons. Ranging from expensive gifts, proclaimed essentials for the girl like a new set of drawers filled with obi, to invented holidays, spanning multiple days and nights. The bills going to the patron of course. Clearly, all these new rules were not only meant to increase income. It was just another sumptuary law designed to keep the common man in his place. A dance on the volcano, as the weeding out of patrons was slowly draining the Tayuu's elite client pool.
So to keep new patrons coming in, more and more Tayuu accepted lower ranking samurai and even modestly wealthy merchants, on behest of their bosses. Around 1720 some brothels started implementing the "No Refusal" rule for their Tayuu, though it's arguable that these groomed girls ever had any choices. A new type of patron that wasn't really into the Chinese classics, wasn't willing to pay for handful of meetings before he got his futon and certainly wasn't going to buy out that Tayuu after he was done with her. I'm sure he loved to boast to his friends about it too. A new dynamic set in, that proved the survival of the Tayuu-rank unprofitable. Some of the last Tayuu vanished naturally into their new lives as mistresses or lesser whores, or simply died a hopefully merciful death after sicknesses like Syphilis and Tuberculosis spread. And the nail in the coffin in form of an obvious question: Why invest in the education of a new girl, if she was only to sit pretty under all her regalia anyway. Now the new hotness was the Oiran, who welcomed the merchant with cash easy-peasy. The timeline fits with all the Ukiyo-e of Osaka Tayuu popping up as the lines between the two ranks were getting blurry.
While this tragic and sharp downwards spiral was underway, the common classes had established their preferences for Iki. In the span of two generations, Shinmachi had seen the arrival of "The first Tayuu" to their desperate decline. The great fire of 1724 set in motion the building of more gates, as a new safety measure but it also made controlling of the masses into the district impossible. This change affected all establishments and offered a new "openness" to the patrons as well as businesses. The exploitation took up pace. To get on top of the influx of visitors craving cheap thrills, more manpower was needed, and this is where the female Geisha saw their chance to step in to fill the artistic void left by Tayuu. The high-end ageya and specialized okiya who could afford to close with their legacy still intact, did so quietly when they got rid of their last girls. The great Shinmachi fire of 1890, that had started in a brothel, gave others an unfortunate out. The last houses standing kept on lowering their services to obscure ranks to keep in business. But the damage was done.
A lot of history in between sees the rise and fall of the Oiran and the Geisha as well. Until the hellscape that was the 1945 bombings marked the sudden end of all laughter in Osaka.
The Matsushima District in Osaka. Personal Collection of Gavin James Campbell, Doshisha University
What Is Left
There is no time to grieve, when there is business to be made, or so it seems. By the 1950ies Osaka had gone from loosing 60% of its population, to rebuilding to pre-war levels. Credit went to the merchant spirit of relentless ingenuity. Though urbanization and the opening up to western ideas made a comeback of the pleasure quarters impossible, certainly after prostitution was banned effectively in 1958. In Kyoto, Tayuu could rebrand as entertainers, we hear nothing along these lines from Shinmachi's Tayuu. There was nothing to rebrand. The bombs had burned down the famous cherry trees, the brothels, the ageya. But there had been nothing even before the bombs. Somewhere between the last Tayuu of the Yoshiwara in 1761 and the closing of the Sumiya-Ageya in Shimabara, Osaka lost her last Tayuu. Who was she? We don't know as there is nothing left of her.
I'm very certain, that all photos of Osaka Tayuu from after 1880 are actresses in memorial processions, akin to the Oiran Dochu in Tokyo or a little bit like the Jidai Matsuri in Kyoto. There are some woodblocks and photos of processions floating around, but there is no more mention of individual Tayuu. And how would there be? Yoshidaya, Yuugiri's legendary ageya was destroyed by the bombs. It had been the first and the last Tayuu house, though it hadn't seen a real Tayuu in decades. There was nothing left.
Osaka was never an epicenter for Tayuu anyway, even though their unique traditions make it seem so. It's still questionable if they ever had any greater significance for Osaka's cultural landscape at all. Because it was in service to absolutely no one, not for the prosperous merchants nor for the samurai, desperate to keep up appearances. Certainly not for the actual Tayuu, who should have an epitaph at least. The truly industrious workers and merchant class that built up Osaka and put their unmistakable seal on it, would go down in history as a rank of people to be rejected by the majestic Tayuu. But history is written by the victors, so the merchants had the last laugh. We are left with bits of information, the names of Yuugiri-Dayu, Ukihashi-Dayu and others, yet no context, just an ideal. We can dissect their looks, to try and identify them in photos, but most of them are dressed up actresses in parades. It's all hollow. It's all empty. There is nothing left.
"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be of lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud" - (Proverbs 16:18-19)
