Yujo (Courtesan) - Ito Shinsui, 1912
The Art Of Refusing Patrons
Conversation, music, spiritualism, aesthetics, the Tayuu had a wealth of talents and gifts. They were considered supernatural beauties, bewitching castle-topplers, superstars across the land. But all these things are relative, are they not? Some Tayuu would cater to very niche interests, some others would be more universally prolific, and then we know of some who went down in history for their magic sex appeal or dainty feet. There is no barometer, there is no standard. All that ever mattered was her appeal to the men around her.
First and foremost to the owners of her contract, who would predict a shiny future from her babyface. Then from the aging patrons of her older sisters in the ageya, who would invest in the child's education, forming her path in a passive way. And when she started budding into adolescence, she would be deemed desirable after years of grooming. Legends and accounts have it, that the Tayuu would have acquired a catalog of talents and attributes unique to her or representative of her house, her name-line or current trends. She wore them like her expensive garments and over the top accessories. It set her apart from the noble wife, dutifully working towards her husbands financial success. From the obedient daughter, a pawn in bigger game. From the saintly mother, sacrificing her years to her sons, for the sake of the tribe. The Tayuu was not expected to sacrifice, work or go without, quite on the contrary, she was simply expected to be.
This made her the ideal woman. She was equal to the privileged man as he too was only expected to be and then to die in honor. And honor and pride are the main catalysts in the particular artform, which we will explore here.
A Long Tradition
In my posts about Tayuu, I tend to describe their existence as something like a cultural lighting in a bottle. A cumulation of societal circumstances that made this very small ripple in culture, big and yet tiny in historical context. But the phenomenon of Tayuu culture has been a long time in the making and gone through some incarnations over the centuries: From Asobi over the Shirabyoshi to the Tayuu, all were performers of the nobles in Kyoto. We will be only touching briefly on how there is a direct line to be drawn from the Shirabyoshi specifically to Tayuu traditions.
Shirabyoshi usually came of prestigious backgrounds, sometimes of noble or samurai lineages, persuaded into (or sometimes very willingly pursuing the trend of) training in dance, poetry and social games. They didn't operate from an okiya but led a transient life, called upon to entertain at events, which were usually spiritual or religious in nature. Their stay was dependent on how much entertainment value they provided for the lord and his large court. Even though Shirabyoshi were all the rage for a while, eagerly anticipated by ladies and lords alike, as their popularity grew, so did their numbers. Too many of these girls were trying to get into the palaces, some more talented than others. At one point the biggest houses had something akin to what we would call a "casting couch" today, where rigorous vetting excluded undereducated Shirabyoshi and sent them away.
But once inside the palaces, their ambition was to stay as long as possible, as they usually had no place to call home outside of the walls. So naturally two strategies emerged for the savvy Shirabyoshi: Cultivate her art and capture the attention of her audience that way, or become a Courtesan to a noble. Better yet, have his child and nestle in somehow, hoping that the prestige of the child's father would rub off on her. The most successful girls ticked all boxes. As history does, some rare Shirabyoshi managed to become highly demanded artists and they actually refused patrons. But let's face it, this was not the norm and as time passed, became even more rare.
One can see some parallels to Tayuu in that these artistic entertainers blurred the lines between business and pleasure as a way to bind themselves to men of influence. Also in that both Shirabyoshi and Tayuu travelled to the imperial palaces as specialists of their craft. But where they differ greatly is that the Tayuu's ability to refuse her patrons added to her prestige, while the Shirabyoshi would never have turned down a liaison when advantageous. She was her own boss and somewhat liberated, but also needed to fend for herself. During the romantic Heian era, this lifestyle had blossomed but in the following Muromachi era, the status of women particularly within the elite warrior class changed, due to emerging primogeniture and patriarchal, Confucian, and Buddhist influences that deemed women "impure". This would ingrain itself in Japanese culture for good.
Some centuries passed and with the advent of the pleasure quarters, the Tayuu got webbed into a finely tuned machine that upheld a whole industry. So the question is: How much say did a Tayuu really have to refuse?
Examples in Media And Real Life
Sano Jirozaemon Murdering A Courtesan - Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 1886
Yatsuhashi
Yatsuhashi Oiran was a real person who was brutally murdered by a jealous patron in 1683 in the Yoshiwara. The Kabuki play “Kagotsurube Sato no Eizame” (The Bewitched Sword) is based on her life. But it is framed from the murderers perspective of course. Jirozaemon, a country merchant that had come to some wealth, falls in love at first sight with Yatsuhashi, during her parade in the Yoshiwara. His open mouthed, smallpox scarred face elicits a mocking smile from the majestic Oiran but later in the play, we see that Jirozaemon has managed to buy himself into her regular company at the Tachibanaya and was in talks of redeeming her contract for her to become his mistress. She rejects his offer, as her lover Einojo pressures her to do so, fearing her feelings for Jirozaemon were growing. Some months later, Jirozaemon returns to Edo, having left after the rejection, and he visits the Tachibanaya once more. An apologetic Yatsuhashi begs him for forgiveness once they are alone. He softly hands her a cup of sake to make amends. As she hesitates to accept, he states it will be her last drink and thrusts his sword into her, killing her in one blow.
The public ist meant to sympathize with Jirozaemon, as he was of their shared merchant class while the Oiran was known to not give them the time of day. And even though the murderer is framed as a wronged, well meaning country merchant, manipulated by gangsters of the seedy pleasure quarters, I find Yatsuhashi's story to be exceptionally tragic. One can see that the fate of an Oiran was to cultivate relationships with people she might have rejected at face value but then talked into entertaining by her boss. Then the man she loved, Einojo, who was certainly not going to buy her out of her contract, clearly put his needs before hers, as losing her to Jirozaemon would have granted her a secure life outside of debt to a brothel. And finally, as Yatsuhashi played her only card, openly rejecting someone without even giving any explanation or derogating him, she is punished with burning rage. She was let down by every man in this story and she had no escape.
Nishigiki
In 1810, one Nishigiki dared to refuse a customer so vehemently that it sealed her fate according to the book "Edo Culture: Daily Life and Diversions in Urban Japan, 1600-1868" where we get some insight into methods of torture of Yuujo. It's widely known, that some inhabitants of the Yoshiwara served their terms as convicted prostitutes so we do get a wide variety of women, from refined to rough and ready. Torture and murder were very much a part of village life and no one would bat an eye at the news of another girl getting her comeuppance in one way or another. Refusing a patron was certainly up there in the top reasons for punishment, along with stealing and fleeing through the gates.
I can't seem to find more on the martered Nishigiki, safe to say from the timeline, she was not a Tayuu but rather an Oiran. We can deduct that her case wasn't a big deal and simply got lost in the records. Just another girl that didn't make it.
I did manage to find a lineage of the myouseki in the Yoshiwara though. One very famous Nishigiki Oiran was immortalized by Isoda Koryuusai in 1776, which might or might not be the one we're looking for. It's not very likely though, as by the 1810s this Kishigiki would be in her 50ies and long past her prime to be able to refuse any Danna. Harunobu had not one but two Nishigiki as muses during the 1770ies. Then there is the 1830ies Nishigiki in full Oiran mode. So it's safe to say that the name was rather popular even after one of them faced a gruesome end. There is even a Nishigiki in kabuki and bunraku, whose contract is being negotiated over in the play. The protagonist is forced to come up with 200 ryo (something along 20–80 million modern Japanese yen), an unheard of amount, keeping in mind that a low-ranking samurai might earn only 3 ryo annually. It's so jarring to see one Nishigiki getting murdered for refusing a patron, while another Nishigiki is worth a lifetime's earnings.
From what we know of the rapid decline of Tayuu culture in the early 1800s, the battered Nishigiki was probably one of the very last women who dared to refuse a patron. The retribution was swift and brutal. Tayuu and certainly Oiran were not irreplaceable superstars any longer.
Takao II
When discussing superstars, we cannot go without mentioning the famous Takao II of the Yoshiwara. Date Tsunamune, the young daimyo of Mutsu, decided to buy her contract, which was immensely costly due to her unprecedented popularity as a Tayuu in the pleasure quarters. Her boss ludicrously asked for her weight in gold. As the patron obliged, Takao's sleeves were secretly weighted down with lead, causing her weight to increase to some 70kg. Nevertheless, the contract was bought and a devastated Takao was sent on her way to become the daimyo's mistress in his estates. Poor Takao tried to drown herself in her despair, leaping from the boat she was being shipped in, this being one story. Another version cites that when she refused her new master, her fingers were broken one by one, a day at a time. After the 10th day of rejection, Tsunamune murdered her with his blade.
So, exactly where was her right to refuse a patron? If not THE great Takao, who else might have had the pull to reject an undesirable suitor? Where does this idea come from that these girls, teenagers essentially groomed into sexual servitude, would have had the wherewithal to say: "no, i don't wanna".
Reading Between The Lines Of Tayuu Propaganda
These examples are obviously very extreme, hence all the legends and media around tragic heroines. Oftentimes kabuki and bunraku playwriters used the Courtesan to demonstrate that there is virtue to be found in the most rotten milieu, be it in the form of a stoic and devoted whore, or a lowly John saving up a year's wages to get a hug from a famous Oiran. Among all these tales of love suicides and murders, there were many, many rituals and steps that went beforehand. Lest we forget that the pleasure quarters was built upon rules and laws designed to control the money flow. The art of refusing patrons was very much a tool to get interests up and make or break a popular Courtesan. But we also try and view these rules and regulations in a different light.
In the early years of the pleasure quarters, visitors were of the samurai class, visiting with retainers and associates. Even feudal lords would grace the district and bring with them their retinue. As we know, the merchant class found unprecedented social mobility around this time, replacing the samurai as the purchasing powerhouse. The growing masses found that even though they had the funds, there were degrees of accessibility to more successful ranks of women. They got blocked from mixing with higher class women. Noble Patrons profited from a more luxurious experience that made them feel superior to the lower classes, the brothels gained reputation and prestige through association with the ruling classes. But we are still talking about a tiny pool of people affected in this, as even during its golden age, Tayuu were counted in double digits among the two thousand working girls in the Yoshiwara. So here and there, some admissions for very rich merchants were made to see Tayuu and Oiran. But the culture clash was inevitable.
Just as often as Oiran and Tayuu tradition gets blurred into one another, there is one main factor that separates them: Location.
About Mawashi And That Pesky Contract
There used to be Tayuu in the Yoshiwara, and those were the top rank of Oiran, or the top rank of any given ranking system. At some point, the last Tayuu of the Yoshiwara extinguished and there were only Oiran left. Tayuu in the Shimabara and the Yoshiwara were groomed and educated from childhood to fit the mold. BUT in the Yoshiwara, there were cases of Courtesans rising up to Tayuu rank out of the blue. In Kyoto though, they stuck to the tradition of growing a Tayuu. There is no chance in hell, that a merchant of any kind would have had access to a Tayuu in Kyoto in all earnestness. Just because she was already "promised" to some patron that had invested in her education via her Onesan. So the concept of "refusing a patron" would have been inevitable, as she was ideally already locked into a patronage from the very start of her career, the patron only chomping at the bit for the girl to come of age. Raising a Tayuu was a big deal, a big investment and a big part of high culture in Kyoto.
Now if a new Tayuu had one or two (or even more) interested Danna waiting for her to "open shop", she was essentially already refusing patrons by default. The okiya would see to it, that the girl got to officially meet her patron through the three-meeting rituals we keep reading about everywhere, the one the Oiran hijacked as a means to bleed the patron dry. This is where the myth of "refusing first timers" comes from. And it made sense in Kyoto, where even the most money minded okiya would protect their assets by introducing them to trusted clients before sending them off to far away estates.
Just like the Shirabyoshi before her, the Tayuu would make her way to her Danna's place but she had a whole circus of attendants in tow: Kamuro, Shinzo, her secretary, her lantern bearer, sitting in a palanquin or carriage etc. This was pricey and the costs needed to be negotiated in advance, naturally this was not an impulse buy for a first timer. Same with the Oiran Dochu later on. This was too high a risk to simply offer on credit and the bosses of ageya and okiya knew this very well. They wanted the big fish.
When a deal was negotiated for a Tayuu's exclusive or semi-exclusive patronage with a client, it was not to buy her out quite yet. The girl was kept in the okiya and worked by hosting her patrons, educating herself and educating the new generation of Kamuro, paying off her investment and debt. Her life was paid at least once or many times over if she had a few insanely rich patrons but it was never enough. So even a kept Tayuu might have had days where she might have refused her Danna right?
Again we need to look into the dynamics of noble culture in Kyoto and how different it was from Yoshiwara.
If an Oiran was booked many days or even weeks in advance, may it be by loyal patrons or persistent and rich first-timers, would that be considered a refusal if she simply had no time? When a popular girl was double or triple booked, she would simply not attend her meeting with one patron in favor of another and send a sick note. Or she would meet that one rich guy and slip out to write letters for the other dude waiting. One very common trick was to send the ugliest Shinzo in to keep him entertained. While the rules stated that the Shinzo was off limits, it usually was her initiation into entertaining a patron one on one. And it would have been considered bad manners to complain about the Oiran being AWOL just as much as not paying for that Shinzo's unrequested services. By the way, this trick with sending in the Shinzo was called Mawashi and the Shinzo was then the Mawashikata. The custom had been established among lower ranked whores, who needed to work many Johns simultaneously, jumping from futon to futon. Sure, this angered the clients, but it was just the game of booking a popular girl. Even if she just showed up for a short while, you had the bragging rights. This custom made its way up the ranks to the Oiran over time as efficiency grew more important for them too.
Let's imagine how Kyoto's fine elite would have dealt with rejection. The type of Tayuu you mingled with was representative of your own refinement. If you were important and wealthy enough, she would not let you jump through unnecessary hoops. But just as well, she would meet her patrons at eye level to some degree, as was expected. A good Tayuu would never be as rude as to leave her patron waiting and if she did, an elegant daimyo would never make a scene. He would never let any hint of unsophistication slip, as this grave faux-pas would lead to refusal of services. He would handle her with more care than most women would have dared to dream of experiencing at that time because she was not his belonging, like a wife or a daughter, but rather a service provided by an okiya.
Since we're discussing real people and real emotions though, it's not as black and white of course. Nonetheless, the Tayuu's experience was unlike anything any other woman in Japanese society would have known and made for a rather comfortable and desirable lifestyle.
Honor and Dignity Of The Samurai
So if everything was so cozy and comfy, how did we get all these stories of patrons harming the Courtesans after experiencing rejection? For this we touch on the subject of the importance of honor as a cornerstone of samurai life. Among the vital values imbedded into their identity were dignity and self-restraint just as much as saving face through honor. Just as much as a Courtesan hurling herself from a boat into the river seems a bit excessive, it was representative of her samurai ideal. Just as much would the samurai rather kill her by his own blade for insulting him. As she was a woman, there was no duel to preface this settling of scores. She was already considered beneath him by Confucian teachings, what difference would it had made if she was dead or alive. Certainly there was no coming back or reconciliation. It was simply not how things worked. A Courtesan mingling in these circles already knew what was in store for her, it was part of daily life.
Whose Right Is It Anyway?
Essentially, the art of refusing a patron was privy to the brothel owners only. It was never the right or the privilege of the Tayuu nor the Oiran. She was only an instrument, a toy, she was merchandise. The irony of attributing the "right to refuse customers" to a Tayuu that never got to choose her patrons in the first place is cruel. A girl working in a brothel or okiya would be either disciplined or tortured into meeting the man that brought the most profit for her house. If she was bought out, she was now her new husband's doll to destroy at will. Her death would not have caused a scandal big enough to warrant more than a slap on the wrist for her samurai murderer. And the story of Jirozaemon, who got so welcomed into the teahouse just to kill the girl he had fallen in lust with, is a great example of how money did the vetting.
For the girl's owners, refusing a client was about the coin, for the girls it was a matter of life and death. I often think about how we trust our guts when meeting new people, but the Courtesans didn't have that privilege. They had already grown up desensitized to the leering gaze, to the screams of pain in the walls, to the blood on the tatami. In this sense Tayuu would be considered the epitome of the perfect woman because she was majestic yet submissive. And the submission started with the owner of her contract, who did all the thinking for her. She might have had the forum to interject as opposed to the working girls next door that couldn't catch a break, running from one mattress to another while wiping on the way with their tucked in paper rolls. But what difference would her word have made?
One can see how it might have been a point of contention for the affected men in the story. Of course from their point of view, this was an alien concept, something to make a huge fuss about because it was a rejection of men. Through the lens of Confucian ideals, this was a hard pill to swallow. But it's also very interesting that the art of rejecting patrons was attributed to the girls and not their bosses ultimately. This game was for men to suppress other men while suppressing women
Refusing is a form of resistance. And any type of resistance and autonomy was a form of luxury for these women and children. The fact that it is regarded as such an important aspect of Tayuu culture is almost laughable, like holding on to the last match in a snow storm.
