浮世の花 - Sanders of Oxford

entertainers, musicians and ‘adventurers and intermediaries of every kind and description’
plied the wards for trade [Turk, 1966: p.135].
Despite the otherworldly isolation of the quarter and the emphasis on a client’s monetary
assets rather than his rank, the Yoshiwara nevertheless developed an elaborate system of
precedence and etiquette as bewildering and stifling as that which dictated the ‘fixed’ world
outside. This, together with the spiralling costs of hiring a high-class tayû or kôshi, led to the
emergence of numerous okabasho or unlicensed, illegal pleasure districts where the average
townsman could afford a more quotidian and unadorned form of prostitution.
Indeed, by the end of the eighteenth century, the highest ranks of courtesan occupied such a
super-elevated and financially unobtainable position that the grading system had to be
changed ~ the lower yobidashi and chûsan classes moving to the top. [Clark, 1992: p.15]. As
grand courtesans, they occupied houses known as ômagaki after the distinctive lattice
windows at the entrance. Higher graded women were not expected to display themselves to
attract clients, however, instead elegantly processing, retinue of kamuro in matching kimono
trailing behind them, to an ochaya [‘teahouse’] to meet the prosperous customer who had
ceremonially summoned them.
Just such a procession can be seen in the right-hand sheet of Kunisada II’s triptych, which
depicts nine of the most famous courtesans in the Shin Yoshiwara; the decorative cartouche
containing their mon or device, name and a short poetic encomium.
The pyramidal arrangement of buckets [in the centre sheet] was a safeguard against the everpresent
danger of fires, so common they were known as ‘Flowers of Edo’.
12. Utagawa Kunisada II (1823-1880)
A Collection of Ôiran inside the Shin Yoshiwara Pleasure Quarters
Date [Western]: 1861
Date [Japanese]: First Month of Man-en 2
Signature: Kunisada-ga
Censor/Zodiacal Date Seal: Combined aratame [‘examined’] and date seal [tori ichi/
cock 1]
Publisher’s Seal: Chôkichiban [rare]
School: Utagawa
Format: Ôban tate-e triptych
Method: Nishiki-e woodblock print
Condition: Good
Dimensions: Each sheet 14 x 9 1/2 inches
Code: SOX
Price [Framed]: £850
From the same series as the above triptych, the viewer’s perspective has now shifted to
inside the Yoshiwara. Similarly acting as an idealistic advertisement for the exquisite and
cultivated women on offer, the work depicts a further set of nine courtesans, with their
kamuro, languidly engaged in whiling away the time before their next assignations. In these
types of unproblematic depictions, little was evoked, however, of the seamier and more
pitiful side of the floating world.
For the large numbers of often pre-pubescent peasant girls sold into prostitution by their
impoverished families, the best they could hope for was to become apprenticed as attendants
to one of the more successful and high-ranking women. In an almost identical pattern to
geisha, they were trained for a number of years in etiquette and the fine arts, finally making
their debut as shinzô (the equivalent to maiko), apprentice courtesans, in their later teens.
Thereafter, the aim was to progress through the hierarchy as rapidly as possible, moving
from heya-mochi (having their own room) and zashiki-mochi (having their own suite) to
becoming a full courtesan with servants of their own. After the standard decade of indenture,
however, the options became rather limited for most women, however beautiful or talented.
Possibly the happiest outcome of one’s Yoshiwara career would be societal and financial
redemption by a kind patron, either by becoming his mistress or by running a business
backed by his gold. All too many former inmates, however, ended their careers in the less