GeiMaiko

The basic plot of the movie is that: "A widow named Hatsuko runs a Tayū house (though some movie sites said in their plot summaries, that it was a "geisha house") in Kyoto.

She is having a discreet affair with young doctor Matoba, who works for the courtesan guild and looks after her.

One day, her daughter Yukiko returns from Tokyo following a suicide attempt. Yukiko immediately despises Matoba, while he begins to harbor feelings for the young woman.

Matoba wants to open his own medical practice and is considering a move to Tokyo. Hatsuko does not want him to leave her and implores him to stay.

Meanwhile Yukiko deals with the shame of her mother's profession, as it was because of her boyfriend's family discovery of Hatsuko's background that he left her and Yukiko attempted suicide. "

I do lack knowledge so I would like to ask,

First I would like to know first if Tayū were indeed still working during the 1950s? As well as how accurate are they in the way they depict the Tayū and their work (Even if we have to take into account that this is a movie and some liberties would have been taken)

I would also love to hear your own observation of things that people may have missed if they do not have as much knowledge about Tayū

hi @d-m-a-c

Thank you so much for your question. I watched the movie and took some screenshots to the scenes i found relevant. Hope you enjoy my input as i have mashed it together in a stream of consciousness "review" of sorts. Some scenes jumped out at me for accuracy, poignancy and sometimes i was left questioning what we know about Tayuu. One very interesting aspect is the time in which the movie is set: After the horrors of the war and while Japan was rebuilding in lightning speed, we are far removed from any global happenings, nestled in the intimate world of the Karyukai. Most scenes are set inside, like in a play. Oftentimes though the scenes go deep, the eyes wander inside as people hustle and bustle in the background. It makes for an unsettling atmosphere, where there's always someone listening. I loved the nods to the Wachigaiya and the Sumiya, which makes us believe we are in Kyoto.

And the Okiya does look quite authentic for Kyoto, having beautiful looking, though small rooms, quite the variety of locations for the inhabitants and guests, so i'm guessing it serves as Ochaya as well. We get to see the rooms where guests are welcomed as well as the "backoffice" where food and drinks are prepared for service and at some point we see that some of the staff sleep next to the hearth. While the Yarite takes a short break to eat, she rests her Katsura on a stand nearby and quickly snatches it as soon as she hears guests approaching. I loved that little insight as it would have been no loss to the plot to have shown a properly dressed Yarite welcoming the clients instead of an employee caught off guard during her break.

The Tayuu look pretty authentic too: There's one scene where two Tayuu and a Kamuro leave the okiya together, one dressed in full regalia, one more casually dressed but she's clearly not a Furisode neither a Kamuro, rather what we would consider a Shinzo in an Oiran parade. They leave together to a booking, walking in a mini version of the Dochu and i was wondering, who would fulfill what role exactly when at the party. I couldn't shake the thought that maybe i missed something important about hierarchical dynamics or the movie got it wrong for the sake of optics. We only ever see one Kamuro, she's clearly a teenager. Other girls in western dress fulfill some apprentice's tasks but there is a more "fluid" feel to the hierarchy. Surely during the Showa era there must have been some weird overlap between modern and traditional aesthetics in places like the Okiya as the Karyukai was learning to adapt. The movie takes place in this delicate era between the war and the prohibition ban and we can pick up on some anachronisms for modern Tayuu.

We witness this as even the flamboyant Tayuu remark how "modern" the Okasan's daughter is compared to them. Yukiko always looks like the quintessential 50ies idol in her petticoated dress and turtlenecks, all very Audrey Hepburn, while the working girls sport a quite authentic looking variety of Nihongami. I wonder how some girls forced to dress like 1800s Courtesans might feel standing next to a 1950ies teeny bopper. It's a weird thought but i remember my own teenage years and how i longed to be cool and accepted by my peers. These girls live inside this bubble, trapped in bygone centuries. Looking at the movie i thought it was cool how all Tayuu sported different hairstyles and looked very individual from one another.

I found it insanely refreshing that there was no rivalry to be felt between the Tayuu. We see them as passengers in the same boat, either ignoring each other or actually interacting in a realistic and, dare i say, even caring way. Multiple times during the movie we hear how the Okiya is exceptional in taking care of their Tayuu and that in comparison these girls would be much worse off. Yukiko gets a subplot where she takes care of a sick Usugumo Tayuu. The whole plot around Usugumo serves as interesting insight into Oiran lifestyle:

Pictured above: Usugumo returns from her outing, somewhat unexpectedly early and in intense pain, she collapses in the entrance. Just a few instances earlier, the Okamisan of the Ochaya where Usugumo was entertaining earlier in the evening, calls in and complains that Usugumo had left early and had given some odd excuses. Nobody, NOBODY, was listening to Usugumo until she arrives at her place where she felt safe enough to break down in pain. Turns out Usugumo HAS CANCER AND THEN DIES IN THE MOVIE! This sucks. But it checks out. These girls were drilled to make money and there was no pretense about it. Usugumo has a whole storyline about how she sends the money she makes to her father and little sister. While we never get to see her father, Usugumo's sister has her own little scenes where she pleads the Okasan's daughter to become a Courtesan herself so she can support her father in Usugumo's stead. In this scene we see the dichotomy between Usugumo's little sister pleading to enter the Okiya to fulfill her duty as a woman juxtaposed to the only Kamuro-like girl in the movie, i thought it interesting. In reality there would never have been a Kamuro this old, usually they would have been "broken in" way earlier. The movie makes us think about the fate of two girls transitioning into the sex trade: While the Kamuro's path is already laid out while she passively waits for her deflowering, Usugumo's sister anticipates the pass over the threshold so she can be of service to her family. All of them will be fed into the machine.

Some weird thoughts that popped into my head while i watched were Usugumo's matted hair when she lifts her head from her cushion. One could see the remnants of her Nihongami in there, as she deteriorates slowly into sickness. And... The 1950ies must have been intensely smoky, i can't imagine how all the kimono and tatami and everything else must have smelled of cigarette.. But you know what they say:

“The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.” L. P. Hartley.

Yet i can't help remember how in "Memoirs of a Geisha", even though based on Mineko's life, clearly a work of fiction and to be treated as such, there was a whole lot of talk about fire in the Okiya and such and how people in the Karyukai tend to make a point of how dangerous it is to bring fire into these wooden structures full of paper, cloth and wood. Yet here we see Tayuu, patrons and everyone in between smoking it up. I don't really know what to make of it but i found it kinda weird.

Seen above is the communal area where the Tayuu make up, prepare for the day and also where the very ill Usugumo rests, as she awaits her diagnosis. Iwanted to discuss the caption in the picture: "We are merely daughters of poor peasant families":

We can't ignore that this must be a very realistic statement around working girls in the Karyukai but it does contradict what is known about the refined character of Tayuu, born and bread for exclusive consumption. Well, there were no more rich samurai houses to drain daughters from, so by the time when the movie is set, Tayuu were indeed made up what whomever was walked in the door. You asked if there were any working working Tayuu in the 1950ies and there certainly were. Even after the Prostitution ban of 1958, Tayuu simply changed their job description and kept on keeping on. It's just a question of semantics.

In this sense the movie touches upon a very interesting delicate spot as Tayuu were transitioning from a contemporary albeit stuffy Courtesan tradition to become artisans of fine traditional art. It reflects my own position that by the time around the war, even though there were Tayuu houses and Tayuu, they were a far cry from what we celebrated as "The learned Courtesans" of yore.

Expressed in the original conflict between how Yukiko was rejected for her family's trade in the pleasure quarters all the while boasting refinement as a talented Piano player, good enough to pursue it professionally in Tokyo, equally having inherited a knack for entrepreneurship as a passionate Okasan when she steps in for her mother when she get's sick. All of which facilitated by the exploitations of working girls in her mothers house. Yukiko could have it all: The life of an enlightened modern Gyaru as well as a caring mother figure to desperate working girls in a high end brothel.

And yes. It's a brothel.

A rather interesting scene establishes how these Tayuu, in full regalia nonetheless, can easily switch from ozashiki to sexy time: The Yarite instigates the choosie game between three clients and three Tayuu during an Ozashiki. As the patrons pick their companions at random, the party dissolves as the couples cavort away to their futons presumably. Or where else would the rush to giggling?

Another hint is when we see Hatsuko and her doctor visit the Kamogawa Odori.

The good doctor Matoba is so enthralled by the Geiko onstage, he leers in such a way that even Hatsuko catches on and wipes his hands off the pamphlet, when he tries to find his desired Geiko in the pages. In the movie Hatsuko is framed as a somewhat jealous woman, insecure about her age, even though she looks far from the movie's own stereotype of an old woman.

Though the point i want to make is how the Okasan of the presumably last Tayuu house in Kyoto, will go see the Geiko of Pontocho perform, and later a Noh play, but we never actually see her own Tayuu perform in any artform. We only ever see them with men or in preparation to meet men. The movie wants us to see exactly that. These Tayuu are in the sex trade as opposed to the Geiko, who get to shine onstage. One scene shows a group of patrons enter the okiya with a swaying Maiko and Geiko in their arms, exhilarated by the evenings delights. Presumably the idea is that the Maiko will supply the entertainment in the Ochaya part of the house and then leave the end of the business transaction up to the Tayuu. So the movie clearly distinguishes that some women are for entertainment and some are for pleasure. In the Okiya's foyer, just over the Okasan's bureau hangs a clock. We are meant to keep track of time when Tayuu enter and leave. At one point a certain Mr. Sumiya (hinthint) calls in to book a Tayuu on the spot for 8 o'clock and my brain started rattling: Why such a late call in? How is this possible if Tayuu are meant to be booked far in advance, how could a patron simply walz into an Ochaya and request a Tayuu for the very evening? And i kept track of the clock: Tayuu usually left at 8pm. And Usugumo returned and then collapsed on the steps at around 1am. Soooo what would a Tayuu be doing? Was she partying in the parlors? Usugumo left early so clearly she was booked for longer and cut it short, getting reprimanded in the process. Was Usugumo supposed to bring the patron back to the Okiya for the rest of the service?

The Kisaragi subplot is interesting too:

Kisaragi is caught with a man in her quarters on her own time which leads to a physical altercation between the handlers and her lover. After this, Kisaragi flees but returns later on, pleading to be taken back into Hatsuko's fold, after being mistreated even more in other places.

Seems as though Kisaragi had been hanging around the wrong crowd as the dude she hooked up with turns up at the Okiya demanding Kisaragi to be given back, as she has now some unsettled debt to the new employer. Her boyfriend/pimp swiftly gets booted out the Okiya and Kisaragi is dealt with later as we never see her back. My guess is that she will have to make some serious money for all the trouble she's caused. So we have a case where a Tayuu leaves and ends up in an implied seedy brothel, when she returns she will probably be put to work as a Courtesan again. So clearly the lines are blurry when it comes to the Tayuu's "prestige" in this movie.

In Yukiko's own storyline, she goes from being ashamed of her background growing up in a brothel, to leaning into her family's trade. Even though she seemingly cares for the girls in the brothel, she takes pleasure in being the madame, so she will eventually learn to ignore the bitter taste she felt when she was driven to suicide by the rejection of her boyfriend's family at the beginning of the movie. "What an awful profession!" she exclaims when she is told that the stomach spasms Usugumo suffers from, are very common among the working girls. But she is quickly assured that she will learn to see it differently with time. The doctor explains that these girls "live life to the fullest" which must be the most backwards way to say "they are exploited to the fullest".

I do think the movie gets it right, that Tayuu would have been better treated than other working girls in less prestigious houses but i do wonder why? In the movie, they offer no particularly unique services to their patrons, we don't see their accomplishments and we don't hear about them being specially gifted or clever. In fact one Tayuu remarks that there are so many girls in the pipeline, it doesn't matter if a new young girls enters the profession, hinting at how the machine will grind them up one after another. In fact only Yukiko is deigned pure enough to find true love, as remarked by Kisaragi in the beginning of the movie, she herself being the poster child of unlucky love. But Yukiko does in fact not find true love, being conned by the doctor just as he conned her mother.

In the end Yukiko takes the side of her mother when everything comes out: Doctor Matoba had been playing Hatsuko like a fiddle, wanting her to invest in a new clinic. When he confessed that he was never going to marry Hatsuko but instead run away with Yukiko, the mother accepts and hands over the money she had saved up. After this he confronts Yukiko with the whole truth about his feelings for her and how he now has enough money to build a life together in Tokyo. Furious, disappointed and outraged, Yukiko grabs her sewing scissors and threatens the doctor. In a heartbreaking scene without words, it is implied that Hatsuko wants to dispose of Yukiko:

To his credit, the doctor then bids his farewell and promises they will never see each other again. To his discredit, he never returned the money Hatsuko had given him. Hatsuko had one last chance to stand up for her daughter but she was in too deep for her man. Yukiko on the other hand stayed true to her ideals of standing in for her mother and even mentions how the money Matoba accepted was made by exploitation. She serves as the modern moral compass that would have been novel in this type of setting.

I really enjoyed the movie. Like i mention i enjoyed how most of the women interact in a non-dramatic way with each other and how Yukiko stayed firm in her core values in a situation where i would probably have given in to the prospect of marrying a 5/10 young doctor and move to Tokyo. I like how Hatsuko is portrayed as flawed and yet an elegant and competent business woman, caring to her daughter but also a tad selfish in her urges. Maybe i interpret the last scene incorrectly? You let me know what you think!

Thank you for your ask! It was really fun to dive into this movie!

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

Thank you so much Anon for your sweet message <3 you're very kind.

Hey Anon

Aw thank you so much! I was nervous about that part, it is rather preachy. In the end i feel for the girls that lived in these machines and specially this post kinda took a toll on me, more so than those i researched about Shimabara Tayuu.

I guess it's because in the Shimabara, a lot of emphasis is made on how these girls were exceptionally gifted and artistic and had amazing lifestyles.. I suspects that a lot of whitewashing is going on in conversations about Tayuu, specially in the Shimabara, where they are still active. And I DO get it! There is this cultural heritage that Aoi and the Wachigaiya are working hard to keep alive, so it's essential to distance themselves from the historical entwinement in sex work.

For what it's worth, researching the history of Osaka Tayuu left a mark on me. And while i was reading a lot about the merchant class and how they built up and influenced Osaka through and through, it was that proverb that resonated in my head.

Thank you for reading until the end, i know it was such a long post!

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.

Hello again @bahandingbulawan

Wonderful find yet again! This ask tapped into some thoughts i've been having on Osaka Tayuu for ages now. I am currently writing about it right now, so please look forward to it soon!

I do wonder though, if this isn't an actress for the parade. All i've known until now is that the last Tayuu of Shinmachi went down with the quarters after WWII. It makes me wonder if this was one of them?

STRING INSTRUMENTS (10)

Koto

Gakuso

Yamatogoto (Wagon)

Ichigenkin (Shinmachi & Shimabara)

Nigenkin (Yoshiwara)

Biwa

Gaku Biwa

Shamisen

Kokyu

Gekkin

WIND INSTRUMENTS (11)

Shinobue

Kagurabue

Ryuteki

Komabue

Nohbue

Shakuhachi

Hitotogogiri

Hichiriki

Sho

Tsuchibue

Iwabue

PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS (11)

Tsuridaiko

Wadaiko

Shoko

Kakko

Sennotsuzumi

Shakubyoshi

Taiko

Otsuzumi

Kotsuzumi

Shou

Kagura Suzu

ARTS (9)

Kado (Ikebana)

Chado (Tea)

Chado (Incense)

Shodo (Calligraphy)

Senchado (Sencha Tea)

Gado (Painting)

Bonseki (Miniature Landscapes)

Kyomai Shinozuka

Kagura Dance

ACADEMICS (8)

Kyoto-ben

Poetry

Japanese Literature

Japanese History

Onmyodo (Astrology/Divination)

Chinese Classics

Buddhism

Shintoism

GAMES (8)

Go

Shogi

Ban Sugoroku

Kemari

Tosenkyo

Kaiawase

Hanafuda

Karuta

A Tayu should atleast be familiar with 57 artforms, and It could be more depending on each person's interest!

Hello @bahandingbulawan

Wow! What a list! I'm sure it took quite a while and some effort to get it all together. Thank you so much for sending it it and sharing.

I would love to go through all the individual points and see if i can find prints or texts describing a Tayuu practicing them. I'm a visual person to i'd love to see the individual instruments being used for example.

One thought i would like to share on the list is that some of the points i would consider general knowledge or basic education for people of the Edo period (Buddhism, Shintoism, Kyoto-Ben in Kyoto etc.). Others like Kemari and Iwabue seem a bit "off" to me for a Tayuu to practice, though i might be very wrong about that.

Amazing work! Thank you again for sharing with us!!

Hello again @bahandingbulawan

Thank you for the ask. I think a comprehensive list on Tayuu kanzashi is definitely a great idea though it needs the appropriate amount of research and time. I find kanzashi specially interesting for their symbolism so i would love to go into that one day.

Bonten with Birabira attached you say? I don't really know if i have ever noticed that. Maybe you could provide a pic?

Sadly i don't know about the "basket" like strip but i do remember having wondered about it before. It's very unique. Though i do know that the checkered Ichimatsu pattern is strongly linked to the Genroku styles. The two colored checkered pattern has been used for way longer but it must have been very widespread during the Genroku period (1688 - 1704) and was popularized by Kabuki's Ichimatsu Sanogawa (佐野川 市松; 1722 – 1762) in plays set that time:

Toshusai Sharaku - Woodblock print ca. 1794-1795

The Actor Sanogawa Ichimatsu I performing the spear dance - Torii Kiyohiro, 1751–1761

So maybe this Tayuu was going for maximum Genroku-ness. Sadly i don't really know if it has a specific name (i mean it probably has) and what it might be. If anyone wants to chime in, please feel free!

Best regards and lovely to see your blog active again!

Hi Anon

It makes sense for a Tayuu to have learned the art of incense burning as it is considered one of the three arts of refinement along with Ikebana and tea ceremony. In that sense it was considered a rather basic skill for a Tayuu to learn seeing that it was quite common practice among nobility and samurai alike.

The example of the anime you mention is referenced on the Wikipedia page about Incense burning. I don't really know much about how the game works but it sounds quite interesting and very appropriate for the socialites around nobles to play as it would showcase their learnedness and cultural knowledge as well as their olfactory sensitivity. Let's say a specific mix of scents was created to represent a chapter of Genji Monogatari and a player would not make the connection, it might just expose not only their "unrefined" nose but also that they were not versed in the classics. So might as well just reject the company right away. I would love to do this ritual more justice but i would need to do way more research.

Thank you for sending in the ask and i hope i can pick this topic up again in the future with more insight.

Hello Friends!

I managed to update the Sidebar for those who use tumblr on desktop. Lol it's been so long i had forgotten how it works! Some of your brilliant questions that inspired discourse and niche investigations are now under the "Vignettes And Answers" group for easier access.

Thank you so much for sticking around all the silence around here. Thank you for asking thoughtful questions and including me in the discourse. Thank you all for reading my words. Hopefully we can continue to learn together.

Hello Anon

One of my favorite posts centered around the different Arts of Tayuu and i'm still convinced that some of the greatest Courtesans throughout the ages, regardless of the pass times du jour, were mainly curators of entertainment for their patrons. Tayuu were groomed to represent the ideal woman for the elite and even though trends come and go, individualism (mainly the patron's individualism of course) could influence what a particular Tayuu became famous for.

The 1702 edition of "Yuri-sama Taiko", a Yoshiwara review and guide book ranks only 5 Tayuu among around 2000 working girls in the quarters. They were rare enough, their services being reserved and cultivated for the upper echelons. Apart from that, if a patron managed to get past the 3 introductory banquets, he would bind himself to that Tayuu exclusively. Still, she would have the option of catering to many more, it was considered bad taste to have too many patrons. A wise Tayuu would find a way to keep her circles small and sweet. So what was she expected to offer her niche patrons:

There are some "basic" Arts like Tea ceremony, poetry and dance, chess, obvious skills needed to physically entertain a party. Then things like calligraphy, painting and flower arranging would be part of their basic training so they could communicate with their patrons through different means: Letters, paintings, the setting of the ozashiki etc. But it was also for them to communicate their sophistication by distinguishing quality while being on the pulse of the cultural landscape, being the trendsetters they were. We know from prints, that Tayuu and Oiran liked to be painted doing cerebral activities like writing, painting and reading letters, so less performative accomplishments.

The Courtesan Hanaōgi of the Ōgiya Brothel (Ōgiya Hanaōgi), from the series Beauties of the Pleasure Quarters as Six Floral Immortals - Chōbunsai Eishi, ca. 1794

What about Astrology?

Japanese culture has a deep tradition of fortune-telling and divination, including Chinese-influenced animal zodiacs and horoscope systems, which would have been part of the cultural fabric that even educated Courtesans like Tayuu might have encountered or utilized for understanding people and events, though their primary focus was on arts, not professional astrology. So just how you wouldn't exactly book a Tayuu to read your palm, it was a tool for her to express her learnedness. Studying solar, lunar, and planetary movements as one manifestation of the natural order, or what might be called the “law of heaven”, was institutionalized in China through Taoism and Buddhism.

In China, astrology had the highest official status, calendar-making the next, and timekeeping and divination the lowest, whereas in Japan it was the other way around. As in China, the Director of the Japanese Institute of Divination (Onmyō no kami) was obliged to submit to the emperor a sealed report of astronomical or geophysical abnormalities. So naturally a Tayuu, present at court, would be keen to keep up with this interest as well. During the Tayuu's golden hour in the 1700s, Astronomy was starting to go out of fashion in favor of more western sciences but the influence through Buddhist traditions remains popular to this day as can still be observed in the modern Karyukai as well.

Hour of the Sheep (Hitsuji no koku), from the series "Twelve Hours in Yoshiwara (Seiro juni toki tsuzuki)" - Kitagawa Utamaro, ca. 1790ies

I guess we already know the answer as there still are two active Tayuu in Kyoto at least. Aoi is doing her thing and it is a way i couldn't imagine of doing. Her creativity, tenacity and dedication is par to none. While Kisaragi took the traditional route of adapting to modern day.

The only issue i see, is that the Wachigaiya and Kisaragi cannot or don't want to take on new apprentices, apart from the Kamuro that never pass the bar so to speak. Even the few Kamuro who get really up there in age never seem to cross the threshold to Shinzo or Furisode. Oh and by the way: Furisode in the Wachigaiya is usually reserved for the part-timers or hobby-Tayuu they employ to pad out the parades. So i wouldn't even count that into the Wachigaiya-style of progression. Since Aoi herself was a Furisode and managed to graduate, it's logical she would consider that a true stage in her own path to Tayuu.

Shinmachi-Yukaku was distroyed during WWII and never bothered to rebuild in the extent to offer any Okiya for Tayuu anymore and there is no Yoshiwara in the historic sense so there is nothing to adjust to. These places are gone. The ranks of the Tayuu died long before the location did, specially in the Yoshiwara. Though Osaka's Tayuu were once famed for their particular style, they were smaller in numbers compared to Edo and less infamous than Shimabara's Tayuu. They would have been the first to go anyway. Osaka has historically been a base for merchant people and less so associated with the ruling classes that stayed in Kyoto.

I don't think we will ever see a scenario where there are 13 Tayuu in modern Shimabara. There is simply no demand for their style of entertainment to keep this number afloat.

Hi Anon!

Thanks for the ask.

Lets go over your questions and examine what we know of Tayuu, what we know from modern Geisha, as a comparison, and the subtext from contemporary media depicting ozashiki with Tayuu, shall we?

Cherries At Night At New Shimabara - Utagawa Yoshitoya, active ca. 1850–80

What was a normal everyday ozashiki with a Tayuu like?

I would argue that the true Tayuu, during their heyday didn't necessarily work ozashiki every day. It's not as black or white as we like to think. But because of what we know of how modern Geisha operate today (constantly booked every night, rushing from engagement to engagement according to popularity, overbooked and paid by the hanadai) it's easy to deduct that Tayuu did the same but drawing a picture from what we know about Tayuu culture, it doesn't quite add up. So what do we know?

Catering to the elite classes, Tayuu didn't entertain the common man, only those with introductions, the very rich and of high class and even the aristocracy at their destination of choice. Tayuu could leave the pleasure quarters and work at their patrons estates and were not bound to the hanamachi where they were registered. Even if she was summoned to entertain at a lush country estate by lord so-and-so, there must have been an introduction and a long standing connection between the two parties and the respective okiya. And these types of things take time to build. It was part of the game that even the most famed samurai could not just waltz into an ageya and book a Tayuu for dinner. This much is known. As such it's impossible to envision a Tayuu having that many a bookings per night for her to be rushing in her geta from place to place.

Famed for their wit, intelligence, high education and sophistication, a Tayuu was formed by her patrons from an early age. We can deduct from popular accounts that certain Tayuu had expertise in very particular skills such as astronomy, poetry, incense burning next to more performative arts. How would a Tayuu ever entertain at a party if her forte was writing intense love letters? I argue that Tayuu were certainly groomed by their surroundings to be perfect company, but just as much by as for the men funding their education. So if lord Stargazer was a big fan of astronomy and he was paying for a Kamuro's education, you can be sure that that Kamuro will better learn about astronomy to keep him on the line for as long as possible. Of course some Tayuu were more universally accomplished than others, but in the end the way to measure success was money baby. So the okiya would prefer their Tayuu to be kept by a handful of loyal patrons throughout her short life instead of a horde of admirers that could only afford an ozashiki once or twice. The latter would certainly cheapen the Tayuu's exclusive status and make her legacy less prominent too. Remember that many Tayuu were famous by association. hence the importance of vetting their patrons.

I find it hard to believe that Tayuu would be booked nightly by different patrons, according to the snippets of infos we get from contemporary pieces. What i do believe is that a successful and popular Tayuu would be very busy during the festivals, during the cherry blossom seasons or when she herself had some type of promotion or celebration to monetize. Then she would try to see all her regulars in quick succession. The pleasure districts were just that, and there was always a reason to party even for the solemn scholarly elites.

So. How might Tayuu ozashiki be like? From what we know of modern Tayuu, their entertainment style is very much like a stage play: The public is treated to a demonstration of long bygone traditions exclusive to the artisan's lineage. And everyone is quiet, as the performance is held in candle light, the introduction of the Tayuu, the dances, the tea ceremony, the kokyu, the singing... Even the modern Tayuu-dochu. Everything is very solemn and almost spiritual in nature. Where does this tradition come from? I'm sure it has its roots in reality. But it's also the museum-like remnant of something that was alive once.

From the fact that Tayuu studied high arts and were accomplished curators of high brow music, dance, food etc. i would deduct that their talents were best utilized as co-hosts of parties financed by the patron. We know of Yuugiri-Tayuu who hosted very famous moon viewing parties at her favorite teahouse and she would invite her patrons and other Courtesans to party with food, drink and poetry recitals. Would she pay that out of pocket? I'm certain one or more of her patrons would have been delighted to be associated with such a grand party and gladly coughed up the dough. Mixing patrons would have been very common and powerful men profited from the connections made at these exclusive parlors. It was very customary to tip and pay horrendous wages and prices for entertainment, musicians, plays, monkey-tamers, Kamuro, Shinzo, flower arrangements, a new outfit for the Tayuu of course.. A bit like we overpay when going to Disneyland.

In "The Nightless City" (a product of its time certainly) a whole slew of celebrations are listed during the Tsukimi-period alone. So there would be at least 4 or 5 main moon viewing parties and many little ones around that where people would flock to. Every week of every month could mark a district wide celebration occasion: From exchanging summer clothes for winter dress to the planting of Chrysanthemum buds. Ozashiki were not only a private affair but a communal thing where the elite would mingle inside of their class. One thing that separated an important Tayuu from a Yuuyo was that the latter might get one or two days off from a big hearted brothel owner while a Tayuu was expected, and indeed even proud to host parties during holidays. I can't imagine these were all as dignified and ceremonious as Tayuu ozashiki are today.

Three Intoxicated Courtesans - Kitagawa Utamaro, 1790s

Would a Tayuu attend a party every night and if so how many? The goal was quality over quantity so as few as possible and as many as necessary. Maybe there would be some days in a month where she actually didn't have an engagement (namely when she was on her period). She was still funded by her Danna consistently. We have so many Ukiyo-e of Tayuu and Oiran spending time with other Courtesans or in their own quarters that we can actually picture them devoting their time to studies, internal socializing and living a "private" life in bathhouses and such. Are these settings meant to frame these women and girls in a certain way? Sure. Was this a reality of life in Edo? Also true.

Then again i have another input on if they attended multiple parties every night: Most Tayuu were extremely young. Some got promoted at 13 or 14 and by 19, the most popular ones would usually get bought out by their patrons to marry or keep as mistresses. So keep this in mind when you see an ozashiki in your minds eye: Kamuro, essentially toddlers and preschoolers, the preteen Shinzo and then the teenaged Tayuu with their much older patrons sat in an ageya, chatting and drinking, probably having just pleasure in common. These Kids needed some type of entertainment and there was plenty to keep them busy: Going on walks in grand gardens, watching the seasonal changes and comparing witty notes and poetry, play in one of the romantic little river boats... We are still talking about children living in a golden cage. They would have been very excited to go to parties all the time. The downside was of course, that they would need to spent these glittering outings with men their father's or grandfather's age.

But what would the entertainment be like?

Seeing A Performance - Kitagawa Utamaro, 1789

A Boating Party Under Azuma Bridge - Torii Kiyonaga, 1785

New Year's Day At The Ogiya Brothel, Yoshiwara - Katsushika Hokusai, 1804

The Actor Ichimura Takenojo VIII In The Role Of A Puppeteer, Showing Puppets To A Courtesan - Torii Kiyomasu I, ca 1715

Of course we know that food and drink was the center of any celebration or party, as is with any culture at any point in time of this human experience. The ageya coordinated the appropriate spread, here the Tayuu would coordinate her patron's favorites. Then the Tayuu had her connections to minstrels, dancers, actors and poets. She would call upon them according to the setting. Then again there would be travelling show acts that would pass the quarters and go from house to house and drop in at parties, collect the coins and move on. Such was often done with trained animals or other gimmicks and skits. While Chinese imports like Go and fireworks had been part of entertainment for centuries, even though limited, some European imports like pipe smoking made their way to very fashionable ozashiki too. We often see Oiran with pipes, but we can be sure that a very bold Tayuu led the way.

The discrepancy of the idealized pictures we have of stoic and regal Tayuu, the perfect counterpart to the Kuge class, and the sense we get when reading between the lines is stark: Little girls living the life of princesses, with the only goal of pleasing vastly older men. And the entertainment we find is oftentimes childlike: Puppets, animals, singing, shadow theater. The excuse that people were simple back then is laughable: Were the Tayuu and their patrons not believed to be larger than life? Were they not considered the elite? Better than the rest?

And it's not like they didn't cultivate elevated tastes compared to those without these resources. Seeing that the musical and recital traditions of court and Noh that influenced Tayuu, feel very alien to us even today. Take Gagaku (雅楽) as an example, music that was so niche to the aristocracy, that it was only able to survive through patronship of Daimyo Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Many of these forms of entertainment were indeed so exclusive to the ruling classes, that we hardly recognize them as entertainment today at all. Some of the pass times at court sound like homework and were completely different to what someone from the middling classes of Edo would find particularly fun.

The intellectual supremacy of a Tayuu to "the other girls" was her selling point though. And in my opinion, there is a sweet spot between classy and fun that many Tayuu masterfully hit with their talents. The ability to cater to their Danna, was the key to survival but it was also a lifestyle of abundance and luxury. We have these traditions in western literature too and my jerk reaction is to compare a Tayuu's gatherings with something more familiar to my own culture:

Courtly Company In A Salon - Jan Czeslaw Moniuszko, 1908

Abbe Prevost Reading "Manon Lescaut" - Joseph Caraud, 1856

A salon where influential people would meet to exchange ideas, gossip, flirt, let their hair down and splurge on luxuries. Many Courtesans, in essence high class mistresses, would hold court in their quarters. These third places would become a parallel stage to more socially acceptable forums and breed brilliant, open discourse just as much as dirty gossip. What was the entertainment in these salons? Smoking, drinking champagne or hot chocolate, reading aloud out of papers, pamphlets and books, playing the instrument du jour, betting on cards and talking smack.

Even before the golden age of Tayuu, sumptuary laws set a lockdown on ideas and dissemination of knowledge through media among the growing middle classes, who were amassing great wealth and becoming dangerously affluent. While the Geisha would come to dominate the entertainment of the merchant class, the Tayuu, up in their golden towers would only accept patrons of their own status. But many of the once important clans, increasingly impoverished as working was beneath them and spending was a lifestyle, could not keep pumping money into Tayuu houses for much longer. While the rank of the Oiran was on the rise, the last successful Tayuu would become iconic for their brains and legendary status, rather than their entertainment or their sex appeal. An essential reframing of their talents took place, as a delineation between the Tayuu (high society entertainer, exclusive to the nobility), the Oiran (expensive but accessible prostitute) and the Geisha (middle class entertainer) demanded it.

Hi there @fl3shisthelaw

Thank you for the pic. I must admit i was a bit confused at first too. I have seen this pic of course, it's on rotation in the public domain. But i have never examined it closer and i'm happy i get the chance to now!

What i did first is examine the model: She has some hints of Tayuu aesthetics: Red beaded bira kanzashi, turned collar, Tayu koma Geta.

Then there is a lot of Oiran about her too: The bekko kanzashi, the padded Uchikake, the Waterfal obi.

So what i did is reverse google search and i came to this source:

Not sure if it's the original but you get to see the whole picture.

So the source add the info that she is a courtesan and in kanji it would be marked as 遊女 and if you search for that it will take you to the Oiran searches. Kanji for Oiran is 花魁 and Tayuu is 太夫.

So we're at a dead end essentially but i have two theories.

Either we're talking about an Oiran or we're talking about an Osaka Tayuu. I'm not entirely sure about the latter as i have been a bit out of the loop with deep research so i don't want to lean into wild speculation. To stay on the safe side i would suggest we're looking at a Tayuu but i'm not convinced entirely. Please feel free to chime in!

Hey Anon

Maru obi are the type of obi used to create Kokoro knots for example. I wonder if you might send a pic so we can examine together?