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TOKYO PINK GUIDE
Steven Langhorne Clemens
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The Tokugawa era (1600-1868) witnessed the dam bursting on licentiousness. The culture was called ukiyo—the floating world and survives today in the erotic prints collectors the world over know as ukiyo-e. It was during this time that the geisha came into being. Originally they were male entertainers and a few men actually carried on the tradition until early in the twentieth century. Ironically, Kabuki was orginally performed by women and survived only because men took over all the roles after women were banned from performing. The authorities' decree barring women from the Kabuki stage had nothing to do with poor acting abilities, indeed it was perhaps the opposite. It seems that in the original Kabuki plays, the actresses would mix with the audience after the show giving a more personal and intimate performance of certain scenes they had acted out! The geisha who can perform traditional dances and play the koto or shamisen are now considered virtual anachronisms even by Japanese. Their preferred replacement, young hostesses whose only talent is usually a mediocre karaoke rendition of the latest pop hits, seem a poor substitute.
Yet, despite the changes, Japan's love of bawdiness has remained unabated through the turmoil of modernization. On the surface, prostitution was legally eliminated on April Fools Day 1958 with the demise of Tokyo's licensed Yoshiwara brothel district, but the selling of spring, as it has been euphemistically referred to for centuries, continues below the surface and one doesn't have to dig very deep in Tokyo to find a rich river flowing. The Yoshiwara quarter, which had thrived for nearly 350 years, may have disappeared on that spring day in 1958, but its spirit continues to flourish in Shinjuku's Kabukicho district and, to a smaller degree, elsewhere in the metropolis.
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