Women of the Pleasure Quarters (34 page)
notes
Introduction
1. In Longstreet, p. 103.
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Chapter 1
1.
“Chireba-koso itodo sakura wa medetakere ukiyo ni nani ka hisashikarubeki,”
in McCullough,
Tales of Ise,
no. 82, p. 125. Author’s translation.
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2.
“Iro miede utsurou mono wa yo no naka no hito no kokoro no hana ni zo arikeru,”
in Keene,
Anthology of Japanese Literature,
p. 73.
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3.
“Hito ni awamu tsuki no naki yo wa omoiokite mune hashiri hi ni kokoro yakeori,”
ibid., p. 74.
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4. Just as there are many words for “snow” in Eskimo languages, for “sand” in Arabic, and for “rain” in English, so there are many words for the differing ranks and varieties of prostitute and courtesan in Japanese. The different terms varied city by city and also changed over the centuries. English unfortunately has very few, so I will use “prostitute” to mean low-level sex workers who were freelance and unrecognized by society and “courtesan” for the trained professionals who held a recognized position in society.
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5. Shinto is Japan’s ancient folk religion, less a set of beliefs than a way of life. In Shinto all nature is sacred. Mountains, rocks, and trees are all deities. The (literally) innumerable Shinto gods coexist with human beings. They will intercede in human affairs to ensure good health or success in school, love, or business if approached in the proper way by the Shinto priests and priestesses who act as intermediaries. Shinto places of worship are referred to as “shrines” to distinguish them from Buddhist temples. They are usually large red-painted buildings with sweeping tiled roofs and a henge-shaped portal (as in Stonehenge), called a
torii.
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6. Ryoi Asai,
Ukiyo Monogatari
(Tales of the Floating World), written after 1661.
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7. François Caron,
A True Description of the Mighty Kingdoms of Japan and Siam,
ed. C. R. Boxer (London, 1935). Caron (1600–1673) lived in Japan from 1639 to 1641, where he fathered an illegitimate child.
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8. Hiromi, p. 228.
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9. Seigle, p. 229.
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10. Crihfield,
Ko-uta
no. 22, p. 84.
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11. From Joshin Miura’s
Keicho Kenmonshu,
1614, in Seigle, pp. 26–27.
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Chapter 2
1. In Scott, p. 162.
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2.
Love Suicides at Sonezaki,
tr. by Keene in
Anthology of Japanese Literature,
pp. 375–393.
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3. Dazai’s story is told in Dazai,
Return to Tsugaru,
and Keene’s
Dawn to the West.
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4. T. H. Sanders,
My Japanese Years
(Mills & Born, 1915).
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5. In Keene,
Dawn to the West,
p. 403.
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6. Arthur Rose-Innes,
English-Japanese Conversation Dictionary
(Tokyo: Meiseisha Publishing Co., 1969).
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7. Keene,
Dawn to the West,
p. 65.
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8. Saikaku Ihara,
Comrade Loves of the Samurai and Songs of the Geishas,
no. 10, p. 108.
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9. Lafcadio Hearn, “The Eternal Feminine,” in
Out of the East: Reveries and Studies in New Japan
(Jonathan Cape, 1927), p. 73.
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10. David J. Lu,
Inside Corporate Japan: The Art of Fumble-Free Management
(Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1987), p. 216.
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11. Tamura,
The Japanese Bride,
p. 2.
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12. Yukiko Tanaka,
Contemporary Portraits of Japanese Women
(Praeger, 1995), p. 45. In 1983, the divorce rate for Japan was half that for the United States—though still double what it had been fifteen years earlier. Since then the number of divorces has been increasing, with more and more initiated by women; under the Tokugawa divorce could only be initiated by the husband. The total number of divorces in 1992 was nearly 180,000, as opposed to 70,000 in 1962, in a population of 120 million, almost all married. In England and Wales, with a population of 53 million, there were about 160,000 divorces in 1992. More than two thirds of divorces were initiated by the wife.
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13. Paul Abrahams, “Time to Sweeten the Pill,”
Financial Times
Weekend section, February 27/28, 1999.
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Chapter 3
1. Crihfield,
Ko-uta
no. 5, p. 32.
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Chapter 4
1. Crihfield,
Ko-uta
no. 23, p. 87.
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2.
Keisei Irojamisen
(1701) and
Keisei Kintanki
(1711).
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3. From “A Wayward Wife,” translated in Hibbett, p. 110.
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4. Elisonas, pp. 285, 287.
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5. Seigle, p. 171.
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6. Seigle, Appendix D.
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7. Sansom, p. 485.
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8. Hiromi, p. 232.
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9. Crihfield,
Ko-uta
no. 17, p. 67. Tatsumi was another name for Fukagawa.
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10.
Edo Mumare Uwaki no Kabayaki
(1785), recounted in Seigle, p. 198, and Keene,
World Within Walls,
p. 405.
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Chapter 5
1. Saikaku Ihara,
Comrade Loves of the Samurai and Songs of the Geishas,
no. 24, p. 113.
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2. Ibid., no. 8, p. 107.
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3. Hayasaki,
Gion yoi banashi.
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*[-kun is an affectionate suffix used for boys, rather like abbreviating Robert to Bobby; literally something like “young Nakai.”]
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Chapter 6
1. Gerstle, p. 27.
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2. Seigle, p. 216.
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3. Yamata, p. 42.
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4. Pierre Loti,
Madame Chrysanthème,
p. 216, quoted in Ashmead, p. 219.
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5. Quoted in Otaka, ch. 1, Ito Hirobumi.
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6. My thanks to Hal Gold for the information and translation, which I have amended. Gilbert and Sullivan never credited their source; in
The Good Opera Guide
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994), the author Denis Forman mentions the “phoney Japanesy idiom” in which Sullivan’s “Miya Sama” chorus is written. Little did he know!
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7. A. B. Mitford, “Wanderings in Japan,”
Littell’s Living Age
CXIII (April 6, 1872), pp. 36–37, quoted in Kido, p. 275.
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8. Quoted in Otaka, ch. 1.
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9. Material on Ito from Seidensticker,
Low City, High City,
pp. 99–100.
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10. Material on Japonisme in Britain, including “The Geisha” by Charles Wilmott from Sato and Watanabe, pp. 37–40.
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11.
New York Times,
December 6, 1899, referred to in Kano, pp. 189–202.
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12. Louis Fournier,
Kawakami and Sada Yacco
(Paris: Brentano’s, 1900), p. 17, quoted in Kano, pp. 189–202.
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13. Kano, pp. 189–202.
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14. The material on Sada Yakko is primarily from Ezaki,
Jitsuroku Kawakami Sadayako
(see Japanese language bibliography).
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Chapter 7
1. Saikaku Ihara,
Comrade Loves of the Samurai and Songs of the Geishas,
no. 12, p. 109.
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2. “Ichiriki” in
The Kirin: For Marketing and Culture,
Kirin beer in-house magazine, Spring 1985, pp. 104–111.
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3. Ibid.
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4. For an extensive discussion of kimonos, a whole study in its own right, see the last chapter of Liza Dalby’s
Geisha
and also her
Kimono: Fashioning Culture.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
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Chapter 8
1.
“Kani kaku ni Gion wa koi shi neru toki mo makura no shita o mizu no nagaruru.”
Author’s translation. Poem inscribed on a stone beside the Shirakawa stream in Gion by Isamu Yoshii, celebrated writer of geisha songs, 1886–1960.
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2. Figures taken from Fujimoto, p. 27; see also Hiroshi Misobuchi,
Dance of the Season in Kyoto
(Kyoto Shoin, 1992) and Sato and Watanabe, p. 82.
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3. “Gaijin no Shitsuren” in
Osaka Maenichi Shimbun,
March 3, 1903, quoted in Kosakai,
Morgan Oyuki: Ai ni iki, shin ni shisu.
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4. From Kosakai.
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5. Quoted in Sato and Watanabe, p. 88. In 1889 the jingoistic Rudyard Kipling wrote: “The Chinaman’s a native, that’s the look on a native’s face, but the Jap isn’t a native, and he isn’t a Sahib either.” Quoted in Tames, p. 86.
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6. From Kosakai.
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7. From Dalby, pp. 69, 80.
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8. Ibid., p. 77.
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9. Seidensticker,
Kafu the Scribbler,
p. 119.
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10. From Dalby, p. 80.
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11. Ibid., pp. 82, 86.
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12.
Sumidagawa,
translated in Keene,
Modern Japanese Literature,
p. 197.
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13. Seidensticker,
Kafu the Scribbler,
p. 23.
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14. Ibid., p. 121.
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15.
Geisha in Rivalry (Udekurabe),
tr. Kurt Meissner.
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16. Seidensticker,
Kafu the Scribbler,
pp. 86, 87–88.
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17. Kafu’s
Diary,
vol. xxii, p. 317, quoted in Seidensticker,
Kafu the Scribbler,
p. 165.
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18. Mark Gayn’s
Diary,
p. 32.
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19. Ibid., pp. 232, 212.
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20. Kafu’s
Diary,
February 25, 27, quoted in Seidensticker,
Tokyo Rising,
p. 186, and
Kafu the Scribbler,
p. 174.
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21. From Dalby, p. 182.
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Chapter 9
1. Longstreet, pp. 15, 224.
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2. “On a Geisha Party at Yanagibashi” by Yodo Yamauchi (1827–1872), former daimyo of Tosa; translated by Donald Keene in
Dawn to the West,
p. 42.
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3. Saikaku Ihara,
Comrade Loves of the Samurai and Songs of the Geishas,
no. 13, p. 109.
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4. Translated in Hibbett, p. 72.
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5. Yasunari Kawabata,
Snow Country,
tr. and with an introduction by Edward G. Seidensticker, Charles E. Tuttle, Tokyo, 1956, p. 3.
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Chapter 10
1. Crihfield,
Ko-uta,
no. 20, p. 77.
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select bibliography
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Buruma, Ian.
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Cobb, Jodi.
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De Becker, Joseph E.
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———.
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———.
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———.
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———.
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See
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———.
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———.
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———.
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Japanese Language
Ezaki, Atsushi.
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