Marriage is a woman’s grave. – Old Japanese saying
The subject of Japanese ideas about prostitution has come up in my writings, readings and discussions several times lately, so I will take that as a sign that it’s time to talk about the subject. Obviously this column only gives me room for a very limited overview of the subject, but if anyone is interested there are numerous online resources which explore it in far greater depth. The single most important thing to remember in any discussion of Japanese sexuality is that the Japanese are far more pragmatic about sex than we in the West; sex is not taboo in Shinto, and Japanese women are not brainwashed into thinking of sex as frightening, shameful or humiliating as are Western women. The result of this is that prostitution, though certainly not a choice for all women any more than it is in the West, is not viewed as an inherently degrading profession and historically might offer considerably more freedom and status to women than they would find inside the traditionally rigid and formal Japanese marriage.
Until 1617 prostitution was completely legal in Japan, but in that year the Tokugawa Shogunate issued an order restricting prostitution to certain areas on the outskirts of cities. Yujo (“women of pleasure”) were licensed and ranked according to an elaborate hierarchy, with oiran (courtesans) at the top and brothel girls (who were essentially slaves) at the bottom. These “red-light districts” were not implemented for the moralistic reasons which spurred their creation in the West, but rather to enforce taxation and keep out undesirables such as ronin (masterless samurai); prostitutes were also not allowed to leave the district except under certain rigidly-controlled circumstances. Soon the districts grew into self-contained towns which offered every kind of entertainment a man might want, all entirely run by women. Once a girl became a prostitute her birth-rank ceased to matter, and her status was determined by such factors as beauty, personality, intelligence, education and artistic skills. Even among the oiran there were ranks, of which the highest were the tayu, courtesans fit to entertain nobles. On the other end of the scale, the services of brothel girls were available even to foreigners; in earlier times these were mostly Chinese and Koreans, but later Indians and Portuguese as well. Some of these hapless whores were even sold into slavery to the Portuguese, who either used them as sex-slaves on their ships or resold them in Macau, Goa and even Brazil.
The oiran, on the other hand, enjoyed a status far greater than that of married women, just as the hetaerae of Ancient Greece and the cortigiana of Renaissance Italy did (and for the same reasons). Unlike their Occidental sisters, however, the oiran were not brought down by patriarchs jealous of their power, wealth and influence but rather by their own high standards. Because they were isolated in the “Flower and Willow World” (as their subculture was called) their customs, fashions, manners and even language remained static and became increasingly formal; they required a formal invitation from clients and would go forth to see them in elaborate processions accompanied by servants. Their costumes became more and more ornate, complex and proscribed and even the entertainments they offered were only those which had been practiced for centuries. Eventually they became so detached from the world of men that not even the nobles could relate to them any longer, and by the early 18th century they were supplanted by a new society of courtesans, the geisha; the last known oiran died in 1761.
Though the geisha wore simpler versions of the fashions created by the oiran, they made an effort to remain approachable by speaking in the vernacular dialect, practicing the popular entertainments favored by their clientele and making themselves available to casual visits from customers. They soon replaced the oiran entirely and became so popular by the late 18th century that they were often hired to entertain at banquets and other events outside of the walled pleasure districts, thus running afoul of government regulations and exposing themselves to arrest and forcible return to the districts. But since their popularity continued to increase despite governmental crackdowns, laws were passed which allowed the geisha to operate outside of the districts on condition that they could not offer sexual services while outside. By the end of the century geisha were legally distinguished from prostitutes and forbidden to sell sex at all, though of course many continued to do so just as prostitutes under every prohibitionist regime do. The tradition that “legitimate” geisha do not sell sex dates from this period, and to this day many people both in Japan and abroad insist that geisha are not prostitutes, despite a controversial 1872 law which proposed to apply the term “geisha” to all prostitutes and the existence of diaries from the women themselves dating as late as the 1930s which speak of selling sex. The safest assumption seems to me that, though geisha were legally prohibited from prostitution and publicly avowed that they never practiced it, in actuality many of them did just as many women of every time and place do.
After Japan was opened to Western influence in the second half of the 19th century, the Japanese began to adopt more Western notions of control over prostitutes and passed a number of new laws which made it harder to do business even in the red-light districts. This led to the trend of many young women from poor families who would once have gone to the districts seeking employment in China, Korea and Thailand instead; these women were called karayuki-san (literally, “Miss Gone-overseas”) and with them came a new profession for Japan: The pimp. These men made a career of recruiting poor young women, mostly from fishing families, and then arranging for their travel to Asian brothels (some even went as far as Zanzibar, Hawaii and California). Thus as so often happens when governments enact laws to “protect” whores, it actually opens them up for exploitation by unprincipled men. By the 1910s the Japanese government began to see this asjoshigun (“army of girls”) as shameful and damaging to Japanese prestige, and so enacted a series of initiatives throughout the ‘10s and ‘20s to bring expatriate Japanese prostitutes home.
Soon after this the Japanese began expanding their empire into Asia, and almost immediately discovered that sexually frustrated soldiers far from home have a tendency to rape local women and thereby breed resentment in the occupied territories; to prevent this it was decided to open military brothels (euphemistically referred to as “comfort stations”) staffed with Japanese prostitutes (“comfort women”). But as Japan continued to expand its Asian presence, the military soon ran out of volunteers and began actively recruiting prostitutes in China and Korea. When this strategy failed to obtain whores in the required numbers officials resorted first to misrepresentation (recruiting poor women as prostitutes throughout the Empire by greatly overstating the pay they would receive), then to deception (women were told they were being recruited as nurses or factory workers), and eventually to straightforward abduction. It is estimated that about 200,000 women were enslaved in these wartime brothels, though many Japanese propagandists both in and out of the government claim the number was much lower (some claim as few as 20,000) and deny that any women were ever forced despite the testimony of thousands of victims. Only 25% of the victims survived, and most of the survivors were rendered sterile by disease and physical trauma. The issue remains controversial to this day, and historical revisionism of the Holocaust Denial type has become quite popular in recent years.
“Geisha girls” at a Tokyo brothel, 1948
One aspect of the “comfort station” practice which is rarely discussed, though, is that it did not end when the war did; its staff and clientele merely changed. The Japanese government recognized that just as its own horny soldiers had tended to rape women in territories they had occupied, so the Allied troops now posed the same danger in Japan. A government bureau whose English name was the Recreation and Amusement Association was therefore formed to set up and administrate “comfort stations” to service the occupying army. The official declaration stated that “…we shall construct a dike to hold back the mad frenzy of the occupation troops and cultivate and preserve the purity of our race long into the future…” The stations were abolished a year later, then in 1947 the act of recruiting women as prostitutes was made illegal despite the fact that the government itself was doing so the year before! Though the official brothels were gone, independent Japanese prostitutes (who often dressed as geishas and styled themselves “geisha girls”) continued to do brisk business with the troops; the idea of injecting silicone gel into a woman’s breasts to enlarge them was first developed by Japanese doctors after repeated requests from hookers eager to enhance their desirability to American customers. But whether because of rape, amateur activities or Japanese prostitutes being less scrupulous about condom use than their Western sisters, venereal disease rates among American troops soared and under intense pressure from the US, the Japanese government legally banned prostitution for the very first time in 1956.
Even in this case, however, Japan did things differently from Western nations. Prostitution was defined only as vaginal intercourse for pay; every other form of commercial sex (including oral and anal sex) is completely legal! Besides the usual array of call girls, escorts, brothels (including themed brothels where the girls dress as popular anime characters), strip clubs and massage parlors there are also spas and bathhouses where sexual services are available in addition to the mundane ones. And though there are still a small number of geisha, the exclusive modern practitioners of the art absolutely disdain sexual services (unless kept by a patron) due to the desire to maintain tradition and to keep for themselves and the men who appreciate them a pale remnant of the once-extensive “Flower and Willow World” separate and distinct from the noise and bustle of the thriving Japanese sex trade.
So to put it in blunt and vulgar terms: legally I can’t fuck Sailor Mercury for X yen, but I could get a blowjob from her.
I can live with that.
I’d like to point out that the above reply was from the point of view of a hypothetical customer: I might want more, but I know that I’m damned lucky to be getting anything at all, and I’m more than willing to settle for what I can get, especially if what I can get is a blowjob from a Japanese cutie dressed as Sailor Mercury.
As a person, I think that the narrow restriction is silly. It seems to suggest that the vagina is sacrosanct, above mere commercialism, in a way that the hands, mouth, or anus are not. This doesn’t seem to be a part of Shinto or Buddhism, or it would have been that way all along.
No, it isn’t that; it was a venereal disease issue. Apparently the American authorities felt that oral or anal transmission was not a problem and accepted the compromise, though why the ban is still in place long after the occupation ended is a mystery to me.
From what I can tell, the Japanese government is essentially a Bureaucracy – even more so than most modern governments. Bureaucracies do not scuttle regulations, ever. They develop Byzantine systems for applying them selectively, since that puts more power in the hands of the cockroaches (iI mean Bureaucrats).
Interesting. It seems to me that this would be more about female-to-male transmission. I might be wrong about that, though.
Quite a few places around the world have held on to some of the western varieties of prudery, apparently out of a desire to counter the notion that they were morally inferior to western culture. The problem with this of course is that it assumes that western notions of morality are the standard against which everyone else should be judged.
Some of the excesses* of the Japanese during the War shamed the populace somewhat (which is why the people supported a new constitution which banned them having a military), and maybe they felt they had to prove themselves. I don’t really know.
* to put it mildly
That makes sense, considering it was the US who forced it on them because of VD among the troops.
” …especially if what I can get is a blowjob from a Japanese cutie dressed as Sailor Mercury.”
…I’m mildly embarrassed to realize that I would be able to point S. Barsoom to about a dozen photo-galleries of exactly that. (Granted, they’re on a single website, but still… :P)
I’m familiar with hentai. Are these actual our-world women so dressed? Feel free to point.
A fascinating tale, willow pattern plates will never seem the same.
Wasn’t it after the 1956 ban that the Japanese invented Bukkake?
And did you ever read the sexual offences figures for Tokyo after the Japanese ban? They shot up to 225%. The ban was actually implemented on April 1, 1958. Scan down here until you get to the 50 years ago section:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080921ec.html
Very possible, unless it’s a video-era phenomenon.
It doesn’t surprise me at all, given that rates decrease when prostitution is decriminalized. Didn’t the sex-crime rates dramatically increase in Sweden after its anti-customer crusade began?
I’m unsure. Certainly its rape figures rose a lot, but the complication is that I think the same radfems who criminalised the clients also radically shook up their definition of rape. I understand Swedish rape doesn’t require penetration, for example. God knows what it does involve. Saying “Hello” in a sarcy tone, probably.
I’m not going to ask how a man can accomplish rape without penetrating a woman; in the United States, he can sometimes accomplish it even if she consents AND is of legal age. 🙁
Swedish law doesn’t have the concept that we call “rape”. The offence literally translates as something like “violation of sexual integrity”, and encompasses both what we call “rape” and what we call “sexual assault”.
Grabbing a woman and kissing her forcibly would be the same crime as a violent rape.
Swedish law makes fewer distinctions (they only have one homicide crime, rather than separate murder and manslaughter) and leaves the judge with a lot more discretion on sentencing.
One result is that rather than being charged with a crime in the Anglo-American sense, you get a detailed description of what you’re being accused of having done – after which you have the choice of admitting it (equivalent to pleading guilty, but you still have to be tried and the evidence tested in court to determine the sentence) or disputing details, or rejecting the whole thing (equivalent to pleading not guilty).
Though I found this an interesting read, I think your view of Geisha is somewhat distorted. Yes, many sold sex but that was often because they had been sold into the profession and had debts (their training and clothes) to pay off. So, yes, though, there denied it, they did often sell sex because they were forced to. They didn’t make the choice to become prostitues. They were sold into a profession that was in many ways that of an artist, but one which forced them to do with their bodies whatever their owners saw as fit.
I would advise anyone interested in the subject of Geishas to look a bit deeper than just their early start. Modern Geishas are in many ways the dream come true of former Geishas, meaning they have the freedom (and ability to say “no”) that those before them didn’t have.
By the way, I’d like to add that you forgot to mention that the very first Geishas were men, nor the fact that many sources (most, in fact) say that oiran were so jealous they made it illegal for Geisha to sell sex even within the pleasure quarters. Of course, I am sure many continued to do so, but I do think that says something about how early many Geishas became seperated on the question of “do we sell sex or not”. You also didn’t mention “hot springs Geisha” which are usually full on prostitues who only pose as Geisha.
I know your article wasn’t limited to Geishas, but I find it a little disturbing that you use them as examples as Japanese prostitues but give so few facts about them or even admit that, yes, there are many Geishas who never had any dealing with sex for money at all. You are feeding a western fantasy by doing that, not upholding legit sex workers or honoring what all those who were forced into that line of work had to endure.
Jessica, my columns are never intended to exhaust a subject, but rather to serve as an introduction to it. I always encourage my readers to delve more deeply into subjects on which they are interested because my space simply doesn’t allow deep exploration of any single concept.
“I’d like to add that you forgot to mention that the very first Geishas were men”
I suspect she slipped that in very subtle. Is it my eyes, or does that Geisha in the photograph have an unusually thick neck for a woman? :S
Sure there’s more detail she could have gone into about Geisha. She could have cut&pasted entire chapters of “Memoirs” if so inclined, but I think she covered quite enough to get her essay’s points across.
Well, that whole “the first geishas were men” thing is very misleading. Since the word “geisha” literally means something like “entertainer”, that would be equivalent to an escort saying “most escorts are male”, using the word “escort” in its more generic sense. Geishas in the specific sense the word is now used throughout the world were never male.
I can understand that and I thank you for the reply. I myself am writing a book on Geishas (my great grandmother was once one) and so I know a bit more on the topic than what is generally given to the public (both Western and Japanese). I know that sex work was often forced upon the women who worked as Geishas, which another reason that so many modern Geisha try to push that aspect of the past away, sometimes even deny it.
I’d also like to mention that the law you mention (which would have grouped all prostitues as Geisha) actually, in its very wording, keeps them seperate. However, because they were mentioned together, many thought they were the same thing. What they meant were that both forms were “free” (their work no longer goverment contained). I do knew that many artists (which is literally what “Geisha” means) were thought to be “no better” than those who sold sex. Some may have used the title for other prostitues since they too often entertained in more than sex, but, traditionally, they have always been kept seperate.
I tend to get a bit wordy on this topic, lol. Forgive me. I do wish sex workers had better working conditions in Japan. The thought that “well, everyone needs an outlet” seems to be the driving force behind sex work there, yet it often leads to the women in it being thought of as nothing more than an outlet.
I took a really basic, preliminary, doesn’t really count look at the portrayal of prostitution in anime. Somebody should do this for real, but the impression I got is that prostitutes in anime fall into two classes: greedy bitches who look down on their customers and try to trick them into paying for ful service while giving less, and innocent girls who are forced by economic desperation into doing something they find shameful.
Though there seem to be a few who are high school girls, just want some extra yen and know how to earn it, play fair with customers, and don’t hate what they’re doing, so I should say three. But these last seem rare, and are only occasional prostitutes, almost like a hobby.
But of course I haven’t done a real study, just a bit of remembering, googling, and looking through catalogs of stuff available here in the US.
Forgot to say: in an episode of Rurouni Kenshin (it’s a samurai anime) a villain tries to insult Yahiko Myoujin by pointing out that he is the son of a whore. Yahiko Myoujin is not ashamed, but states that he is proud that his mother was willing to do whatever it took to support her son. This is still the “economic desperation” thing, but it is a positive portrayal of this particular mom.
Hmm… Japan may not have had a period of slavery in the same sense as American’s grasp it, but concepts of indentured servitude and service are VERY deeply ingrained (even the heroic samurai, whose class title literally means “one who serves” and who’s highest-held virtue was absolute, unquestioning loyalty and obedience). Conquered and abducted foreign women aside, Debt-Slavery would be the most common and prevalent form throughout their history. Poor families who could not pay what the feudal lords demanded they owed in back-taxes (or borrowed money, gambling debts, etc) would often be forced to sell daughters or even their own wives as a last resort to pay the debts. Once sold, the girl/woman was considered a slave to her debt-holder in every respect, with no right to protest poor treatment. Obviously this was a “system” much abused; the plot device of the wealthy land-owner artificially inflating debts in order to steal the poor farmer’s beautiful wife is still used in fiction today; you almost never see a period-series that doesn’t tap that for an opportunity of the dashing heroic wandering swordsman to intervene. 😛
My point is that what with obedience and subservience being held as high virtues for so much of their history, and so deeply ingrained into their culture, the practice of selling daughters or wives into a live of servitude (usually as a live-in maid, who due to her family’s debts feels unable to protest sexual harassment, molestation or even rape) STILL EXISTS in a very rare and limited way to this day! Highly illegal of course, but if the moneylender is unscrupulous enough, playing the Loyalty to Family card can pressure even an underage teen girl of a financially vulnerable family into feeling she must make such an enormous sacrifice to rescue her family from debt and poverty. Family honor and responsibilities are often weighed above strict adherence to laws… which like anywhere else in the world, a lot of money can buy a blind eye from authorities to, which would be made very clear to the girl, if not already understood.
Technically, no one’s FORCING the girl (or wife, etc) to accept the position of slave; the option of letting the debt-holder repossess their house and throw the entire family into the streets is very pointedly left open for her to choose. Thus her enslavement (in all but name) becomes a voluntary “choice”, privately negotiated between herself and the debt-holder, and thus no longer a crime in the legal sense.
Scenarios varying on this theme get touched on in a lot of the grittier sorts of manga. The population is thus all familiar with the concept of such arrangements even if they live their whole lives never meeting a person involved in one directly.
Dashing heros to rescue you at the last minute are unfortunately extremely uncommon in life outside mangas. Corruption and abuse of power and authority unfortunately much less so.
(Whoa, quite a tangent I rant on about… and in an old post too. Wonder if anyone will actually get to read this. :P)
“Girl marries villain to erase family’s debt” used to be a pretty common plot in Western literature, too. I once played a D&D character who accepted concubinage to an evil king to save her party from execution. Since that meant she was permanently out of the game, it was a real (if small) sacrifice on my part.
It nearly happened to Jane in the original book Tarzan of the Apes. Jane didn’t try to pretend it was anything else, either.
Guess who rescued her from that?
Sailor, though I was never into anime, I too looked into it to see what their view was on certain aspects of the culture in which it formed and I also saw what you saw (I wasn’t raised in Japan). I’d say that view extends to most mainstream Japanese, based on what I’ve come across. The basic idea is that it would be “accepeted” (note the marks) if a woman had no other way. But that those who do it are usually just wanting quick money and don’t want to work for it in a proper job, rather they hit the streets to work or work in other areas.
I’ve always said the Japanese view of sex is practical in many ways but not really liberal, as some think. They are actually conservative and I believe this itself lead to the search ways in which they could have an outlet and yet not have it known in the public. There are many loopholes in their laws and that extends to sex work. Many “legal” acts are greatly looked down upon (even by some who visit those places!) but allowed to exist for the same reason so much child porn is. It’s not that people agree it with but they don’t keep the law in check. There’s a difference between accepting and tolerating.
Somebody who is qualified should really do a full study, and then have a panel at A-KON and other conventions. It wouldn’t have to be restricted to narrowly-defined formal prostitution, but could include AV performers, strippers, enjo kosai girls, the depiction of foreign sex workers, depictions in mainstream Japanese television and motion pictures vs. adult videos, etc.
I’d attend that panel.
I believe many influential organizations in Japan would very actively oppose such a public airing of their nation’s dirty laundry, so to speak. Intentionally embarrassing others is extremely offensive in their culture, after all. I could see such a study being conducted, and perhaps the findings reported within Japanese news media, but intentionally showboating the more private side of Japanese life around the international community?
The younger generation probably wouldn’t bat an eye at the idea, but the old grey-haired men with all the money and power would likely give a lot to shoot that idea down before it made half the distance across the pacific if they can. 😛
I recently watched a Japanese program called “Deep Love” about a high-school prostitute. It was incredibly bad and so rife with stereotypes and moraline i almost gagged. The girl is “dead” inside, she doesn’t care about anything. Of course, she’s a prostitute because her father and brother raped her. Then she meets a nice young boy, falls in love and starts hooking more to pay for his medical treatments. As is fit for a hooker, she dies of aids in the end. An older prostitute she meets is strangled voluntarily by a customer.
One would’ve thought that sort of garbage had died out with the 19th century, but then we thought the “white slavery” myth was dead and buried as well. So sad. 🙁
Deep Love sounds like it could have aired on American TV. In fact, didn’t one of the CSI: shows do an ep where a woman was strangled to death because she and and her husband enjoyed taking it “to the edge” during their lovemaking?
On both sides of the Pacific, the popular culture seems to be saying: keep the sex as vanilla as possible, or EVERYBODY DIIIIIEEEESSSS!!!!!
“On both sides of the Pacific, the popular culture seems to be saying: keep the sex as vanilla as possible,”
Vanilla-sex in Japan? Such exists?
I’m going to site “La Blue Girl” as my counter-argument, not because it’s the most extreme or disgusting (not by a LONG shot!) example of Japanese hentai or pornography, (actually it’s well-written, with likable characters, good humor and actual plots… surprising in an anime that also is filed under “tentacle-porn”).
You read the article; paying for vanilla-sex is a crime, and as a result, they became quite possibly the most creative group of adorable deviants on the planet! (Which I’ve long known, but did not know the vaginal-insertion reason. ^_^)
La Blue Girl is porn, and proof that porn doesn’t have to be plotless. American porn often is because hey, it’s “just porn.” I would expect the pornography of almost any country to go far beyond the vanilla. Everything from rocky road to greet tea to Neapolitan to wrapped in mochi (and Hinoran has probably had ice cream wrapped in mochi, but if any of the rest of you haven’t, it’s great). But in non-porn, at least here in the US, anything other than man & wife reproductively-viable not-kinky sex is the sign of somebody who is going to cause trouble, or is going to suffer a bad end. There’s a reason Jason Voorhees can never manage to kill the virgin.
I actually like the attitude porn takes towards sex better than all the not-quite-porn which seems to want to both be kinky and show that kinky is bad.
Miko Mido is a blast, and she can take a tentacle like few others.
Sailor Barsoom:
“Somebody who is qualified should really do a full study, and then have a panel at A-KON and other conventions.”
I did do a well attended presentation titled “The Japanese Sex Trade in Anime and Manga” at FanimeCon in 2010. I plan to repeat again this year.
The martial covered, and more, is included in my Anime Companion Supplement web pages.
For a list see:
http://www.koyagi.com/ACPages/subjects.html#sx
Interestingly enough the explicit erotic anime and manga titles rarely have the sex trade. They usually tend to be more along the lines of adultery, master and maid, etc.
Seinen (young men’s) manga is the richest source, however one can occasionally spot business signs in the background in works aimed at younger consumers. For example an omiai pub sign in Hikaru no Go.
Thanks. I’ve opened that in another tab and will be reading it tonight.
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For those of you in the San Francisco Bay area I will be doing my Japanese Sex Trade in Anime and Manga presentation on Friday the 25 at 9 pm.
My full event schedule for FanimeCon 2012:
http://gillespoitras.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-fanimecon-2012-schedule.html
I won’t be in San Francisco, or California at all. But I’m glad you’re doing this. I guess you won’t be at A-KON in Dallas, but maybe next year?
I really can’t afford to travel much on a librarian’s salary so don’t hot many cons. Who knows perhaps A-Kon will invite me to be a guest again some day.
If I get the survey asking who I’d like to see as a guest, I can put your name on it.
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The word, pay, is defined in the dictionary.com as to settle (a debt, obligation, etc.), as by transferring money or goods, or by doing something. Or in other words, the word, pay, might not literally be interpreted as payment of money. It could refer to doing some service.
According to Japan, prostitution is defined only as vaginal intercourse for pay. If the word, pay, has to be defined as doing some service in exchange, it certainly prohibits prostitution without monetary involvement. The reason is simply that a woman gives vaginal intercourse to a man in return of some service, i.e. the satisfaction of man’s desire. The satisfaction of man’s desire is to be considered to be doing part of the service to man for his desire in return. As the word, pay, in dictionary.com, does not restrict its definition to monetary payment, it should cover the service that that man has received in response to vaginal intercourse.
Thus, despite Japan defines the word, prostitution, to vaginal intercourse for pay, they could make the prostitution without monetary payment to be illegal in the sense that there is a service that man has received in response to vaginal intercourse.
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