Prologue

Japanese Women
Throughout the Ages

EMPRESSES

Seven empresses ruled ancient Japan. Most fascinating was the mysterious, semi-legendary Himiko, credited with unifying the country in the third century a.d. and making contact with China. A shaman who lived in seclusion, by day she was attended by women; by night male slaves gratified her sexual desires, as suggested by director Masahiro Shinoda in a 1974 film.¹ Suiko, who ruled jointly with Prince Shotoku Taishi² from a.d. 592 to 628, was instrumental in bringing literary arts, a legal code, and Buddhism to Japan, and promoted international diplomacy. In a.d. 710, Genmei built Nara, Japan’s first capital city, where four empresses and three emperors held the scepter and civilization prospered until 782.³

HEIAN COURT LADIES

Ladies of the Heian period were judged not just for beauty but also for taste in dress and accomplishments in arts and letters, especially the elegantly brushed calligraphy in which they wrote their renowned poetry. Under their embroidered Chinese jackets, they adorned themselves in multiple robes of exquisite silk, arranged so the up to forty successive layers of beautifully matched colors could be seen and admired at the neck and sleeves.⁴

With long, Rapunzel-esque black hair owing down their backs often reaching the floor, they were among the most sensual women in Japanese history. As Sarashina Nikki wrote in her diary in 1037, “I was dressed in an eight-fold uchigi (outer robe) of deep and pale chrysanthemum colors, and over it I wore the outer flowing robe of deep red silk.”⁵

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A goddess and a Heian court lady
wearing a many-layered kimono

Two women who exemplified this ideal were the literary geniuses Murasaki Shikibu (978–1015) and Sei Shonagon (ca. 966–1025). In mirroring the aesthetic preoccupations that permeated every part of court life, from manner of dress to way of living, to its unique perspective on the art of seduction, their works also laid down the classic templates for exquisite and elegant taste. Murasaki Shikibu wrote the most famous work in Japanese literature, considered the first novel ever written, Genji Monogatari, “The Tale of Genji.” Sei Shonagon wrote Makura no Soshi, “The Pillow Book,” an erotic journal of memories and fantasies that captured the spirit of the time, including the popular “phallus game,”⁶ which measured the prowess of a man and his ability to keep an erection.

However, it wasn’t all sex and games. Heian ladies also understood how to savor life according to miyabi, courtly beauty,⁷ best described as the quiet pleasures experienced by smelling a fragrant perfume, appreciating the delicate blending of colors on a kimono, or feeling the silky softness of a flower petal between your fingers.⁸ Nothing in the Western world can compare with how aesthetics played a role in the life of the senses. In that manner, miyabi could also refer to the art of seduction, whether a woman attracted a man by the elegant movement of her long sleeves or by her skillful playing of the lute. It is this sense of miyabi that Heian ladies handed down to successive generations of sensual Japanese women, especially the fascinating courtesan.

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A courtesan dancing, wearing a
kimono with winged sleeves

COURTESANS

Courtesans, part of Japanese society from ancient times, operated actively into the twentieth century. Originally called saburuko, “ones who serve,”⁹ their titles changed over the eras. They occupied a hierarchy according to the cost of their services, from the lowest ranking hashi, ordinary prostitute, to the elegant, refined tayu of the karyukai, “world of flowers and willows,” as this life was called. Most famously romantic were the tayu of Edo’s licensed district, the Yoshiwara. These women with their seductive wiles were the leaders of fashion, copied by women of all classes as explained by Ejima Kiseki (1667–1736) in Characters of Worldly Young Women (1717): “mother and daughter . . . ape the manners of harlots and courtesans.”¹⁰ Prostitution was a widely accepted and very active aspect of society, but certain things set tayu apart as women of the senses, such as their intricate hairstyles and extravagant kimonos tied in front instead of the more traditional back.

Ukiyo, “Floating World”

Ukiyo means “floating world,” originally a Buddhist term used in the Heian period to describe the sadness and impermanence of life. During the Edo period, when bons vivants of the time sought a word to express their foray into the erotic and seductive world of the senses,^a ukiyo acquired a new, trendier meaning by making a pun of the word uki. Meaning both “sorrowful” and “floating,” it came to refer to the transient pleasures of the gay quarters. The word also came to be associated with a certain chic, a savoir-faire in the arts. This included life in the brothels, which had its own set of rules and guides governing the behavior expected of its patrons and denizens.^b

A remarkable period of distinctive, highly creative artistic traditions and sexual exploration arose from this fertile environment: the Genroku era (1688–1703), where sex and money ruled.^c Sexual pleasure in all forms was an end unto itself, in any and every persuasion, including autoerotica, bisexuality, and homosexuality. In the Yoshiwara, the famous brothel district of Edo (now Tokyo), writers composed lyrical poems and artists made sketches for graphically illustrated “pillow books.” Sex, art, and literature culminated in erotic and exquisite pictures known as shunga, “spring drawings,” which featured prominent displays of both male and female genitalia, an explicit references in satirical masterpieces like Ihara Saikaku’s Koshoku Gonin Onna, “Five Women Who Loved Love” (1686).

Customers were very particular about picking out a girl and often consulted Shikido Okagami, “The Great Mirror of the Way of Love,” by Hatakeyama Kizan, as well as Hidensho,“Secret Teachings,” by Okumura Sanshiro, that listed both a girl’s physical attributes and her cultural achievements. But, the highest-ranking tayu could turn down a client if she found him distasteful.

GEISHA

Around this time, a mysterious and desirable creature surfaced in this fascinating world of seduction: The geisha, considered the most artistic and accomplished woman in the history of Japan. The term is best understood by the meanings of the two ideograms used to write the word: gei, “art,” and sha, “person.” In the seventeenth century, “geisha” referred to any person engaged in a profession of a three-stringed lute artistic accomplishment.¹¹ Male geisha, who entertained the guests of the courtesans with ribald jokes and antics, were referred to as hokan, jesters.¹² Young female entertainers called odoriko, literally meaning “dancing child,” began by likening themselves after male geisha. Performing for high-ranking courtesans,¹³ they evolved into elegant, stylized ideals of femininity. The geisha was strictly forbidden to compete with the courtesan, but when the days of the Yoshiwara and high courtesans came to an end, the geisha emerged as the premier provider of elegant entertainment in the “world of flowers and willows.”

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A geisha playing the shamisen,
a three-stringed lute

Geisha apprentices, with their long, long sleeves and even longer hanging sashes, spent their childhood years learning literary and artistic skills, as well as beauty skills—from her graceful silhouette to her soft voice to her slightest gesture—that enhanced her mystique and her power over men. Whether dancing or playing an instrument like the shamisen (lute), each girl was expected to excel in her chosen art, as well as in chanoyu (tea ceremony) and kado or ikebana (flower arranging). She was also expected to be a witty conversationalist.The geisha was known and respected for her loyalty and her emotional commitment and for her skills and artistic accomplishments.

Geisha flourished in a golden period that lasted from the 1860s up to the beginning of the twentieth century, but a few still carry on this elegant tradition. In them, what began as the ancient idea of miyabi, and evolved into the aesthetic of the courtesan, became a more modern kind of artfulness and sensuality.

HOSTESSES, SOAPLAND GIRLS, AND THE TAKARAZUKA ALL-GIRL REVUE

The days of opulence, grand castles, and sumptuous brothels are gone. But, according to a recent study, ten percent of men in Japan pay for sex at least once a month.¹⁴ Women today in the mizushobai, “water trade” or sex business, ply their wares in other ways.

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A modern soapland girl,
waiting for a customer

By the 1920s, jokyu, “cafe girls,” began to rival geisha. They are considered the predecessors of the present day hosutesu, “bar hostesses.” Some bars are small intimate places, the waiting rooms from the old prostitution houses; others are sleek, modern establishments with live, usually nude or semi-nude, entertainment. Hostesses are expected to engage in a fantasy world, pampering the customer and allowing him to believe he could be the man in her life. They also go on what are called dohan, “couples dates,” to a restaurant with their customers, then bring them back to the club for a nightcap. Young women also engage in a practice known as enjo kosai, “compensated dating.” This is a “sugar daddy” system where older men go out with younger girls. Japanese culture does not make it acceptable for the girl to accept cash for the relationship, so the men give the girls gifts. Soapland girls, like the yuna,“bath maidens,” of old, provide services, sexual and otherwise, for a fee in bathhouses. A different kind of seduction also goes on under the footlights, including strip clubs and the male-impersonatin g Takarazuka All-Girl Revue (made famous by the 1957 lm Sayonara based on the novel by James Michener), while soft-porn cinema actresses seduce men from the privacy of their own bedrooms through television monitors.