Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-05-04
The Tokyo Yoshiyxara.

Few travellers get to know much about
the inside workings Of things in Japan.
My letters. however, to the chief of police
gave me the assistance of private police
men, with whom I went through the great
Yoshiwara,A at Tokyo, which contains $500
maidens. 1t is the largest establishment
of the kind in Japan and it's houses are
among the finest of Tokyo. 1t embraces
In addition to the professional houses
hundreds of hair-dressers, singers and
dancers, and it is shut off entirely from
the rest of the city. 1t has wide streets,
through the middle of which are strips of
flowers, and the streets are decorated with
fountains. stone lanterns. bits of wax
draw the sightseer. Nearly every other
house Is tea house or restaurant. The
houses in which the girls live are of i'm
mense size, and are all of much the same
nature and shape. The scene is, in fact,
very like the animal show at a circus. The
first story of each of these houses consists
of cage-like parlors, facing the street, and
running on each side of hall. which leads
into the house. At the side OF this hall, in
a little cage like that of ticket office,
man sits and gives information to all who
pass by. Each of these cages is about 100
feet long and twenty feet deep, and its
floor is about as high as your waist This
floor Is covered with carpet or mating,
and at the back of the room there is line
or girls ranging all tie way from twenty
TO fifty, squatting on the floor, with the
little boxes of charcoal before them. They
smoke, and they chat, and they make
eyes at the men who pass along the
streets. Some of them may have samisens
or the Japanese guitars, and now and then
one will get up and wadde out to the bars
of the cage and chat with the people out
side. In some of the cages they sit upon
cushions and chairs, and in others you
will find perhaps fifty girls dressed all the
same way, and looking like sisters. Some
have dozens of pins in their hair, each
OF which is as long as a crochet needle,
and which stand out about their water
are all highly powdered. Some of them
have lanterns in front of them, and many
Of the establishments are lighted by the
electric lights. Some have plate-glass win
dowS between them and the streets. The
girls all have their obs or belts tied with
bow In 'front.' instead of behind, as other
japanese women do. This, 1 think, Is pro-
vided for by law, and this finest part of the
Japanese woman's dress known as the obi
Is the badge of the bad and the good.
At the Courts.
I spent some time in the police courts
or examination rooms, where all girls who
wish to enter the Yoshiwara must first get
their licenses They are practically sold
by their parents or guardians, who must
come with them, and who in company
with the proprietors of the houses, then
make contract with the girl for three
years. They were asked as to whether
they entered into contract of their own
free will. They hung their heads down
when they were questioned but they re-
piled almost automatically, and evidently
uttered the words which their parents had
put into their mouths. Some, l doubt not
are forced to this by their parents, and it
is considered a good deed among some