Chapter 31 Present Day #2
If time allowed, the pair would certainly take in the sights that most tourists come to Kyoto for: Nijo Castle, the world heritage site of Tokugawa Shōgunate, the Samurai and Ninja Museum, the beautiful bamboo forest of Arahiyama, or at least one of the thousand, magnificent temples and shrines.
But their mission was Shimabara and a search for anything they could gather about the mother and daughter, Shibata Mizuki and Shibata Rikka, and this mysterious Yoshino tayū.
Only a five-minute taxi ride from the train station, Julia and Zoey laughed, pretty sure that they could have walked to the Airbnb the travel agent had found for them in the heart of Shimabara.
Julia’s mother wasn’t too happy the agent had booked them at a place where they shared common space and a bathroom with strangers, but the location seemed perfect.
From the outside, the Kinse Inn appeared to be everything Julia imagined classic Japanese architecture to be—a two-story, tile-roofed building of wood lattice facade with a simple design, steeped in Japanese history of days gone by.
Of course, the building had undergone renovations but the Airbnb website said the Kinse had served as an inn for two hundred and fifty years.
The young owners, a husband and wife team, met Julia and Zoey at the door, asked them to remove their shoes, and escorted them to some awaiting hot tea. Zoey shined with her translation skills.
“Welcome, we are so thankful to have you stay with us,” the woman said. “Your email said that you would like some help touring Shimabara. I am at your service.”
“Thank you for your hospitality and sharing your beautiful home with us,” Julia said as Zoey translated.
The woman bowed and said, “This building has served many lifetimes as it was built in the 1700s, served as an ageya, a house for geisha entertainment, and then a ryokan, an inn for travelers. My husband and I bought and restored it in 2012.”
Julia looked around the beautifully appointed inn and pursed her lips, imagining they had been transported to the time of her great-great-grandmother.
* * *
“You will see the Shimabara district is not so big,” the innkeeper said as Zoey translated. “Notice the gray cobble stone,” she said, pointing to the tiles. “As we walk around today, you can use this as a sign to know when you are in the ancient area of Shimabara.”
Julia looked around the quiet neighborhood they strolled through, pleased to know that fact.
Otherwise, it felt as if they walked in any random residential urban Japanese neighborhood with modern houses and cars, scattered high-rises, and the unfortunate, ugly tangle of electrical and communication wires overhead.
“Shimabara was established in 1640 as a yūkaku--”
“The pleasure quarter…a red-light district,” Zoey interrupted her to explain to Julia and grimaced.
“Hai,” the woman continued. “But to really understand Shimabara, one must have some understanding of Japanese history. Our Shōguns, the military leaders, ruled Japan from 1192 to 1868, when the last Sh?gun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, returned the authority to govern to Emperor Meiji. In 1617, the Tokugawa Shōgunate issued an order to restrict prostitution to certain areas on the outskirts of the cities. Shimabara became one of the most famous,” she said proudly.
“Why would they do that?” Julia asked.
“Often these things are difficult for our foreigners to understand. There may not have been such a stigma around sex and the leaders wanted to establish order and consolidate control over a war-torn Japan,” she said and then added in English, “make love not war.”
The women all laughed.
“And you must remember, the entertainment districts were not only for prostitution. People truly came for other things as well, including food, drink, concerts, and dance. It is like you and I—we love going to the theater or to hear our favorite singer and to eat at our favorite restaurant.”
They approached the end of the gray tile two blocks from the inn at a narrow oriental gate squeezed between a high-rise building and a two-story house.
“This is the eastern front gate where a wall and moat once surrounded the district. It continued as a yūkaku until 1950. By 1970 the last of the geisha were gone, but we still have registered tayū.”
“I am confused with all the different titles of these entertainers,” Julia said.
“Hai, and many Japanese people are as well. I can tell you what each title means, but you must understand that the distinction was not always black and white. And perhaps, more importantly, how esteemed these women were by our society. They were highly skilled in what our society values—masters of musical instruments, dance, and various kind of arts. To us, these women were on the level of Beyoncé or Adele. It is interesting that many of our most famous entertainers would also go by one name.”
“The world is probably just as interested in those famous people’s sex lives now as they were back then,” Zoey chuckled.
“Often the tayū and the oiran are labelled as sex workers and the geisha, or geiko as they are called here in Kyoto, and their apprentices, the maiko, are thought more as entertainers.”
Julia cringed, thinking of her great-great-grandmother selling her body.
“But that is often an incorrect interpretation. The distinction was better defined in the hierarchy of the clients these women entertained. The tayū, for example, were the elite of the elite and the only women who could entertain the Imperial court and the feudal lords. They served the wealthiest of customers. You must understand that all these women co-existed and tried to carve out a life for themselves. Some of the women were pure artists and entertainers, some just pure sex workers, and then there was a wide variety of everything in between.”
She looked at Zoey and Julia to see if they followed her explanation.
“How did women enter this…profession?” Julia asked, still trying to understand.
The woman nodded and pursed her lips. “This too is complicated. Who doesn’t want to be famous? Some girls chose this honored way of life. Others were not so lucky and because of poverty or hardship, families sold their daughters to be a part of it.”
“All people must make the most of their life’s circumstances,” the innkeeper continued.
“As a woman, we all must make choices. What we do with our lives…what we do with our bodies. It was the same back then. The confines of culture were both different and the same for them. These women carried great power and perhaps shaped history…making and breaking kingdoms. In fact, they are often referred to as ‘castle topplers.’”
“So much power between our legs,” Zoey said and laughed.