13. Umore-gi, a cherry tree that sinks into oblivion without ever having had a chance to blossom, implying that unless someone takes him in hand, the Youth will never get the chance to become a Yoshiwara sophisticate.
14. All three are characters from popular kabuki plays. Zenjibō is the straitlaced but spineless younger brother of the two samurai heroes Jūrō and Gorō in the filial-revenge drama The Soga Confrontation (Soga no taimen), which at this time was put on in Edo each year at New Year’s. Sukeroku, the swashbuckling hero of Sukeroku and the Flowering Edo Cherry (Sukeroku yukari no Edo-zakura), is a chivalrous commoner (actually the same Gorō in disguise) who protects the weak from the strong, defeating a brutal samurai villain who is his rival for the favors of Agemaki, a Yoshiwara courtesan. The sobriquet given here for Sukeroku derives from a jeering self-introduction in the play in which he identifies himself as “Sukeroku of Hanakawado, in cherry-blossom-scented Nakano-chō—also known as Agemaki’s Sukeroku.” He was seen as the epitome of the dashing Yoshiwara sophisticate.
15. The Man-About-Town’s words (Choki-bune chokkiri gui-zukuri, hayaku dashi to shitai wai) are a pun on choki-bune (skiff), chokkiri (a bit; snip off), and Choki! (an exclamation shouted when choosing “scissors” in the popular #x201C;rock/scissors/paper” game). He also uses the expression gui-zukuri (go ahead and get it ready)—another pun on “Gū!” the exclamation shouted when choosing “rock.” The boathouse proprietress, who understands perfectly well what he is asking for but is evidently irritated by his affected and overfamiliar tone, snubs him by feigning incomprehension.
16. Hori, short for Sanya-bori, the Sanya Moat, where visitors to Yoshiwara got off the boat and climbed up to the embankment along which they walked to reach the walled enclosure of the licensed quarter itself.
17. Chazuke is a sort of soupy rice snack made by pouring hot water or tea over leftover rice, usually eaten together with pickled vegetables.
18. A popular, somewhat looser variation on the Honda hairstyle.
19. He uses the word hara (literally, belly), an expression then in vogue with Yoshiwara sophisticates, meaning “ulterior motive,” “real intention.”
20. A taiko-mochi (literally, drum holder) was a professional entertainer who acted as a sort of master of ceremonies, comedian, and companion to customers drinking and disporting themselves in the licensed quarters. His function was to keep the party going and everyone in high spirits.
21. A Yoshiwara landmark that served soba, or buckwheat noodles.
22. The Shubi no matsu (literally, The-Outcome-Awaits Pines) a well-known landmark to regular Yoshiwara visitors, was a stand of large pine trees just past Yanagibashi whose branches reached out over the river. They derived their whimsical appellation from a pun on matsu, meaning “pine trees,” and matsu, meaning “waiting,” and from the conceit that a passenger on his way to or from Yoshiwara would, from about this point onward, be waiting to see how things would turn out in the licensed quarter or back home.
23. That is, a man who wears his hair combed straight back instead of shaven and allows it to hang down in back instead of gathering it into a ponytail. This hairstyle resembled that favored by Buddhist yamabushi (mountain ascetics), hence the sobriquet.
24. A well-known shop that specialized in made-to-order tobacco pipes. The Man-About-Town would be summoning the shop owner to his house in order to view his wares and order pipes.
25. It was customary for people to adopt a nom de plume when engaged in such fashionable pursuits as haikai poetry and painting. But even someone not engaged in such pursuits would use a pseudonym when visiting Yoshiwara.
26. The Man-About-Town’s licensed-quarters pseudonym, Banchō, was the name of an upscale Edo neighborhood, populated mostly by respectable samurai. Presumably the Man-About-Town either lives in that part of town or wants people to think he does. The character kei in Bankei has various meanings, including “to look up to”; possibly the Man-About-Town’s intent is to name the Youth, roughly, “Looks up to Banchō.”
27. Masumi Tōjū, a reciter of the Katō-bushi school of jōruri and reportedly the son of a Yoshiwara brothel owner. The Katō-bushi school was currently in vogue among Yoshiwara sophisticates.
28. Oku-zashiki no jorō designates a courtesan of sufficient rank to be entitled to two or more private upstairs rooms. She would be the highest-ranking (and most sought-after and expensive) courtesan in the establishment.
29. The term used is shinzō-kai (literally, apprentice courtesan buying). This was a subterfuge whereby an expensive, high-ranking courtesan would arrange for a lover to enter her brothel by hiring a much less expensive apprentice courtesan (typically a girl in her early teens) to pretend to be with him for the night. The high-ranking courtesan would then arrange to slip away and secretly meet with her lover during the wee hours. The one expected to propose this stratagem was, of course, the courtesan herself.
30. One of the status symbols denoting high rank in a courtesan was a softer, more luxurious bed made up of three futon mattresses instead of the usual one or two.
31. Chazuru, a fashionable Yoshiwara sophisticates’ neologism, makes a verb out of the noun chazuke and so means “to eat chazuke” or “to be served chazuke” (a soupy rice snack). For a courtesan to offer a client a bowl of chazuke before he left in the morning meant favoring him with a mark of special intimacy and esteem.
32. Literally, a bellyful by daybreak of beating the courtesan to death, that is, making her hopelessly enamored of him.
33. It was customary to smoke a pipeful and spruce up oneself a bit t the boathouse before proceeding to Yoshiwara.
34. The Banchō neighborhood was not far from the Suidōbashi Bridge area.
35. The Man-About-Town is apparently taking the opportunity to flaunt his own hand towel, which the others are to understand is a memento from a famous kabuki actor or another performing artist, handed out to particularly favored fans and patrons at special performances.
36. That is, having stepped out of the boathouse inn and walked uphill for a short distance. The New Yoshiwara licensed quarter was situated on reclaimed land buttressed by an embankment. Having arrived at the embankment, they are still a short distance from Yoshiwara. They must now walk down the road along the top of the embankment to reach the great gate that was the sole entrance to the quarter.
37. There was a crematorium not far from the New Yoshiwara licensed quarter. Folk belief held that dabbing saliva on one’s nose helped ward off foul odors.
38. Because he is so impatient to get to Yoshiwara.
39. A line from the jōruri verse “Midaregami yoru no amigasa” (On a Night of Disheveled Hair, a Braided-Sedge Hat).
40. All the names that follow are those of prominent disciples of the Katō-bushi chanting style, which was established by Masumi Katō (1684–1725). The Masumi Katō referred to here, however, is not the founder himself but Dennosuke (d. 1771), the fourth-generation holder of his Katō-bushi lineage. It appears that the Youth is studying not jōruri but a different genre of poetic recital: either kouta (short songs) or, more likely, nagauta (long songs).
41. The famous Emonzaka (Attire Slope or Lapel Slope) was the short, gently curving road on which Yoshiwara patrons descended from the road along the top of the embankment to the single great gateway into the walled enclosure of the licensed quarter. It is said to have been so named because it was here that visitors adjusted their attire to make themselves presentable before entering Yoshiwara.
42. A hikite-jaya, or guiding teahouse, was an eating-and-drinking establishment in the licensed quarter that functioned as a sort of lounge or salon where clients went to request courtesans’ services and where they were asked to wait before being escorted to the brothels themselves. According to Yoshiwara custom, anyone wanting to visit such an establishment first had to be introduced by an existing patron; a teahouse would generally balk at serving any newcomer who lacked the proper introduction.
43. The floor of the sitting room is ra
ised a foot or two higher than the entrance level.
44. A renowned haikai poet of the day.
45. Hira would be a licensed-quarter nickname, probably an abbreviation of the client’s actual family name.
46. There is a dreadful pun here in the original that turns on yoshi (good, fine) and Yoshino-gi (cherry trees of Yoshino). The cherry blossoms of Yoshino, in western Japan, had for centuries been extolled in classical literature for their exceptional beauty.
47. A rough approximation of a still more inept pun on kinasai (come along) and kinome dengaku (herb-and-miso entree), a dish consisting of tofu, konnyaku, or eggplant, cooked with a glaze of miso mixed with kinome, the tiny leaf buds of the Japanese pepper plant (sanshō).
48. Hira’s use of the samurai expression go-naishō (the lady of the house) marks him as a member of the warrior class.
49. This probably is the Yoshiwara nickname of the samurai colleague whose home Hira was visiting when the urgent letter—presumably to Hira from his Yoshiwara mistress—was delivered.
50. An Edo neighborhood where many warrior clan mansions were located.
51. Shinagawa, in southern Edo, was an unlicensed district inhabited by lower-ranking prostitutes.
52. The term rendered by “gave him the old cold shoulder” is delivered in a stylish turn of phrase characteristic of Yoshiwara prostitutes’ slang.
53. Hira’s speech has a non-Edo, countrified sound to it. This and the description given of him suggest that he is a rusu-i, that is, the official government representative in Edo of one of the provincial feudal domains. This was an important position rather resembling that of a diplomat dispatched from the distant feudal domain to the central shōgunal government in Edo.
54. Hira’s unsureness of his ability to accurately read his Yoshiwara mistress’s feelings about him indicates that even though he is a frequent visitor to the licensed quarter and is well-heeled and very high in status, he is a provincial samurai, not entirely at home with the urban ways of Edo in general and the subtle intricacies of Yoshiwara etiquette in particular. Therefore he feels at somewhat of a disadvantage in his dealings with a courtesan of such high rank and refinement.
55. Hira, a regular customer, evidently keeps a regular saké cup at the teahouse. The term that he uses, taibutsu (literally, big one, indicating a person or thing that is large, expensive, or illustrious), seems to be intended as a double-entendre.
56. The Yoshino region was also famous for the high quality of its kuzu, or arrowroot, pulverized to a very fine powder and used in cooking as a thickener. This is the same pun on yoshi (good) and Yoshino as the earlier one about Yoshino cherry trees.
57. The word senzaemon, which sounds like a person’s name, is probably intended as a pun on sezu tomo, meaning “even if (you) do nothing,” and on senzai, meaning “garden flowers and shrubbery.” This picks up from the previous “arrowroot” pun a vegetative motif that is continued by the ensuing pun: Sotchi ni shimatte okina means “Go ahead and tuck it away for yourself,” to which the Man-About-Town adds -gusa (flower, plant), to form a gratuitous pun on okinagusa, an alternative name for chrysanthemum. The overall result is a ludicrous mé lange of painfully heavy-handed badinage.
58. The coin that the Man-About-Town has dug out of his sleeve to tip her with has apparently left the proprietress less than overwhelmed by his largesse.
59. Meeting their clients in a teahouse and escorting them back to their own establishment was a common practice among courtesans in the licensed quarters.
60. The Man-About-Town is asking the proprietress to send for famous, very high level courtesans at extremely high class establishments, courtesans completely out of the league of anyone but a very wealthy and important Yoshiwara patron. She of course deflects these importunate requests and suggests instead Sumi-chō, a less glamorous Yoshiwara street whose brothels are considerably less illustrious than Matsuba-ya and Chōji-ya.
61. Literally, it’s all in the belly of tonight’s whore; that is, all will depend on what she decides to do.
62. By spending the night with another courtesan, in violation of Yoshiwara etiquette, Hira is trying to pique the jealousy of his najimi, or “regular” courtesan mistress. Shin-chō is another section of Yoshiwara.
63. According to Yoshiwara custom, the brothel held the teahouse responsible if a client visited a courtesan other than his “regular” one. Some leeway was normally granted, however, if the client was perceived to have strayed not of his own volition but at the invitation of a drinking companion who had brought him to his own favorite brothel.
64. It was traditional for a high-ranking courtesan to come in person to collect a regular client from the teahouse where he was waiting for her. If she was busy with another client, however, she would generally send a shinzō, or apprentice courtesan, in her place.
65. Presumably when she stopped into the teahouse to escort a waiting customer. Among Yoshiwara denizens, “Mama” (Oka-san) was a typical way of addressing a teahouse or brothel proprietress.
66. Hira is quoting from the libretto of Benkei Aboard Ship (Funa Benkei), a famous nō play by Kanze Nobumitsu (1434–1516). This line is a rebuke delivered by the legendary warrior Benkei when a sudden storm blows up at sea and one of the ship’s passengers inauspiciously blurts out that the ship has been possessed by an evil spirit. The proprietress has called Hira’s bluff: it seems he does not in fact want Yama to learn of his threat to visit another courtesan.
67. Myōdai, or substitution, refers to a practice in which a primary courtesan who was currently busy with a customer would assign an apprentice courtesan to escort a second customer to the brothel and keep him company until she was available. Sexual relations between the substitute and the customer were strictly prohibited. In such situations, it was common practice for the primary courtesan to find an opportunity at some point to excuse herself and briefly look in on the waiting gentleman before returning to her present customer.
68. Hira, the unsophisticated provincial samurai, is confusing two similar-appearing but utterly different practices of the Yoshiwara world: shinzō-kai (apprentice courtesan buying) and myōdai (substitution). Myōdai was the routine practice of keeping a second, overlapping customer on hold while entertaining a client who arrived earlier. But in shinzō-kai, the common practice of dropping in on the waiting client was used as a cover for visiting a lover on the sly, and this is what Hira imagines is being planned for him. Hira probably has heard of shinzō-kai and fatuously believes that Yama’s routine “substitution” gesture of sending an apprentice courtesan to escort him from the teahouse to her place and keep him company while he waits his turn is tantamount to a romantic declaration of love on her part.
69. The expression she uses, ogaminsu (literally, I join my hands in prayer), was a set phrase used by Yoshiwara prostitutes when repulsing a customer’s advances. Her addition of the final particle e, drawn out into a prolonged e-e-e-e-e, seems intended as a slight coquettish softening of this rejection, presumably to avoid unduly alienating her mistress’s client.
70. The word zatō (literally, head of a guild) was by this time a generic term for blind men with shaven heads and monks’ robes who made their living as entertainers (raconteurs, musicians, and so forth), masseurs, or acupuncturists.
71. The tabako-bon, or tobacco tray, was a lacquered dish or tray on which were laid out the paraphernalia for pipe smoking: pipes, tobacco case, charcoal holder (for lighting one’s pipe), and ash receptacle.
72. The hollow wooden pillow resounds when he flicks it with the back of his fingernail.
73. He addresses her as shin, an overly familiar, cavalier-sounding abbreviation of shinzō (apprentice courtesan).
74. In ostentatiously larding his speech with such Yoshiwara slang expressions as chokkiri (a bit, hardly) and tsundashita (poked out), the Man-About-Town gives the impression of trying very hard to be “with it.”
75. Yakusoku (appointment, promise), that is, an assignation with the courtesan
with whom he spent the night. This is a Yoshiwara-ism.
76. A heya-mochi (literally, room holder) was a courtesan one rank below the zashiki-mochi or suite holder, who had two or more private rooms of her own. A heya-mochi was entitled to a single private room, whereas courtesans of lower rank than this were obliged to move from room to room to serve their customers.
77. The apprentice courtesan mocks him by pretending to mishear chazurasero (give me some chazuke) as kezurasero, another Yoshiwara sophisticates’ expression meaning “give me a drink.”
78. Probably the highest-ranking courtesan of the establishment. This would be the lady about whom the Man-About-Town was boasting, in the boat, that she had found him irresistible.
79. The next-highest-ranking courtesan of the establishment.
80. The sound of its opening and closing as one customer after another leaves the brothel in the early morning.
81. That is, Yama.
82. That is, raising the considerable funds necessary to move up to the status of “inner-suite courtesan,” the highest-ranking courtesan in the establishment. She may also be hinting at her own “hardship” in giving the royal treatment to her previous customer, the one who just left, in order to induce him to promise her his financial assistance with this move. The purpose of such a hint would be to prod Hira into offering such support himself by making him see a serious competitor in this potentially more generous customer, whom Yama seems to have been favoring over Hira all evening.
83. Moving up in rank had to be done with the proper pomp and ceremony and involved various expenses such as giving elaborate gifts to everyone in the brothel, as well as to those in its affiliated teahouse, boathouse inns, and others. The courtesan’s young attendants would also move up at this time, to apprentice-courtesan rank. The considerable cost of these ceremonial preparations would typically be borne by one of the courtesan’s regular clients.
Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600–1900 Page 96