Endangered species] An underground explorer reports on a “ryokan” with a red-light district that remains alone in a former brothel district.
On November 5, the Osaka Prefectural Police re-arrested a “ryotei” owner of Matsushima Shinchi, a “chon-no-Ma-gai” in Osaka City’s Nishi Ward, his mother, grandmother, and five others on suspicion of violating the Prostitution Prevention Law (providing a place). The proprietor, a third generation father and son, ran five ryotei restaurants in Matsushima Shinchi, where a total of more than 150 women were working.
When the report of the bust came out late at night on October 14, it caused a tremor among those involved, saying, “Matsushima Shinchi will probably disappear. A “ryotei” that has not been reported as a brothel is still a gray area. It would not be surprising if the authorities stopped giving “tacit approval” and started rounding them up. In this case, it seems that the arrested owner had been letting customers who had accumulated a lot of sales at a host club he was running separately work at the ryotei, but especially in areas outside Osaka Prefecture, the “chon-noma” that is part of the old red line and blue line is disappearing every year.
Underground explorer YouTuber Pinappo Urach has previously introduced reports on undercover visits to “chon-noma towns” that barely survive to this day, such as Chifune-cho, Matsuyama, and Minamimachi, Kawasaki. This time, we visited an “endangered species,” a red-lined ryokan (Japanese inn), which is the only one left standing on the site of a former brothel.
The ryokan was located in “the loneliest and darkest entertainment district in Japan,” a short distance away from the busy entertainment district.
A dubious signboard stands alone in a dark and dreary old brothel.
The ryokan is located about a 10-minute walk from Kagoshima’s Temmonkan, the largest entertainment district in Southern Kyushu. In contrast to the bustle of the glittering Tenmonkan district, the town is quiet and still. The ryokan stands alone in the middle of the town, waiting for visitors with a suspicious-looking ryokan sign.
The purpose of the “ryokan” is not to accommodate guests. The inn is what is called a “chon-no-ma. Yes, it is a place to play with women.
August 2012. I visited Kagoshima to shoot a YouTube video. The purpose was, of course, “Ura Ryokan in Kotsuki-cho”.
Originally, Koutsukicho was a brothel. It has a long history, dating back to the Edo period (1603-1868). In the Meiji era (1868-1912), the Tsukiji brothel near Kagoshima Station was relocated to this area, and the two brothels were combined to form the Koutsukicho brothel. In the early Showa period (1926-1989), there were 23 brothels and about 350 prostitutes, and after the Anti-Prostitution Law was enforced in 1958, the area was turned into a red-light district, leading to the current soap district. There is a snack bar area near the current brothel area, which also served as a blue line until the postwar period. Well, it is certain that it has been such a place for a long time.
The ryokan that survived from the red line era is the one we will visit this time. Until a few years ago, there must have been three “Chon-no-Ma” ryokan in operation, but it seems that there is only one left. There are still a few buildings in Kotsukicho that were once backstage businesses.
A DM from a woman who used to work there.
When I arrived in Kouzuki-cho, I quickly found the inn I was looking for. The white sign “Ryokan 00” glittered on the building, which looked like a red wire building, and the door was unnaturally open about a quarter of the time. This confirmed that the inn was open for business. I had feared that the inn might be closed due to an approaching typhoon.
After I posted the video of my visit to an inn in Koukutsu-cho, I received a DM on X from a woman who said, “I used to work at that inn 26 years ago when I was 23 years old. She wrote that there used to be several inns, that the rooms were still the same as when she worked there, except for a new air conditioner, that she was working to raise her children at the time, and that she was happy to see that her mom still looked healthy. A woman who worked at such a place cannot just say, “I’m in the neighborhood, so I’ll drop by my old workplace. I could read from the DM that she meant that she was glad that that place, which she could not look back on, had not changed, and that there were probably many more women like her and that countless moments had crossed her path at that inn.
The inn I played at probably has a life of a few years to 10 years at most. And in the near future, when it has fulfilled its role, it will disappear from history without a trace, as if no one will ever know what took place there.
In the paid version of FRIDAY Digital, Mr. Pai-Napo reports in detail on his infiltration of this “Ura Ryokan”.
