Scenes from the street walk held in October along the old red-light district and Ito Riverbank in Atami City, Shizuoka Prefecture © Yoshimi MizunoIn October, a photo exhibition and street walk event were held at “Bar Komado” located along the old red-light district and Ito Riverbank in Atami City, Shizuoka Prefecture. The event closed with great success. However, some voices expressed disapproval of the event. “Many people consider yūkaku and red-light district sites to be negative heritage, and there are not a few people who have struggled because they grew up in those areas. It’s natural to feel anxious about ‘inappropriate expressions’ being made there. However, when the photos were actually shown, they were properly appreciated. I don’t want to inconvenience the people living in those areas, so I make sure to interact with the locals before taking photos, and I try to get permission from them when using the photos for exhibitions or photo books. There were also some photos I wanted to use but decided not to display in the exhibition.” In recent years, there has been a movement to repurpose former yūkaku sites, such as the old Nakajima yūkaku in Okayama City, which has been turned into a renovated old house café. “There are critical voices, but I am only grateful that these places are being preserved. It’s been 66 years since the full enforcement of the Prostitution Prevention Act, so it’s inevitable that buildings from that time are being demolished due to seismic concerns. However, I hope that if they are going to be renewed, at least some of the history can be preserved. The ‘Ryokan Hashimoto-no-Ko’ in the old Hashimoto yūkaku in Kyoto is being repaired and preserved by the Chinese-born owner, who understands the history of the yūkaku era. There are very few yūkaku ruins where you can actually go inside, so I would like people to visit it.” Beniko Self-Portrait: Hashimoto Yūkaku (Yahata City, Kyoto Prefecture. Photographed by Beniko)