A Modern History of the Standing-up Prostitute: Men Motioned to Be Approached…High-Class Street Prostitutes Also Appeared from the Meiji to the Early Showa Eras
The Modern History of Standing-up Prostitutes (Part 2)
This is the second part of a two-part series on the “history of tachimbo,” written by customs journalist Akira Ikoma. While there were poor street prostitutes who were forced to make a living, high-class street prostitutes who catered to rich customers emerged from the Meiji period to the prewar Showa period.
Street girls” appeared in the early Showa period.
The rapid development of urban society following the Meiji Restoration led to an increase in the number of “poor street prostitutes. At the same time, however, there were also “rich street prostitutes” who catered to the wealthy during the Meiji era.
In Yokohama, the port city that opened its port to the outside world, “street prostitutes” who stood by the side of Western merchant buildings and solicited foreign customers appeared. They were called “hookers ” or “lashamen. Rashamen” were Japanese concubines for foreigners, and were also called “yosho” or “gaisyo ” (foreign concubines). Foreigners called them “Yokohama wives. In the early days, all the women were prostitutes, but when they learned that they could make a good living, they became rachamen one after another.
The “tachimbo for foreign sailors” was nicknamed “tensen orai” (ten-sen orai ) because the price was 10 sen. Toward the end of the Meiji period (1868-1912), well-dressed high-class street prostitutes began to appear, targeting high-class sailors. They charged 3 to 5 yen, more than 10 times the price of ordinary street prostitutes who charged 10 to 30 sen (100 sen = 1 yen; 5 yen in the Meiji era was worth more than 100,000 yen today).
Recently, wealthy inbounds mainly play at high-class soaps and delicatessens, not at tachinbo. This is because high-class street prostitutes are rarely found in today’s tachinbo. The price is usually set at around 10,000 to 20,000 yen, and you will almost never find them at 100,000 yen or more.
In the early Showa period (1926-1989), street prostitutes appeared in downtown areas such as Ginza, Tokyo. They were called “street girls. The name “street girls” came about because many of them were dressed in Western-style clothing and were considered to be different from the dirty street prostitutes of the past. They lured customers not only on the street but also in cafes and other places, and served them in waiting rooms, inns, and other high-class establishments. Because of the strict vigilance of the police, the number of whores was small. The reason he was not caught by the police even though he boldly invited customers was due to the fact that he went out to earn money only five or six times a month, a small number. She never asked them out herself, but rather let the men who seemed to have money to spend motion for them to come to her.
