<figure id="attachment_417246" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-417246" style="width: 630px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="97836ce8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/b49b4a28958e7fa81be916d4058cc349.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-417246" class="wp-caption-text">Ryounkaku, the &#8220;Twelve Floors of Asakusa. There were 888 brothels in the area known as the &#8220;Twelve Floors&#8221; (from &#8220;Tokyo Yuran Guide&#8221; owned by the National Diet Library).</figcaption></figure>
<p> This is the second installment in a series of articles by sex-journalist Akira Ikoma, who unravels the history of tachinbo, a type of brothel that has continued uninterrupted from the Edo period to the present-day Okubo Park and Umeda area.</p>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;Bottom-feeding tachinbo&#8221; used park benches and other places as places to earn money.</span></h3>
<p> In the previous article, we noted that tachinbo in the Edo period were called <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;yotaka</span>,&#8221; and that there were special types of tachinbo <span class="strongInContent">such as &#8220;bicuni (prostitutes dressed as nuns)&#8221; and &#8220;funamanju (prostitutes who invited customers on small boats)</span>. The following is a brief description of this type of prostitute. In the Edo period, tachinbo were &#8220;prostitutes of the lowest class&#8221; who stood on the streets because of their &#8220;poverty. In this article, we will look at the situation of tachinbo during the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa periods before World War II.</p>
<p> The term &#8220;tachinbo&#8221; originated in the Meiji era (1868-1912). Initially, they were called &#8220;tachinbo,&#8221; referring to day laborers who stood at the bottom of a hill and helped push rickshaws and carts that were struggling to climb the hill for a fee. The word &#8220;tachinbo&#8221; was a corruption of the word &#8220;tachinbo&#8221; and became &#8220;tachinbo. It was not until the Taisho era (1912-1926) that &#8220;tachinbo&#8221; came to refer to &#8220;street prostitutes. Incidentally, the term &#8220;street whore&#8221; began to be used around the end of the Taisho period and became common after World War II. It was used as a generic term for street prostitutes, which included not only street prostitutes but also prostitutes on boats.</p>
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<p> After the Meiji Restoration, &#8220;prostitutes not authorized by the Edo shogunate (private prostitutes)&#8221; continued to exist, but as social and economic life changed, the number of lower-class city dwellers increased, and the number of &#8220;bottom-ranking prostitutes&#8221; increased in terms of both supply and demand. The number of &#8220;tachinbo&#8221; (prostitutes) continued to exist. In May 1868, about a month after the bloodless opening of Edo Castle during the Boshin War, a war broke out between the Shogitai (an organization formed by former shogunate vassals to support the continuation of the Edo shogunate) and the new government forces in Ueno, and &#8220;amateur female street prostitutes&#8221; who had lost their husbands and jobs and were in dire straits appeared at night. &#8220;amateur female street prostitutes&#8221; emerged at night. In this chaotic world, simple &#8220;standing prostitutes&#8221; were the first to appear.</p>
<p> Most of these prostitutes were found in poor and working-class neighborhoods. From the Meiji to the end of the Taisho era (1912-1926), <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;shirakubi,&#8221; or white-necked</span> men with a thick coating of white powder on their necks, appeared in Nihonbashi, Senju, Asakusa, and other areas of Tokyo. They were an extension of the old night hawkers and were <span class="strongInContent">also</span> called <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;hakkiri,&#8221; &#8220;goukaia,&#8221; or &#8220;gasebiri</span>. They brought their customers into their homes or invited them in from indoors, but some of them also used outdoor places such as park benches, under the floors of shrines and temples, and graveyards as their places of business, and these were called <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;rokko&#8221; (open whore</span> ).</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The famous stand-ups."></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">They also took customers at the &#8220;Yo-in.&#8221;</span></h3>
<p> Around 1887 (Meiji 20), there was a famous tachinbo <span class="strongInContent">named</span><span class="strongInContent">&#8220;Katsushi Okatsu&#8221; (lodging-less woman)</span>, and around 1887 (Meiji 30), there was a famous tachinbo <span class="strongInContent">named &#8220;Dote no kin&#8221; (money on the bank)</span>. Okatsu was a former prostitute of the Yoshiwara brothel. Kin was the daughter of a shogunate vassal but became poor as the samurai class collapsed, and after being sold as a barmaid at the age of 16, she went from one brothel to the next, working her way up the ladder from <span class="strongInContent">obscure establishments (aimaiya, where prostitution</span><span class="strongInContent">was secretly conducted under</span><span class="strongInContent">the guise of restaurants, tea houses, and inns) to</span><span class="strongInContent">meishuya (meishuya, where private prostitutes were secretly held while disguised as drinking establishments)</span>, Before he was 50 years old, he became a stand-up prostitute. She also approached men walking in the Yoshiwara brothels and offered them cheap deals, but as the number of similar street prostitutes increased, she was no longer allowed inside the brothels and moved to the Nihonzutsumi area, where she came to be known as &#8220;bank money. As the years went by, the number of customers dwindled, and she ended up in Asakusa dealing with street life.</p>
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<p> Other street prostitutes <span class="strongInContent">included</span><span class="strongInContent">&#8220;Inazuma no Otama</span>,&#8221; a prostitute from Shinagawa; <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;Akon no Kou,</span> &#8221; who burned to death at the age of 37 or 38 during the Great Earthquake; and <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;Idiot no Okiyo,&#8221; who</span> always dressed as a man and was arrested more than 30 times for fornication during her 20-odd years in the area. There were also many women who were mentally deranged by heavy drinking, mental illness, or syphilis. When they fell ill due to alcohol, cold, hunger, or illness, they were usually sent to an orphanage. The &#8220;fostering home&#8221; was a shelter for the needy established at the beginning of the Meiji era (1868-1912), and it is amazing that some women even tried to become customers in this facility.</p>
<p> The fact that these women experienced a variety of sex industry businesses before arriving at street prostitution is similar to the &#8220;Reiwa&#8217;s standing prostitutes&#8221; who appear in Shinjuku&#8217;s Kabukicho district. Today, however, street prostitutes who deal with vagrants or play outdoors are few and far between. Another difference between the Meiji and pre-Showa eras is that street prostitutes had nicknames.</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Delinquent girls who roamed the downtown area"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">The Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed the private brothel district&#8230;</span></h3>
<p> Many of the streetwalker-style streetwalkers were organized. There were seven groups of street prostitutes that frequented the Nihon Zutsumi area north of Asakusa. The bosses were male bureaucrats (buraikan, meaning &#8220;ruffians&#8221;), and their territory was determined among these bosses.</p>
<p> Around 1918-19, there were more than 3,000 prostitutes in Asakusa. Since many prostitutes went to Yoshiwara in the name of Asakusa Kannon and various other events, a variety of prostitutes occurred in this area. In the private brothel district from Asakusa to Senzoku, known as &#8220;Juni-Kaishita&#8221; (meaning &#8220;under the Ryounkaku,&#8221; a building representing Asakusa that appeared in November 1890), there were as many as 888 brothels. The fact that they were not as formal as the Yoshiwara brothels was attractive to the lower class and young men, and they thrived because they were inexpensive.</p>
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<p> The Asakusa brothels continued to thrive despite numerous attempts to expose them, until the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which destroyed half of Ryounkaku and burned down the brothels. After the earthquake, while the number of street-side prostitutes declined drastically, the number of prostitutes catering to the general public increased. These were the wives of laborers who had fallen on hard times as a result of the earthquake. Pretending to be passersby, they intentionally bumped into each other to start a conversation, then negotiated as they walked and brought them to cheap hotels.</p>
<p> From the end of the Taisho era (1912-1926) to the beginning of the Showa era (1926-1989), Asakusa was still home to the <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;tuggers&#8221; who</span> had been there in the Meiji era, and the best time to make money was around 10:00 p.m., when the katsudo shashin kan (movie theater) and entertainment theaters were closed. In addition, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;Hayabusa-dan,&#8221; &#8220;Kotorigumi,&#8221; and other</span> gangs of delinquent girls appeared in the area and sold spring to only the men they liked. Some of them sold postcards to make sure that their customers were not police officers, and then invited them to prostitution. In the photo studios, there were also <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;female guides</span> &#8221; who took customers by the hand and led them into the dark to have sex with them. The women who engaged in illicit whoring were clever and skillful in various ways to lure customers.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"><a href="https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/article/417279"> Part 2: Men Motioned to be Approached&#8230;High-class Street Prostitutes Also Appeared from the Meiji to the Early Showa Eras</a></span></p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Asakusa&#39;s street prostitutes of the Taisho and Showa eras"></div>
<figure id="attachment_417242" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-417242" style="width: 890px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="73732c9d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/e622009f85b967ac2338697a48f43f29.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-417242" class="wp-caption-text">The &#8220;Twelfth Floor&#8221; neighborhood after the Great Kanto Earthquake. Asakusa&#8217;s private brothel district, which had not been eliminated no matter how many times it was exposed, was also destroyed by fire (from &#8220;Teito Fukko Zokei Shiryo Shiji&#8221; (Journal of the Reconstruction and Reorganization of the Imperial Capital), owned by the National Diet Library).</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_417243" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-417243" style="width: 352px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="15bcb587"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/bf74e5044d0595dd1c63ff6c7713c61e.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-417243" class="wp-caption-text"> A &#8220;new beggar whore&#8221; in Harunosuke Ishikado&#8217;s &#8220;Beggars&#8217; Ura Story&#8221; (1935) (National Diet Library collection)</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_417245" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-417245" style="width: 346px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6b2963d2"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/d13f00a56f54ad8c53c1fb3e7e89a019.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-417245" class="wp-caption-text"> A female beggar chewing potatoes&#8221; also from &#8220;Beggars&#8217; Tales Behind the Beggars&#8221; (National Diet Library collection)</figcaption></figure>
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 Akira Ikoma

 In this second installment of a series of articles, sex journalist Akira Ikoma explains the modern history of "tachinbo," a type of adult entertainment that has been handed down to the modern age in Reiwa. After the Meiji Restoration, social changes led to a dramatic increase in the number of "tachinbo" at the bottom of the entertainment industry.

 The Modern History of Tachinbo (Part 1)

The Modern History of Tachinbo: Women &#8220;operating&#8221; under temple floors and in graveyards&#8230; &#8220;Tachinbo at the Bottom&#8221; mushroomed during the Meiji Era.

The Modern History of Tachinbo: Women “operating” under temple floors and in graveyards… “Tachinbo at the Bottom” mushroomed during the Meiji Era.

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