The Modern History of Tachinbo: Women “operating” under temple floors and in graveyards… “Tachinbo at the Bottom” mushroomed during the Meiji Era.
The Modern History of Tachinbo (Part 1)
The Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed the private brothel district…
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 “ruffians”), and their territory was determined among these bosses.
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 “Juni-Kaishita” (meaning “under the Ryounkaku,” 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.
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.
From the end of the Taisho era (1912-1926) to the beginning of the Showa era (1926-1989), Asakusa was still home to the “tuggers” who 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, “Hayabusa-dan,” “Kotorigumi,” and other 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 “female guides ” 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.
