Legendary Fukuhara Soapland Star Reveals Her Secrets and Pride: Breaking Bad Habits to Protect the Girls

A legendary worker who is both a player and a teacher

The NHK Taiga drama “Berabō: Tsutaya Jūzaburō – A Dream Tale of Glory” has been generating buzz. Unlike most historical dramas, it boldly shines a spotlight on the pleasure quarters of a peaceful Edo period, vividly portraying the world of Yoshiwara and its oiran culture—capturing viewers’ fascination.

In Kobe’s Fukuhara district, the western counterpart to Yoshiwara and a historic red-light area, there exists a legendary soapland worker: Nishi Hitomi (50), a member of “FORTE.” With her voluptuous F-cup bust (89 cm), slender waist, and stunning legs, she cuts a striking figure. Entering the sex industry at 18, she now boasts a 32-year career, and still outranks much younger women in both popularity and sales.

But what truly makes Nishi a legend isn’t just her enduring popularity. She’s also visited by fellow sex workers—not just clients. She serves as a soapland teacher, passing on her techniques to other women. The number of students she’s trained exceeds 10,000. If we were to compare her to the world depicted in Berabō, she’d be the oiran among oiran—a true master of her craft.

In fact, many of the techniques she teaches are rooted in classical, traditional practices. She categorizes them by difficulty, with refined names like “General of the Mountain,” “Crane’s Return of Favor,” and “Surface Diving.” These elegant, poetic names avoid crass expressions, deliberately continuing a classical legacy. Nishi is someone who walks the true path of traditional Japanese fūzoku.

The Experience That Became the Foundation of Her Role as a Teacher

Nishi began her career in Kanazuen, Gifu City—the largest soapland district in Japan’s Chubu region. Shortly after joining a soapland, she underwent a training session that would later become the foundation of her path as a teacher.

In that session, five or six new girls, all naked, were gathered in a room where a senior worker acted as the instructor. But the experience was harsh.

“At the time, we were expected to greet customers in the traditional seiza position with three fingers placed on the floor. If your hand placement was even slightly off, the instructor would step on your fingers. If a girl wasn’t picking things up quickly, she’d get her hair yanked and have her head pushed into the bathwater.”

If a girl’s performance at work was poor, she’d be made to practice her services in private with the manager or male staff. For the women, having to perform such acts on colleagues was an ultimate humiliation. It did little to improve actual technique and was largely punitive in nature.

Since these sessions were at the discretion of male staff, they came to be derisively referred to as hobby training and were widely despised. Shockingly, such practices reportedly still exist at certain establishments today.

I Want It to End with My Generation

Nishi was a standout from the beginning. She picked up training with remarkable speed—so much so that, astonishingly, on her second day after joining, the shop asked her to start training other women. Back then, customer service continued until midnight, and after closing, she’d begin unpaid training sessions for colleagues. The mental and physical exhaustion took its toll, and by her early 20s, she left Kanazuen and moved to Fukuhara. It wasn’t until her late 30s that she began offering training to women from outside her own workplace.

“I got so many requests saying, ‘Please train me.’ I also wanted to end the humiliation and bullying I experienced during training—with me. I wanted the girls to gain real skills so they’d never be subjected to those degrading ‘hobby trainings.’ I wanted them to be confident and skilled, not bitter or cruel toward others.”

Her training sessions begin with both teacher and student in swimsuits, starting with Nishi experiencing the student’s play firsthand. Every lesson is completely personalized.

“Some girls try to appeal with an amateur vibe, while others want to master the fundamentals and advanced techniques to work in high-end shops. The curriculum changes based on height, weight, even finger length. And since many girls wear long nails these days, I teach them techniques to work around that, too.”

The August 7 issue of FRIDAY (August 22–29 double issue) and its premium edition FRIDAY GOLD feature an in-depth report on Nishi’s principles, techniques, and insights as a legendary soapland worker—including stories of her students and her vision for the future.

For full content and multiple photos, click here ↓

From the August 22/29, 2025, issue of “FRIDAY”