They were shaped by political and economic configurations of power, by the needs
of religion, and by the patterns of marriage and inheritance laws. These took
many forms, and the author of this very interesting study lists a few: the
perceived need to limit itinerancy and to preserve class boundaries, the
competition for inherited land, the notion of the female body as polluted, and
the idea that sex was a snare for men seeking religious fulfillment.
Originally, such itinerant women were praised as professionals. One early
record speaks approvingly of "her knowledge of all the sexual positions, the
merits of her lute strings and buds of wheat, and her mastery of the dragon's
flutter and tiger's tread techniques." Such public approval was soon withdrawn,
however, when it became politically and economically advantageous to construct
prostitutes and oppress women.
By 1241 there were already "whore" houses. The "Azuma Kagami" mentions one,
right on the main street of Kamakura. Their purpose, in addition to the
apparent one, was to construct a lewd figure against which the authenticity of
a necessary new figure, the "good" woman (faithful, much given to
self-sacrifice, loyal to a fault) could be measured.
For example, female chastity was necessary to establish patrilineal succession
in a male-dominated family. Another example, apparent female pollution and an
inherent sinfulness was necessary to bring to Japan the full Buddhist package
waiting to be imported from China and Korea. These changes of attitude, as the
author of this study avers, "foreshadowed later attempts to regulate and limit
the sex trade and contributed to a view of such women as prostitutes and their
occupation as degraded."
Also, an important consideration, sexual entertainment was evolving from a few
aristocratic types at play to a service for broad segments of society, making
it seem a threat to authority and order -- an attitude still reflected in the
laws and customs of Japan today. From here began the taxation of brothels and
the establishment of licensed quarters, the creation of the "prostitute."
In presenting her argument, part of which earlier appeared in the "Monumenta
Nipponica," author Janet Goodwin offers an erudite account that acknowledges
all prior scholarly work on the subject. At the same time the nonspecialist
reader is spared the boredom of a dry academic paper by the very nature of the
information imported. The book is packed with juicy details, historically
necessary and judiciously picked from sources not usually encountered.
Of major interest, however, is Goodwin's ability to see behind the self-serving screens of political history, to divine the true intentions of this demonization of one of the few professions then open to women, and to present her facts in the fairest possible manner.
