Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society Inside Imperial Japan's Brothels
Oct 7, 2025
Elizabeth Lublin, an Associate Professor of Japanese history, delves into the fascinating world of sex work in Edo Japan. She discusses the rise of licensed brothels and the social dynamics of male sex workers and geishas. Elizabeth reveals the challenges faced by sex workers, including indenture and poverty, and highlights the strict hierarchies within the profession. The conversation also explores the impact of Western influence and moral shifts on prostitution, as well as the grim realities beneath the romanticized imagery of the floating world.
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State-Controlled Pleasure Districts
- The Tokugawa shogunate created licensed, confined pleasure districts as a form of state control and revenue generation.
- Yoshiwara in 1617 became the prototype, regulating prostitution to monitor clients and curb kidnappings for sex work.
Indenture Brought Legal Protections
- Indenture contracts made daughters effectively bound to brothels, but the system paradoxically offered new legal protections for women.
- Under Tokugawa rules wives could not be sold into prostitution, and women became legal subjects of the shogunate with limited safeguards.
Political Policy Drove Demand
- Alternate attendance (sankin-kotai) and urbanization created a steady male clientele for pleasure districts.
- Castle towns and traveling retinues drove demand and helped make licensed quarters central to urban life.