more Hanafurirou (beginning of chapter 2)
^_^ Okay, here is the beginning of chapter 2, including the "education" scene. ^_^ I cut it off just as the education scene started transitioning into a bitch-fest between Kagerou and Kichou, because that marked the end of the "study session." After this, I'll go back and do chapter 1, which is pre-Hanafurirou for Fuki, and then I'll continue from this point after I'm done with chapter 1. ^_^;;
You'll notice that this section, which is probably only 4 pages long without all the footnotes, has 12 different footnotes (a couple of names, and many, many Japanese words/culture notes). Sorry about that, but the part before the "study session" is the main "setting the stage at Hanafurirou" section, so it's got lots of vocabulary and cultural stuff. ^_^;;
But, to make up for it, the study session has my favorite character in the series so far... Kichou!! ^_^ So yeah, enjoy!
2
Starting from the thin willow tree known as the "looking back willow," a path wound loosely down Emonzaka(1). What lay past the great gate of Yoshiwara was like a completely different world.
This area had been full of soaplands(2) until just recently. Now it had become a designated district for legal prostitution, and large amounts of money were being invested in putting up high class brothels. In the past ten years the area had changed into a brilliant, gorgeous, sex district barely recognizable as what it had been before.
The large brothel known as Hanafurirou that had bought Fuki was here. It had been started by a rich man half as a hobby, half as an actual business, and was modeled after brothels from the pre-war days. Even with the anti-prostitution laws abolished, the fact that the owner had brought a brothel into the current times and had resurrected it with all male prostitutes showed that he was a man of rather odd tastes. And it wasn't just the prostitutes - from the helpers to the head clerk, every single person in the shop was male.
Just inside the entrance curtain of the three story building with an elegant design like a Japanese restaurant was the harimise(3) with its brilliant red grates. There the iroko lined up to show their faces to the customers. In this shop, the oiran were called keisei and the prostitutes were called iroko(4). Above the second floor were the iroko's private rooms, called "main rooms," and the "shared rooms," where more than one customer could be served at once.
Since Fuki had just arrived, he didn't have his own room yet. Instead, he lived in a large room with the other boys about the same age as him. It was difficult for him, since he wasn't used to sharing a room with other people, but it was somewhat fun as well, kind of like a school trip.
He thought worse of himself because even though he had resisted being sold so much, he had gotten used to it pretty quickly. But when he thought about his father and the ryokan, he realized that he didn't have any other choice but to get used to it. Besides, he knew that the really hard part would be his debut and the days after that.
"They say he's the by-blow of some high class person." This was something that Karin(5), a fellow kamuro told Fuki about the owner.
A kamuro was an iroko in training who saw to a keisei's appearance and belongings. A long time ago it was the job of children about seven or eight years old, but in the present time at Hanafurirou boys were called kamuro until age sixteen. After that they were given the title shinzou(6), and when they turned eighteen they had their debut and became full-fledged iroko. Even though the anti-prostitution laws had been abolished, there were still other laws pertaining to the sex industry, unlike in the past, and prostitution of boys and girls under the age of eighteen was still prohibited.
The set outfits were cherry blossom colored cotton kimonos for the kamuro and scarlet silk ones for the shinzou. A man who had come of age wore a brilliant uchikake(7) called a shikake over the silk. That way, people could tell what someone's rank was easily at first glance.
If you took even one step past the great gate everything was modern, but inside everything seemed to be lifted out of history. Sometimes it all confused Fuki quite a bit.
"By-blow?"
"If I say a former nobleman and a politician, as well as a family with enough money to support this... you get it, don't you? But it's just a rumor."
Even after hearing that, Fuki couldn't think of anything.
"...Is the owner gay?"
"Well, isn't that obvious? If he wasn't, I don't think he'd have ever thought of this. Even with Japan's long history of having kagema(8), a brothel full of men is a little..."
"Yeah, that makes sense..."
Fuki had met the owner once, on the day he had come to Hanafurirou. He had been evaluated, and it had left him with quite a frightening memory of the time.
"Remove the things you are wearing, open up your legs, and spread your butt cheeks so I can see. Then allow me to examine the inside of your ass."
"So he was gay..." was what Fuki was now thinking, a little too late.
"How long are you two going to talk?" came a voice all of a sudden from the other side of the glass door separating the bath from where they were.
At some point they had gotten to talking in the dressing room. Taking a long time in the bath was rather heavily encouraged, but spending time chatting away in the dressing room instead of working on their bodies was pointless.
"Sorry...!" they automatically replied before hurriedly stripping and rushing into the bath.
The person monopolizing the huge white cedar bathtub was the number one keisei, Kichou(9). The number one was the keisei who brought in the most money during the last month, and except for one time during February, that had been Kichou. Fuki and Karin were the kamuro assigned to that same Kichou.
Kichou had his long, shaggy hair piled on top of his head, and because he was facing away from the door, the line of his body from the nape of his neck down peeked out from above the edge of the tub. He couldn't really be called delicate - faint but evenly distributed muscles filled out his frame - but something about him was surprisingly captivating.
"Good morning. Are you just getting started?"
"I'm almost done. Yesterday's customer took forever... so much I thought he might have been extending it." At Karin's question, he turned just his head and answered him openly.
"Would you like me to wash your back?"
"That's fine. I did that already." Then he tossed a bag of rice bran at the two boys sitting in front of the mirror.
"Make sure you scrub hard. If you can make a lot of money, you'll rise in the ranks that much quicker."
The key to making money was one's body. There were bags of rice bran available in the baths, and the boys were instructed to use them to scrub at their skin from their time as kamuro. And really, keisei like Kichou and Kagerou(10), the second most popular keisei who fought Kichou for the number one spot every month, had skin so silky smooth that it was hard to think that it was men's skin.
"Okay!"
"Then, I'm getting out first." After Fuki thought he heard a big splash and the noise of someone getting out of the tub, Kichou passed behind him on the way to the dressing room. Then Fuki and Karin, who had been left behind, started diligently working at improving the tools of their trade.
After bathing and eating, Fuki and Karin helped with Kichou's preparation for the night. They didn't have to do makeup and an elaborate Japanese hairstyle like the courtesans of the past, but putting on the kimono still required some help.
First they pulled the collars of the two layered kosode(11) back quite a bit and then tied a wide obi around him in the front. Even without face powder, his neck was so white it looked transparent. On top of the kosode, they placed a flashy black and red shikake.
He had a sort of brilliant beauty, and even though he definitely looked like a man at first glance, that sort of outfit suited him quite well. One might even say he looked chic, like a kabuki-mono(12). And the manner of speaking so frank it was almost violent that lay behind that beautiful exterior had its own mysterious attraction.
Not everyone at Hanafurirou was like Kichou, but maybe it was because there were several people like him there that the all male brothel was possible. The amount of money they brought in in a single night was enormous, but that was definitely because they had men worth spending that money on.
"Okay then, we still have some time left." After they had finished getting him ready, Kichou looked up at the clock.
"So, should we have a study session?"
"A study session?" Thinking of a review session from school, Fuki cocked his head, and Kichou laughed.
"You do those kind of things during the day, right?" Because they were in a high class brothel, they had to be able to talk with any sort of person, so they were given all sorts of cultural education. Fuki had already been to several of those classes.
"Come to think of it, you just came in. The study sessions we do here aren't like that. Karin, go get it."
After being told to do so, Karin brought out a box. The items that appeared when he opened the lid caused Fuki's eyes to bulge out.
It was full of adult toys.
"Wha... What the...?"
"They're model penises. Is this your first time seeing one? Here." Fuki nodded, and then all of a sudden Kichou handed one to him.
"For the sake of the newbie, let's start with a review today."
Having taken the object without thinking, Fuki stared down at it fixedly. It was a dark skin tone in color and was made to look quite real.
"Uhh... ummmm... this is..."
"That one's pretty much average size and color. You have one yourself, so I'm pretty sure you realize that."
"Uh..."
Now that he mentioned it, it was neither too big nor too small... probably just a normal one. But that wasn't what Fuki had wanted to say. He had wanted to ask what he was supposed to do with it.
Fuki had never really looked that hard at a guy's genitals, whether they were another guy's or his own. Even though this was a model, it was very well made. Fuki found it curious, and he continued to scrutinize it.
Kichou took another one with a somewhat different shape out from the box. Then, he thrust it in front of Fuki.
"This one's phimotic."
The sudden mention of that word shocked Fuki. What in the world was Kichou talking about? But he eventually realized the meaning behind that statement. Apparently the reason for having all these models wasn't for use as sex toys, but as "teaching materials."
"This is the real thing. Most of these guys don't come to brothels, though. Anyway, this one's false phimosis."
"Ohh..."
"So, here's the question. When you get a customer with false phimosis, what do you have to be careful of when sucking him off?"
"Ehh!?"
Fuki drew back from the false phimotic model being thrust in his face. The glans of the model just barely peeked out from the tip, like an eye. Fuki tried to think of an answer, but nothing came to mind, so he shook his head.
"I guess you can't help it. Karin, tell him the answer."
"Okay," Karin said. "The part that's usually covered with the foreskin is sensitive, so when you stimulate it the guy will come before you realize it. You have to be careful of that."
"That's right."
Smiling, Kichou handed Karin a piece of candy. The food the brothel gave them wasn't enough for growing boys, so things like candy and snacks were extremely valuable to the boys.
"If you screw up the timing, he'll end up coming in your mouth or on your face. When that's what he wants to do, it can't be helped, though. If he's fine going home after just a blow job, that's fine, but usually that's a big no-no."
Apparently what he was getting at was that if the customer came before he could put it it, it would take some time before he could continue, and that would tire one out. Doing this every night, especially with several customers a night, would end up being quite exhausting. Better to get done with each one as quickly as possible.
Fuki was once again reminded that he was now in a world where you were obviously talking about these actions as a job. And, in two years it would be his job as well.
"So, in my experience up until now, the smallest I've seen was about this big, and the biggest was..." Kichou held a small model in his right hand and a big one about the size of an arm in his left hand. "Well, about this big."
It was so thick that Fuki let out a gasp of wonder. It looked almost like an arm.
"It was really awful when I had to take this one in. I didn't really have any choice in the end, but if I was as delicate as the Princess, I probably would have broke- Oops."
The reason Kichou had cut himself off was because the same "Princess" was standing just outside the open window that looked out onto the hallway.
notes:
1: Emonzaka (which means "clothing hill")is the hill at the entrance to Yoshiwara where clothing streets used to line the path into the area with the brothels, and the willow is near it. People were said to stop at the tree and look back while on their way home from the brothels, thus the name "looking back willow" (mikaeri yanagi in Japanese).
2: A soapland is a type of store where customers (usually male) are bathed by female prostitutes. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soapland for more info.
3: A harimise is a section of a (traditional Japanese) brothel where the prostitutes are displayed behind wooden grates so the customers can see what they are buying in advance.
4: An oiran is a traditional high class courtesan (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oiran ) A keisei is another form of courtesan, often portrayed in Kabuki. An iroko is a male homosexual prostitute.
5: Karin is a type of flower similar to the quince that is used as an ornamental shrub. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaenomeles
6: Shinzou means new or newly made.
7: An uchikake is a type of long kimono that used to be worn by high class women on special occasions. Now it is used for weddings. See http://www.yamatoku.jp/classic/listing.asp?genre=1 for a longer explanation and several images.
8: Kagema were basically male prostitutes from the Edo period. There's not much, but see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagema
9: Kichou means something along the lines of "beautiful butterfly"
10: Kagerou means dragonfly.
11: a type of garment that was precursor to the modern kimono and worn as an undergarment in earlier eras
12: The kabuki-mono were groups of young people who dressed and acted peculiarly.
You'll notice that this section, which is probably only 4 pages long without all the footnotes, has 12 different footnotes (a couple of names, and many, many Japanese words/culture notes). Sorry about that, but the part before the "study session" is the main "setting the stage at Hanafurirou" section, so it's got lots of vocabulary and cultural stuff. ^_^;;
But, to make up for it, the study session has my favorite character in the series so far... Kichou!! ^_^ So yeah, enjoy!
2
Starting from the thin willow tree known as the "looking back willow," a path wound loosely down Emonzaka(1). What lay past the great gate of Yoshiwara was like a completely different world.
This area had been full of soaplands(2) until just recently. Now it had become a designated district for legal prostitution, and large amounts of money were being invested in putting up high class brothels. In the past ten years the area had changed into a brilliant, gorgeous, sex district barely recognizable as what it had been before.
The large brothel known as Hanafurirou that had bought Fuki was here. It had been started by a rich man half as a hobby, half as an actual business, and was modeled after brothels from the pre-war days. Even with the anti-prostitution laws abolished, the fact that the owner had brought a brothel into the current times and had resurrected it with all male prostitutes showed that he was a man of rather odd tastes. And it wasn't just the prostitutes - from the helpers to the head clerk, every single person in the shop was male.
Just inside the entrance curtain of the three story building with an elegant design like a Japanese restaurant was the harimise(3) with its brilliant red grates. There the iroko lined up to show their faces to the customers. In this shop, the oiran were called keisei and the prostitutes were called iroko(4). Above the second floor were the iroko's private rooms, called "main rooms," and the "shared rooms," where more than one customer could be served at once.
Since Fuki had just arrived, he didn't have his own room yet. Instead, he lived in a large room with the other boys about the same age as him. It was difficult for him, since he wasn't used to sharing a room with other people, but it was somewhat fun as well, kind of like a school trip.
He thought worse of himself because even though he had resisted being sold so much, he had gotten used to it pretty quickly. But when he thought about his father and the ryokan, he realized that he didn't have any other choice but to get used to it. Besides, he knew that the really hard part would be his debut and the days after that.
"They say he's the by-blow of some high class person." This was something that Karin(5), a fellow kamuro told Fuki about the owner.
A kamuro was an iroko in training who saw to a keisei's appearance and belongings. A long time ago it was the job of children about seven or eight years old, but in the present time at Hanafurirou boys were called kamuro until age sixteen. After that they were given the title shinzou(6), and when they turned eighteen they had their debut and became full-fledged iroko. Even though the anti-prostitution laws had been abolished, there were still other laws pertaining to the sex industry, unlike in the past, and prostitution of boys and girls under the age of eighteen was still prohibited.
The set outfits were cherry blossom colored cotton kimonos for the kamuro and scarlet silk ones for the shinzou. A man who had come of age wore a brilliant uchikake(7) called a shikake over the silk. That way, people could tell what someone's rank was easily at first glance.
If you took even one step past the great gate everything was modern, but inside everything seemed to be lifted out of history. Sometimes it all confused Fuki quite a bit.
"By-blow?"
"If I say a former nobleman and a politician, as well as a family with enough money to support this... you get it, don't you? But it's just a rumor."
Even after hearing that, Fuki couldn't think of anything.
"...Is the owner gay?"
"Well, isn't that obvious? If he wasn't, I don't think he'd have ever thought of this. Even with Japan's long history of having kagema(8), a brothel full of men is a little..."
"Yeah, that makes sense..."
Fuki had met the owner once, on the day he had come to Hanafurirou. He had been evaluated, and it had left him with quite a frightening memory of the time.
"Remove the things you are wearing, open up your legs, and spread your butt cheeks so I can see. Then allow me to examine the inside of your ass."
"So he was gay..." was what Fuki was now thinking, a little too late.
"How long are you two going to talk?" came a voice all of a sudden from the other side of the glass door separating the bath from where they were.
At some point they had gotten to talking in the dressing room. Taking a long time in the bath was rather heavily encouraged, but spending time chatting away in the dressing room instead of working on their bodies was pointless.
"Sorry...!" they automatically replied before hurriedly stripping and rushing into the bath.
The person monopolizing the huge white cedar bathtub was the number one keisei, Kichou(9). The number one was the keisei who brought in the most money during the last month, and except for one time during February, that had been Kichou. Fuki and Karin were the kamuro assigned to that same Kichou.
Kichou had his long, shaggy hair piled on top of his head, and because he was facing away from the door, the line of his body from the nape of his neck down peeked out from above the edge of the tub. He couldn't really be called delicate - faint but evenly distributed muscles filled out his frame - but something about him was surprisingly captivating.
"Good morning. Are you just getting started?"
"I'm almost done. Yesterday's customer took forever... so much I thought he might have been extending it." At Karin's question, he turned just his head and answered him openly.
"Would you like me to wash your back?"
"That's fine. I did that already." Then he tossed a bag of rice bran at the two boys sitting in front of the mirror.
"Make sure you scrub hard. If you can make a lot of money, you'll rise in the ranks that much quicker."
The key to making money was one's body. There were bags of rice bran available in the baths, and the boys were instructed to use them to scrub at their skin from their time as kamuro. And really, keisei like Kichou and Kagerou(10), the second most popular keisei who fought Kichou for the number one spot every month, had skin so silky smooth that it was hard to think that it was men's skin.
"Okay!"
"Then, I'm getting out first." After Fuki thought he heard a big splash and the noise of someone getting out of the tub, Kichou passed behind him on the way to the dressing room. Then Fuki and Karin, who had been left behind, started diligently working at improving the tools of their trade.
After bathing and eating, Fuki and Karin helped with Kichou's preparation for the night. They didn't have to do makeup and an elaborate Japanese hairstyle like the courtesans of the past, but putting on the kimono still required some help.
First they pulled the collars of the two layered kosode(11) back quite a bit and then tied a wide obi around him in the front. Even without face powder, his neck was so white it looked transparent. On top of the kosode, they placed a flashy black and red shikake.
He had a sort of brilliant beauty, and even though he definitely looked like a man at first glance, that sort of outfit suited him quite well. One might even say he looked chic, like a kabuki-mono(12). And the manner of speaking so frank it was almost violent that lay behind that beautiful exterior had its own mysterious attraction.
Not everyone at Hanafurirou was like Kichou, but maybe it was because there were several people like him there that the all male brothel was possible. The amount of money they brought in in a single night was enormous, but that was definitely because they had men worth spending that money on.
"Okay then, we still have some time left." After they had finished getting him ready, Kichou looked up at the clock.
"So, should we have a study session?"
"A study session?" Thinking of a review session from school, Fuki cocked his head, and Kichou laughed.
"You do those kind of things during the day, right?" Because they were in a high class brothel, they had to be able to talk with any sort of person, so they were given all sorts of cultural education. Fuki had already been to several of those classes.
"Come to think of it, you just came in. The study sessions we do here aren't like that. Karin, go get it."
After being told to do so, Karin brought out a box. The items that appeared when he opened the lid caused Fuki's eyes to bulge out.
It was full of adult toys.
"Wha... What the...?"
"They're model penises. Is this your first time seeing one? Here." Fuki nodded, and then all of a sudden Kichou handed one to him.
"For the sake of the newbie, let's start with a review today."
Having taken the object without thinking, Fuki stared down at it fixedly. It was a dark skin tone in color and was made to look quite real.
"Uhh... ummmm... this is..."
"That one's pretty much average size and color. You have one yourself, so I'm pretty sure you realize that."
"Uh..."
Now that he mentioned it, it was neither too big nor too small... probably just a normal one. But that wasn't what Fuki had wanted to say. He had wanted to ask what he was supposed to do with it.
Fuki had never really looked that hard at a guy's genitals, whether they were another guy's or his own. Even though this was a model, it was very well made. Fuki found it curious, and he continued to scrutinize it.
Kichou took another one with a somewhat different shape out from the box. Then, he thrust it in front of Fuki.
"This one's phimotic."
The sudden mention of that word shocked Fuki. What in the world was Kichou talking about? But he eventually realized the meaning behind that statement. Apparently the reason for having all these models wasn't for use as sex toys, but as "teaching materials."
"This is the real thing. Most of these guys don't come to brothels, though. Anyway, this one's false phimosis."
"Ohh..."
"So, here's the question. When you get a customer with false phimosis, what do you have to be careful of when sucking him off?"
"Ehh!?"
Fuki drew back from the false phimotic model being thrust in his face. The glans of the model just barely peeked out from the tip, like an eye. Fuki tried to think of an answer, but nothing came to mind, so he shook his head.
"I guess you can't help it. Karin, tell him the answer."
"Okay," Karin said. "The part that's usually covered with the foreskin is sensitive, so when you stimulate it the guy will come before you realize it. You have to be careful of that."
"That's right."
Smiling, Kichou handed Karin a piece of candy. The food the brothel gave them wasn't enough for growing boys, so things like candy and snacks were extremely valuable to the boys.
"If you screw up the timing, he'll end up coming in your mouth or on your face. When that's what he wants to do, it can't be helped, though. If he's fine going home after just a blow job, that's fine, but usually that's a big no-no."
Apparently what he was getting at was that if the customer came before he could put it it, it would take some time before he could continue, and that would tire one out. Doing this every night, especially with several customers a night, would end up being quite exhausting. Better to get done with each one as quickly as possible.
Fuki was once again reminded that he was now in a world where you were obviously talking about these actions as a job. And, in two years it would be his job as well.
"So, in my experience up until now, the smallest I've seen was about this big, and the biggest was..." Kichou held a small model in his right hand and a big one about the size of an arm in his left hand. "Well, about this big."
It was so thick that Fuki let out a gasp of wonder. It looked almost like an arm.
"It was really awful when I had to take this one in. I didn't really have any choice in the end, but if I was as delicate as the Princess, I probably would have broke- Oops."
The reason Kichou had cut himself off was because the same "Princess" was standing just outside the open window that looked out onto the hallway.
notes:
1: Emonzaka (which means "clothing hill")is the hill at the entrance to Yoshiwara where clothing streets used to line the path into the area with the brothels, and the willow is near it. People were said to stop at the tree and look back while on their way home from the brothels, thus the name "looking back willow" (mikaeri yanagi in Japanese).
2: A soapland is a type of store where customers (usually male) are bathed by female prostitutes. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soapland for more info.
3: A harimise is a section of a (traditional Japanese) brothel where the prostitutes are displayed behind wooden grates so the customers can see what they are buying in advance.
4: An oiran is a traditional high class courtesan (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oiran ) A keisei is another form of courtesan, often portrayed in Kabuki. An iroko is a male homosexual prostitute.
5: Karin is a type of flower similar to the quince that is used as an ornamental shrub. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaenomeles
6: Shinzou means new or newly made.
7: An uchikake is a type of long kimono that used to be worn by high class women on special occasions. Now it is used for weddings. See http://www.yamatoku.jp/classic/listing.asp?genre=1 for a longer explanation and several images.
8: Kagema were basically male prostitutes from the Edo period. There's not much, but see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagema
9: Kichou means something along the lines of "beautiful butterfly"
10: Kagerou means dragonfly.
11: a type of garment that was precursor to the modern kimono and worn as an undergarment in earlier eras
12: The kabuki-mono were groups of young people who dressed and acted peculiarly.