Er? Three hookers in a small village held there against their will? It seems to me you're on the track to a more romantic image - "flirting, music, drinking", and you need to realize that prostitution in this time in Japan, as with prostitution anywhere, was anything but
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Also... I'm in no way an expert on this, but would there even be much wink wink nudge nudge stuff around prostitution in Japan in this period, the way there is with today's escort services? Not to say it would've been a totally open topic of conversation, but that things were a bit less puritanical. Even in the Christian west, there were public brothels until later than most people would guess.
According to the Seigle book, there was a degree of nudge-wink going on regarding unlicensed prostitution going on outside of the licensed establishments within the pleasure quarters: ...by 1630 bathhouses were popular in Edo more as brothels than as places of ablution and the bath women were taking away potential Yoshiwara customers. (Obviously, these bathhouses were not the kind that welcomed children, women, and ordinary townspeople.) In such bathhouses, twenty or thirty yuna (bath women) wearing cotton kimono waited on customers, some of them actually in the bath chamber scrubbing dirt off men's backs and giving them a shampoo. Other, more beautiful women were in the large parlor, serving tea and flirting with customers who had finished bathing. They dried the men's backs and whipped the air into cooling gusts with large fans. At 4 P.M., the bath was closed and soon the bath women reappeared bedecked in silk kimono, their faces painted and rouged. They would play the shamisen...or serve sake. The latticed parlor used by bathers in
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Ok... I stand corrected, to a point. The nudge wink you're talking about is more about evading whatever strictures (regulations, taxes, etc.) were laid on the licensed brothels than any sort of more general 'prostitution is bad/needs to be kept out of view at least' attitude.
While reading up on Wikipedia on Japanese prostitution after that Oiran question a few days back, I came away with a few small facts that are applicable in your case, too
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First and last point: thank you for the clarification. Most of the research on this topic is on higher-class courtesan culture, and the artwork I've seen regarding courtesans/prostitutes is of the much more coy and romanticized type. I'm thinking particularly of the Hikone Screen, of which my professor (my background's in art history) made a big deal of the fact that while it shows women and men gaming and flirting, the screen in the background is hiding the "illicit" activities that take place beyond the parlor. Hence why I was under the impression that even less wealthy/known places might offer pre-sex entertainment, and be slightly more discreet.
In any case, since there would probably be more men than prostitutes on any given night, would it seem reasonable to you, as a reader, that the owner's family provide alcohol and maybe some form of entertainment for the people waiting? (I'm sticking with having only three regular workers, since I don't have enough plot to give to more characters, but even if I increased the number I
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The main source of prostitutes at this time was poor peasants, who would sell them to brothels for money enough to eat. While it did mean they were regarded as enacting proper filial piety, they were effectively slaves unless they managed to get their price.
There is actually some precedent of female criminals being sentenced to serve terms in Yoshiwara brothels, if their crime was unlicensed prostitution. In periods where the authorities were cracking down on teahouses and bathhouses serving as unlicensed brothels, the women who were arrested were sometimes sold to work in the licensed quarters for three years without pay.
As I was researching the time period, I came across a case in the 1700s of a father and daughter who were illegally living outside their village. When caught, the daughter was sentenced to work at a brothel as punishment. While the case was about 100 years after my time frame, I figured there was probably precedent for such a verdict, as the researcher didn't make much of it.
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...by 1630 bathhouses were popular in Edo more as brothels than as places of ablution and the bath women were taking away potential Yoshiwara customers. (Obviously, these bathhouses were not the kind that welcomed children, women, and ordinary townspeople.) In such bathhouses, twenty or thirty yuna (bath women) wearing cotton kimono waited on customers, some of them actually in the bath chamber scrubbing dirt off men's backs and giving them a shampoo. Other, more beautiful women were in the large parlor, serving tea and flirting with customers who had finished bathing. They dried the men's backs and whipped the air into cooling gusts with large fans. At 4 P.M., the bath was closed and soon the bath women reappeared bedecked in silk kimono, their faces painted and rouged. They would play the shamisen...or serve sake. The latticed parlor used by bathers in ( ... )
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In any case, since there would probably be more men than prostitutes on any given night, would it seem reasonable to you, as a reader, that the owner's family provide alcohol and maybe some form of entertainment for the people waiting? (I'm sticking with having only three regular workers, since I don't have enough plot to give to more characters, but even if I increased the number I ( ... )
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Why is this brothel using criminals instead?
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