The Fukagawa Edo Museum, located a short walk away from Kiyosumi Shirakawa Station, is an interesting and pleasant destination for anyone curious about Fukagawa in the Edo period, however the information about geisha specifically is limited. In preparation for our presentation, my group went to find out as much about the history of geisha in...
Category: Fukagawa and Geisha
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Fukagawa Edo Shiryokan
Fukagawa Edo Shiryokan (深川江戸資料館) is an replicated indoor installment of 19th century Edo Shitamachi neighborhoods during late Tokugawa period. This historical replica exhibition depicts the nature of trade centered scene in Fukagawa district through fully-scaled old settlements, merchant stores, and fire watchtowers. The varieties of arrangements installed within the recreation of Edo help visitors guide through the...
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The history of Geisha after WW2
Hanamachi, where geisha live, had a large damage by the aerial attacks by the U.S. However, even from the ruins, the industry of geisha blooms. The Occupation army became the new customers for geisha. As the Japanese market started to bloom with high economic growth period, the world of geisha prospered again. However, as Japanese...
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Geisha tradition after WW2
During the World War 2 in the 1950s, Geisha in Japan had to help the nation. Many of them were forced to work in factories to make munitions, vehicles, pharmaceuticals and electrical goods for the army. These women were called the “Comfort Women”. Moreover, they were treated as sexual slaves to the American military. The Comfort Women...
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Fukagawa Geisha
Fukagawa is a neighborhood of Tokyo, which was home to a prominent unlicensed prostitution district during the Edo period. In addition to prostitution, the area was known particularly for its haori geisha, also known as tatsumi geisha, geisha who dressed in a masculine mode,[1] and may have been the site of the emergence of the...
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Rice and Grains
The origin of Fukagawa Before Fukagawa became an official solid prefecture of Japan, there were several events occurred in the past. One of the most significant ones was the Great Fire of Meireki. The Great Fire of Meireki was believed to be fired accidentally by a priest who was cremating a cursed kimono which murdered three teenage...
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Fukagawa Geisha in the Edo Period
Fukagawa geisha is said to have originated from dancers in Edo. They moved to Fukagawa fearing fire, from the Great Fire of Akechi in 1657. Many samurai families, temples and merchants moved to Fukagawa as well, establishing a thriving area for the geisha to work in despite not receiving recognition from the shogunate like the...
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Fukagawa Geisha History – pre Meiji
From the Edo period, at first, geisha were all men but not women. During the mid-1700s, male geisha were hired to be entertainers for the parties in the Yoshiwara and somewhere else. However, later female entertainers started feeling they should be geisha too when they realized how popular male geisha was. So in 1751, the...
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The Origin of “Tatsumi”
As anyone looking into Fukagawa geisha will quickly find out, the geisha of Fukagawa were known by two names; one being the obvious title of “Fukagawa Geisha” and the other being the less straightforward misnomer, “Tatsumi Geisha”. Naturally, there’s not much of a story behind their first name, however the term “Tatsumi” has quite an...
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Fukagawa Area
Fukagawa is named after its founder, Fukagawa Hachirozaemon. Originally, parts of Fukagawa below the Eitai river (excluding Etchujima) was sea; Hachirozaemon developed these areas with landfills. After losing about 60 percent of the city in the Great Fire of Meireki of 1657, the shogunate ordered for Buddhist temples on the east bank of the Sumida...